Aligning your text

The alignment The positioning of text on the page; left aligned, right aligned, centered, or justified. of your text is another factor influencing its appearance. The alignments available in Publisher are:

Centeredand flushed right Text which is flush with the right margin and uneven on the left margin. Compare with Left-aligned text. alignments are used for short lines of text such as headings, invitations, posters and special effects.

Flushed left Text which is flush with the right margin and uneven on the left margin. Compare with Left-aligned text. and justified alignments are mostly used for body text The main text of a document..

Body text

Body text The main text of a document. is usually flushed left with a ragged right margin The white space surrounding the text area of a page., or justified. Some people feel that flushed left text is more readable because the spacing between words is more even and the ragged right margin The white space surrounding the text area of a page. adds visual interest to the page. On the other hand, a fully justified alignment is often adopted for long documents, where the unsurprising look of the text on the page is considered to be more restful to the eye. Take care, however, that a document The combination of text and pictures. Also called a Publisher DTP file. is not so unsurprising that the reader loses interest.

Fully justified text Text that aligns evenly with both the left and right margins. This is done by adding extra space between words and characters where necessary. needs careful control over the spacing between words to avoid unsightly gaps. These gaps distract the reader from the content of the document, giving it a fractured appearance. They can also line up in successive lines, giving the effect of a white river flowing down the column The vertical arrangement of text on the page.. A river The alignment of spaces in adjacent lines of text that join together to form white 'rivers' of space running through the text. Rivers are most noticeable when text is justified in narrow columns, because large spaces can occur between words. is particularly likely to arise if the column is narrow.