Leading the way in Microsoft Office Development

Step 1 - What is Alignment ?

Alignment controls how your paragraph is displayed on the slide.

PowerPoint offers four types of paragraph alignment: Left, Right, Centre and Justify.

The alignment for a paragraph (or textbox) can be changed from the (Format > Alignment) submenu.

Alternatively you can use the buttons on the Formatting toolbar.

It is not possible to align individual characters or words within a paragraph so there is no need to select the whole paragraph.

You only need to place the insertion point inside the paragraph.

Step 2 - Left Alignment

Text is aligned on the left of the textbox. This is the default.

 Align Left - Aligns text on the left of the textbox.

Alternatively you can use the shortcut key (Ctrl + L).

Step 3 - Right Alignment

Text is aligned on the right of the textbox.

 Align Right - Aligns text on the right of the textbox.

Alternatively you can use the shortcut key (Ctrl + R).

Step 4 - Centre Alignment

Text is aligned in the middle of the textbox

 Center - Aligns text in the middle of the textbox.

Alternatively you can use the shortcut key (Ctrl + E).

Step 5 - Justify Alignment

Text is aligned on both the left and the right of the textbox. This involves adding extra spaces between the words and letters.

Text in presentations are normally displayed as bullet points and are therefore rarely justified.

This button does not appear on the Formatting toolbar by default although you can add it by selecting (Tools > Customise).

For more information about how to customise your toolbars, please refer to the Customising your Toolbars and Menus page.

 Justify - Aligns text to the right and left of the textbox.

Alternatively you can use the shortcut key (Ctrl + J).