New text that you add to a Microsoft Word document is going to be left-aligned by default.
For standard document text, this is probably ideal, but you might have some other types of content in the document that would look better in the middle of the page.
Our tutorial below will show you how to center text in Word by following a few short steps.
Summary – How to Center Align in Word Documents
- Open your document.
- Select the text.
- Choose the Home tab.
- Click the Center button.
Our guide continues below with additional information on how to center text in Word for Office 365.
Microsoft Word offers a number of tools for adding material to a document.
In the application, you can format the text using a variety of tools and dialog box menus.
Many of these changes can be made by simply selecting the text you want to modify.
However, you might be asking where that setting is located if you need to align text to the center of the page, whether it be for vertical alignment or horizontal alignment.
All text entered into a Word document using the Normal template will be left aligned by default when you start typing.
This indicates that the first letter on each line will be against the page’s left margin.
This is the most typical alignment type used in papers and is the standard for the majority of organizations and institutions.
However, there are situations when a section of your document needs to be centered, either horizontally or vertically.
In order to obtain the ideal display outcome for your document, our guide below will show you how to center text in Microsoft Word using either the horizontal or vertical alignment option.
Related: If your document has comments and you don’t want to include them when you print, then this article will show you how to do that.
How to Center Something in Word Horizontally
The steps in this article were performed in the desktop version of the Microsoft Word for Office 365 application but will work in most other versions of Word as well.
Step 1: Open the document with the text that you want to center.
Step 2: Use your mouse to highlight the text that you wish to center.
Step 3: Select the Home tab at the top-left of the window.
Step 4: Click the Center button in the Paragraph group in the navigational ribbon.
Now that you know how to center text in Word for Office 365 you will be able to use this method to perform all kinds of centering actions in the documents that you are editing.
Summary – How to Do Vertical Centering in Microsoft Word
- Open the document.
- Select the text to center vertically.
- Choose the Page Layout tab.
- Click the Page Setup button.
- Select the Vertical alignment dropdown menu, then click Center.
- Choose the desired Apply to option, then click OK.
You can continue reading below for more information on various ways to center text that you have in your Microsoft Word documents.
How to Center Something in Word Vertically
In the previous section, we provided an overview of how to center text vertically; however, this section will also include examples in the form of images.
This piece was created using Microsoft Word for Office 365 in Windows 11.
Step 1: First, launch Microsoft Word and open your work there.
Step 2: Make a selection of the text that you want to have centered vertically by using your mouse.
You can skip this step if you want the entire document to be centered on the page.
Step 3: At the very top of the window, you’ll see a tab labeled “Page Layout” that you need to select.
Step 4: In the Page Setup part of the ribbon, select the button labeled “Page Setup” and click it.
It’s the very small button in the lower-right-hand corner of the section.
Step 5: To choose the Center option, open the dropdown menu to the right of the Vertical alignment heading by clicking on it.
Step 6: To choose which choice best meets your requirements, use the drop-down menu that is located to the right of the words “Apply to.”
If you chose to select some text before, the Selected parts option would only vertically center the text that you chose to select earlier.
If you choose the Whole document option, the text in the document will be centered vertically throughout the entire document.
If you choose the This point forward option, the text in the document will be centered vertically, beginning at the point where your mouse cursor is currently located and continuing forward.
It’s possible that some of the vertical alignment options won’t show up depending on the locations of the text that you have selected, whether or not any text is selected, or the structure of the document.
Step 7: To center the vertical alignment, click the OK button.
How to Center Content That’s in a Microsoft Word Table
If your document has a table, and you need to center the text in one of the table cells, then you get to use several options that are special to tables for centering the text.
There are choices that let you adjust the alignment inside a cell, but by default, the data in your table will be horizontally centered at the top of the table cell.
However, you can change this alignment if you want.
Step 1: The first thing you need to do is open the file that contains the table text that you want to center.
Step 2: Center the data that you want to display by clicking inside the cell that contains the data.
Step 3: Locate the Table Tools menu at the top of the window and select the Layout tab there.
Step 4: In the Alignment area of the ribbon, click the choice that corresponds to the desired alignment.
More Information About Centering in Word Documents
You may also horizontally center text by selecting the text you want to center, then hit the Ctrl and E keys on your computer.
Adding a title is one of the most popular uses of text alignment, regardless of whether it’s done horizontally or vertically.
Be sure to verify the criteria on titles that are provided by your place of employment or education before adding a title.
These standards frequently include extra requirements, such as specific font sizes.
You can make changes to the styles of the fonts by using the Font section of the ribbon, which is located on the Home tab.
If you center some text in your document, the setting that you used to center the text will normally remain in effect.
If you want your text to be aligned normally after centering some of it, you will probably have to choose the Left Align option after centering your text.
This is because Left Align is the default text alignment setting.
In Microsoft Word, if you choose to center the text vertically, you will be given a number of choices regarding which elements of your document should be centered.
The selected text, the entire document, or “from this point on” are the choices available to you here.
Matt Jacobs has been working as an IT consultant for small businesses since receiving his Master’s degree in 2003. While he still does some consulting work, his primary focus now is on creating technology support content for SupportYourTech.com.
His work can be found on many websites and focuses on topics such as Microsoft Office, Apple devices, Android devices, Photoshop, and more.