What Does Justify Margins Mean in Microsoft?
In Microsoft Office products, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, you can change the formatting of text in a number of ways. One formatting feature allows you to justify, or control, how text arranged into paragraphs looks on the page by forcing the paragraph edges to line up on the right side, left side or down the center.
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Left
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In English, as well as other languages that are read left-to-right, justifying text to the left – so that the left margin lines up while the right side is uneven – is common. Most casual printed material in the Western world is justified to the left. In Office products, you can force a left justification by selecting the text to justify and then pressing “Ctrl” and “L” at the same time. You can also left justify by clicking the “Align Left” button in the Home and Paragraph tab.
Right
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Aligning paragraphs so they justify to the right, or lining up the text so it stacks evenly on the right side but unevenly on the left side, is less common in documents such as essays, papers or articles, but can be useful when you are designing brochures or other visually oriented materials. To justify text to the right in Office products, select the text to justify and then press “Ctrl” and “R” simultaneously. Right justification can also be forced by clicking the “Align Right” button in the Home and Paragraph tab.
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Full
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Full justification distributes the words in each line of a paragraph so that both the right and left margins are smooth and aligned. Often used for a neat column layout in magazines and publications, you can fully justify your text by highlighting the text as desired, then pressing “Ctrl” and “J” together. You can also fully justify text via the “Justify” button in the Home and Paragraph tab.
Center
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While centering a paragraph, or spacing each line in a paragraph to appear with an equal amount of space to the line's right or left, is not truly a type of justification, you can force this type of formatting in the same way you force justification. Select the text to be centered and hit “Ctrl” and “E” or click “Center” in the Paragraph tab.
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