Text Alignment, Orientation, and Indentation

Overview

• In this lecture, we will show you how to align, orient and indent text
• Text alignment refers to the positioning of text within cells
  • The primary horizontal alignment options include: left, center, and right
  • The primary vertical alignment options include: top, middle, bottom
• Text orientation refers to the angling of text within cells
• Text indentation refers to (unsurprisingly) indenting text within cells

Buttons

• The relevant buttons can be found in the alignment group of the Home tab:

• These options can also be changed in the Format Cells menu (CTRL+1):

Align Text

• Observe as we modify the alignment of a few cells:

• Though not shown above:
  • You can make vertical and horizontal alignment selections in each cell (e.g. left and top alignment)
  • You can change the alignment of any contiguous or non-contiguous range of cells by first selecting them and then making the appropriate alignment selections
    • This is true for all formatting options in this lecture

Orient Text

• Observe as we modify the text orientation in a few cells:

Indent Text

• Observe as we increase and decrease indentation in a few cells:

Tips

• As with font types, only utilize these options where necessary
  • Horizontal text alignment modifications are frequently made to make information flow better visually
  • Orientation modifications are made when formatting reports, or when you need to fit long field headings above tables of data
  • Indents are typically made when formatting reports which contain layers of subtotaled data
• Note that certain text formats will prevent you from aligning text
  • For example, this is true with respect to the Accounting format
• Avoid merging cells as much as possible! Instead, use Center Across Selection. Why?
  • The presence of merged cells can limit some Excel functionalities, such as selecting and sorting a specific range of cells, as shown here:

Shortcuts

External Links

• Rotate Or Align Text In A Cell