How to Center Align Text in Microsoft Word: 3 Quick Ways

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Use center alignment in Word

Co-authored by Rain Kengly

Last Updated: December 23, 2024 Fact Checked

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Centering Text Horizontally

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Centering Text Vertically

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Creating a Centered Cover Page

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Q&A

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Tips

If you want text to be in the middle of your document or text box in Word, you can easily use the "Center" option. You'll just need to highlight the text you want to format first. You can also align text left, right, or justify. Here's how to center text in Microsoft Word using your Windows or Mac computer.

Centering Text in the Middle in Word

Highlight the text you want to center. Then, click the "Center" button in the top toolbar. You can also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + E (Windows) or CMD + E (Mac).

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:

Centering Text Horizontally

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1
Highlight the text you want to center. Put the mouse cursor at the start of the text you want to center. Click and hold the left mouse button. Move the cursor to the end of the text you want to highlight.
- If you want to center all the text on the page, press CTRL + A (Windows) or CMD + A (Mac) to select all.
2
Click the "Center" button in the upper toolbar. This is in the upper toolbar in the Paragraph section of the Home tab. It looks like a column of lines with varying widths in a center alignment.^{[1]
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- If you aren't already on the Home tab, click it to navigate there now.
- You can also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + E (Windows) or CMD + E (Mac).
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3
Deselect your text. The text you selected should now be aligned evenly between the left and right margins. Now, click where you would like to continue typing and proceed with the rest of your document.
- If your text didn't center, you may have accidentally deselected it before hitting the center button. You need to center your text while it's selected without clicking anywhere else on the page.
- If you haven't typed anything yet, just click the "Center" button. If your document is completely blank, click the "Center" button from the directions above and any text you type will be center-aligned.
- If you want to add centered text at the end of your document, click at the end of your document, hit the enter/return key to start a new line, and click the "Center" button.
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Use other alignments (optional). In addition to centering text, you can Align Left, Align Right, and Justify. You can find these options in the Paragraph section of the top toolbar in the Home tab.
- Align Left: all text lines will be moved towards the left of the page
- Align Right: all text lines will be moved towards the right of the page
- Justify: all text lines will be stretched so that all lines are the same width on the page

Method 2

Method 2 of 3:

Centering Text Vertically

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1
Highlight the text you want to center. Put the mouse cursor at the start of the text you want to center. Click and hold the left mouse button. Move the cursor to the end of the text you want to highlight.
- If you want to center all the text on the page, press CTRL + A (Windows) or CMD + A (Mac) to select all.
- If you haven't typed anything yet, skip this step. When you're done, the text that you type will be centered vertically.
This is the tab at the top, between Design and References.
This is in the bottom-right corner. This will open the full set of page formatting options.
This is the third tab at the top.
By default, it should be set to Top.
This will make it so your text begins and stays in the middle of the page as you type.
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Click OK. Your changes will be applied.
- If you also want to center the text horizontally, select the text, and then click Center in Home > Paragraph.
- You can also use other formatting techniques to customize your Word document.

Method 3

Method 3 of 3:

Creating a Centered Cover Page

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This is at the top of the page.
This is in the Pages section.
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Select a cover page. You can use one of Microsoft's templates. If you want to create your own, select Blank Page in the Pages section instead.
- The cover page will be added to the beginning of your document.
This can be text in a text box or anywhere on the page.
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Click the "Center" button in the upper toolbar. This is in the upper toolbar in the Home tab, in the Paragraph section. The text will be centered.
- Be sure to save your document.

Community Q&A

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How do I vertically align text in a table with rows?

Ankit Bhatt

Community Answer

Select the text within the table, then go to Layout in the ribbon area. You'll see an alignment tab there; select any option from the Center line (Align Center Left, Align Center or Align Center Right). All of these will align your text vertically, along with the horizontal alignment you specify.

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How can I save a document in a folder on the desktop?

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In the top left hand corner of the program, select 'File' and then select the 'Save As...' option. You can then save it to any directory you want. If the folder you want to put it into isn't already on the desktop, you'll need to move it there using windows explorer, or if you want to create a new folder on your desktop, right-click the desktop, and mouse over the 'New' option, and select 'Folder'.

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If I have 3 lines, should 2 be above the center or below?

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If the text is centered, the second line should be directly in the center, not above or below it.

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Tips

If you are creating a title for your document, you may want to increase the text size in addition to centering it. See our article on changing font sizes.

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If you want to emphasize important information, you may want to bold, italicize, or underline your information in addition to—or instead of—centering it. By default, these options are to the left of the alignment options under the "Font" header.

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