Aligning text horizontally and vertically in Word

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to position a block of text centered on the horizontal and vertical axes, simply in the middle of a Word document. This technique is often used for cover pages, quotations and sometimes titles.

🌎 The French version of this publication : Aligner le texte horizontalement et verticalement dans Word

When writing this article, I am using Microsoft Office Word 2016. Please note that the appearance and location of certain components, menus or options in the Word toolbar may vary depending on the specific version of Word you are using.

1. Center text horizontally

To align a block of text to the center of the document's horizontal axis, follow these steps :

Select the text you wish to center.
Go to the Home tab in the Microsoft Word toolbar.
In the Paragraph section of the Home tab, click on the Center alignment option or use the keyboard shortcut CTRL + E.

2. Center text vertically

To align a block of text with the center of the document's vertical axis, follow these steps :

Select the text you wish to center.
Go to the Disposition tab in the Microsoft Word toolbar.
In the Page layout section of the Disposition tab, look for options relating to the vertical alignment of text. This may require displaying the full range of layout options by clicking on a dedicated arrow or button.

Once you have opened the Page layout dialog box, proceed as follows:

Go to the Disposition tab.
In the Page section, look for the Vertical alignment drop-down list and select the Centered option.
In the Overview section, find the Apply to drop-down list and select the To selected text option.
Finally, click the OK button to apply the changes.

By following all these steps, the text block will be centered horizontally and vertically in your document.

Take care 😎