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To center a paragraph horizontally in desktop Word, click in it and choose Home > Paragraph > Center, or press Ctrl+E. To center text vertically on a page, open Page Setup > Layout, set Vertical alignment to Center, and choose where the setting applies. Text inside a text box or shape has its own alignment controls.
How horizontal and vertical centering differ
Horizontal alignment positions a paragraph between the left and right margins. Vertical alignment positions text up or down within the space between the top and bottom margins. They are separate settings: centering a paragraph horizontally does not move it to the vertical middle of the page. Microsoft Support explains both page-alignment controls.
Center a paragraph horizontally
- Click anywhere in the paragraph you want to center. You can also select text; the alignment applies to its paragraph.
- Choose Home > Paragraph > Center.
- Or press Ctrl+E to center the current paragraph.
A paragraph can span several lines; centering aligns the paragraph’s lines between the side margins rather than centering just one line as an independent object. Microsoft lists Ctrl+E as the centering shortcut in its Word alignment and accessibility instructions.
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Use page-level vertical alignment when you want content—often a title page heading—to sit between the page’s top and bottom margins. In desktop Word, set it through Page Setup:
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- Click in the text you want to position, or select the block.
- Open the Layout tab (called Page Layout in some versions), then open the Page Setup dialog using its dialog launcher.
- In the dialog, select the Layout tab.
- Set Vertical alignment to Center.
- Under Apply to, choose the intended scope, then select OK. If you selected a block, choose Selected text where available and check the resulting page or section behavior.
The available scope matters: page-level vertical alignment is applied to a document area, such as a section, rather than acting like a paragraph’s horizontal alignment. Microsoft describes vertical alignment as controlling the up/down position of text in a defined document space, including a title on a section-break page. Its instructions cover Microsoft 365 and Word 2024, 2021, 2019, and 2016. See Microsoft’s page alignment steps.
Center text inside a text box or shape
Text inside a shape or text box is positioned relative to that object, not the page. Select or right-click the object’s border, open Format Shape, then go to Size/Layout & Properties and set the text box’s Vertical alignment. For horizontal centering, click in the object’s text and use Home > Paragraph > Center. Microsoft’s instructions for text direction and position in shapes and text boxes describe the object-specific control.
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Which Word version should you use?
Microsoft documents page-level vertical alignment for the full desktop version of Word. Its screen-reader instructions say to use desktop Word for that task; do not assume the Page Setup route is available in Word for the web or the mobile apps. On mobile, Microsoft documents horizontal alignment through the app’s alignment control. See Microsoft’s Word alignment guidance and its mobile document-formatting instructions.
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