Basic Text Formatting: Learn It 4

Alignment

To align or justify text, move your cursor into the paragraph you want to change, then click the left-align, right-align, centered, or justify buttons.

A microsoft word document is open zoomed in specifically on the ribbon section. On the close up of the ribbon section, the four alignment options are highlighted by a grape purple box.

Alignment is how text flows in relation to the rest of the page (or column, table cell, text box, etc.). There are four main alignments: left, right, center, and justified.

  • Left-aligned text is text that is aligned with a left edge. You can also left-align your text with the shortcut Ctrl+L (Cmnd+L).
  • Right-aligned text is text that is aligned with a right edge. You can also right-align your text with the shortcut Ctrl+R (Cmnd+R).
  • Centered text is text that is centered between two edges. You can also center-align your text with the shortcut Ctrl+E (Cmnd+E).
Left-aligned
 Centered
Right-aligned
A section of text with a green line to the left of it indicating it has been aligned to the left. A section of text with a green line in the middle of it indicating it has been aligned to the center. A section of text with a green line to the right of it indicating it has been aligned to the right.
Zoom in on align to the left. Zoom in on align to the center. Zoom in on align to the right.

Justification controls the spacing between words. A justified text increases the space between words to fill the entire line so that it is aligned with both the left and right edges. You can also center-align your text with the shortcut Ctrl+J (Cmnd+J).

A section of text is displayed with a straight green line on the left side and a curved green line on the right. This shows how the text is unjustified.
Unjustified text
A section of text is displayed with a straight green line on the left side and a straight green line on the right. This shows how the text is justified.
Justified text

Unjustified text symbol.

Justified Text Symbol

You can also change the alignment and justification settings in the paragraph dialog box.

Indentation

In many documents, indenting is a good way to distinguish the start of a new paragraph, especially when there is no paragraph spacing.

To indent, hit the Tab key once on your keyboard at the start of a paragraph.

A paragraph of text that has been indented. There is a magenta arrow pointing at the first word of the first line, indicating where the paragraph has been indented.
One tab at the beginning of the first line of a paragraph.

There is also a shortcut to increase and decrease indent on the Home tab of Microsoft Word.

The image displays a portion of a toolbar from a word processing software, showing the 'Home' tab. This section includes tools for formatting text with the increase indent and decrease indent buttons highlighted in grape purple.
The decrease indent and increase indent tool.