This type of alignment positions the text so that it is aligned with the right margin

Do you need to make text appear halfway between the top and bottom of a page in Microsoft Word? Then you need to adjust the vertical alignment. Check out our guide below to see how this works.

Basic Alignment Options in Word

If you think about text alignment at all, you probably think of the position of text between the left and right margins of a page. The basic alignment options in Microsoft Word reflect this:

• Align Left – Aligns text with the left margin of the page.
• Center – Centers text on the page.
• Align Right – Aligns text with the right margin.
• Justify – Each line begins at the left margin and ends at the right margin.

These options are all available in the “Paragraph” section of the “Home” tab in Word. And to apply them, all you need to do is select the relevant text and click the desired alignment. But how do you control the position of text between the top and bottom margins? To do this automatically, you will need to access the vertical alignment options instead.

Adjusting Vertical Alignment in Microsoft Word

Vertical alignment refers to the position of text between the top and bottom margins of a page. Often, when people want text to appear halfway down a page, they will just hit “Enter” repeatedly. But while this will work, it can be hard to align things perfectly, which can make formatting messy.

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Instead, you can access the vertical alignment options in Word as follows:

1. Go to Layout > Page Setup on the main ribbon.
2. Click the arrow in the bottom right to open the full layout options.
3. Click the Layout tab and go down to the Page section.
4. Select the alignment you need from the Vertical alignment menu.

The options here are:

• Top – Puts the first line at the top of the page.
• Center – Positions text halfway between top and bottom margins.
• Bottom – Starts the first line of each page at the bottom margin.
• Justified – Spreads the text on the page so that the first line starts at the top margin and the final line is aligned with the bottom margin.

This setting is very useful when you only need a little text in the middle of a page (e.g., when creating a cover page for an essay or business report). However, vertical alignment affects all text on the page, so you cannot use it to align single passages like you can with the left/right alignment options.

Good formatting is important. After all, you need your text to be easy to read, so it needs to be presented on the page (or screen) clearly and consistently. And text alignment is a big part of this. In this post, then, we’re looking at how to adjust the text alignment in Microsoft Word.

Adjusting Text Alignment

The alignment options in MS Word control how text is positioned in relation to the page margins. This can be controlled via the “Paragraph” section of the “Home” tab on the ribbon.

From left to right, you have four alignment options available. These are:

• Align Left – Used to align the text to the left margin
• Center – Used to position text centrally on the page
• Align Right – Used to align the text with the right margin
• Justify – Used to spread text evenly across the page so the first word on each line begins at the left margin and the last word ends at the right margin

To apply formatting, simply select the relevant text (or place the cursor where you want to type) and select an alignment option.

Alternatively, you can select the text you want to adjust and click the arrow in the bottom corner of the “Paragraph” section to open a new window. You can then select an option from the dropdown “Alignment” menu and click “OK.”

Which Option Should You Use?

For the main body of your work, you have two main options: Align Left and Justify. Justify is popular because it creates neat blocks of text, so it looks tidy. It is also useful if you have multiple columns of text on the page (this is why newspapers and magazines often use justified text).

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Align Left is the default for most people, though, particularly in the publishing industry. This is because it’s easy to read and prevents “rivers” (i.e., vertical blank spaces) appearing in the text.

In most documents, Center should be saved for headings and subheadings. You might also use it for short passages that need to be set apart from the surrounding text. However, if you need to present a longer passage in the middle of the page, such as a block quote, you should use the indent options instead of alignment.

Align Right, meanwhile, is not used for much at all. There are some rare occasions when it is useful, such as for positioning a caption relative to an image. Usually, though, it just makes things harder to read.

The key with formatting in any document, however, is clarity and consistency. The best alignment option to pick is therefore the one that makes your document as easy to read as possible. If you need a little assistance with your formatting, though, get in touch to see how we can help.

How do you align text on the right margin?

In which alignment the text is aligned with both the margins?

What is the alignment of text that is positioned so that both the left and right edges of the paragraph are flush with the left and right margins?

What is the position of text between margins called?