Buzz
Microsoft Word provides a plethora of document customization features, so many that it can be tricky to figure out how to carry out simple tasks like centering text. Fortunately, once you learn how, it's quite easy to remember. Just click on the 'Center' option under the 'Paragraph' tab at the top of the page (or press Ctrl+E, which is the shortcut for switching between center and left alignment).
Steps
Centering text horizontally
Highlight the text you want to center. If you have a document with content already written, first you need to highlight the text. Position your cursor at the start of the text you wish to center. Left-click and drag to the end of the text you want to select. A transparent blue box will appear surrounding the selected text.
Click the "Center" button in the toolbar above. Follow these steps:
- Look at the top toolbar of the Word window (where all options are displayed). By default, the "Home" tab on the upper left will be selected. If it's not, or you're unsure, click on "Home".
- Next, locate the "Paragraph" title at the bottom right of the "Home" tab. You will see three small buttons with text aligned to the left, center, and right.
- Click the button that aligns the text to the center.
Deselect the text. The text you selected will now be centered between the left and right margins. Now, click on the place where you want to continue typing and complete the rest of your document.
- If the text is not centered, you may have accidentally deselected it before clicking the center button. You need to click the center button while the text is still selected before clicking elsewhere on the page.
If you haven't entered any text yet, just click the "Center" button. If your document is entirely blank, simply click the "Center" button as described above, and any text you type will be centered.
- If you want to add centered text to the end of the document, click at the end of the document, press enter/return to start a new line, and then click "Center".
Alternatively, press Ctrl+E. This keyboard shortcut toggles between centering and left-aligning text. If you use this shortcut while the text is highlighted, the content will be centered (and will return to its previous alignment when pressed again). If used on an empty line, the cursor's alignment will change, and any subsequent text will be centered.
Use other buttons to adjust alignment. The buttons next to the "Center" button in the toolbar allow you to adjust text alignment in various ways. These buttons function similarly to the Center button. From left to right, the buttons include:
- Align left
- Align center
- Align right
- Justify (Justify works similarly to centering, but it stretches the words so all lines are evenly spaced).
Center text vertically within the page
Select the text you want to center. This technique will align the text vertically, between the top and bottom margins of the page. To begin, highlight the text in the same way you would for horizontal centering (as explained earlier).
- If the document is blank, you can skip this step. Once completed, the text you typed will be centered vertically.
Access the Layout menu by:
- Clicking on "Page Layout" in the toolbar above (on the right side of the "Home" tab, which is the default tab selected).
- Selecting the "Page Setup" button.
- In the pop-up window, click on the "Layout" tab.
Choose vertical centering. In the tab you just selected, find the "Vertical Alignment" section and choose "Center".
Apply the changes. Click "OK" to confirm the alignment changes and return to your document. If you wish, you can adjust which part of the document gets centered vertically by using the options in the "Apply to" section.
- For example, if you highlighted the text you want to center vertically, ensure the "Selected text" option in the "Apply to" menu is checked.
Tips
- If you're creating a title for your document, in addition to centering the text, consider increasing the font size. Our guide on how to change fonts will assist you.
- To emphasize important information, you might want to apply bold, italic, or underline formatting, which can complement or replace centering. By default, these options are located to the left of the alignment choices, under the "Font" section.
