# MS Word 2007: How do I left justify text? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 12, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819 "2007-04-12T16:47:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/1 "2007-04-12T16:47:16Z")
Maybe I’m missing something really obvious here, but I can’t find a left justify paragraph option in MS Word 2007. All I see is an “Align Left” and a “Justify” option. The former does not align the text along the right margin, and the latter spreads out lines with 3 words across the length of the line. How do I get it to left justify? ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/2 "2007-04-12T17:10:12Z")
Don’t have 2007, but in 2003 it’s under the Format menu. Go Format-\>Paragraph… and under “Justify” select “Right” (to align along the right margin only) or “Justify” (to align both margins). ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/3 "2007-04-12T17:21:45Z")
Problem is, it’s not there on Word 2007 that I can see. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/4 "2007-04-12T17:27:08Z")
[QUOTE=Cagey Drifter] Maybe I’m missing something really obvious here, but I can’t find a left justify paragraph option in MS Word 2007. All I see is an “Align Left” and a “Justify” option. The former does not align the text along the right margin, and the latter spreads out lines with 3 words across the length of the line. How do I get it to left justify? [/QUOTE] While I don’t have Word 2007, in earlier versions ther’s no difference between Align left and Left justify? (Word seems to prefer to call it align left.) Both align the text on the left and leave it ragged on the right. Align right does the opposite. Justify (sometimes called full justify or align both) aligns text on both margins by inserting small (or sometimes not so small) spaces. So my answer is use left justify, unless you can tell me why that isn’t doing what you want. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/5 "2007-04-12T17:27:48Z")
Which isn’t there, the Paragraph option (try double clicking on “Format” or click on the drop-down arrow at the bottom of the menu) or the Justify options? The real problem I’m having understanding the OP is that you’re asking about left justifying but then you complain that the option you tried didn’t right justify. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/6 "2007-04-12T17:31:14Z")
[QUOTE=Cagey Drifter] and the latter spreads out lines with 3 words across the length of the line. How do I get it to left justify? [/QUOTE] Perhaps this is what’s bothering you. If you are justifying to both margins, a short line will be spread out as you say. If this is the end of a paragragh and you don’t want the last line right justified, then be sure to put a carriage return (hit"enter") at the end of the last line even if there is no more text. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/7 "2007-04-12T17:39:20Z")
“Left justify” means that the right side is not justified; also known as “ragged right”. If you want both sides justified, you are going to have some lines that have odd spaces between the words. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/8 "2007-04-12T18:12:38Z")
You have only four options, regardless of which terminology is used: Justify left (flush left/ragged right) Justify right (flush right/ragged left) Centered Justified If you’re having problems with too much space between the words, when justified, make sure you have hyphenation turned on. And there should be ways to adjust the word spacing/letter spacing. ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/9 "2007-04-12T18:53:16Z")
Thanks for all the help, everyone. Oldguy had the answer! I had copied and pasted text into Word 2007, and apparently there weren’t return carriages after certain lines, even though it seemed like there were. That fixed the bizarre formatting issue. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/10 "2007-04-12T19:51:54Z")
[QUOTE=Cagey Drifter] Thanks for all the help, everyone. Oldguy had the answer! I had copied and pasted text into Word 2007, and apparently there weren’t return carriages after certain lines, even though it seemed like there were. That fixed the bizarre formatting issue. [/QUOTE] Are you implying that you have returns after every (or most) line(s)? That kinda changes things. ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2007, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/11 "2007-04-12T23:46:11Z")
no, the problem I was having was that last lines of paragraphs were spread out really wide even if there were only a couple words in the line. After placing a return carriage after the lines, the problem was corrected. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2007, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-2007-how-do-i-left-justify-text/399819/12 "2007-04-13T00:37:19Z")
I think the OP’s problem has been solved, but I’d just like to clarify the terminology: there is no such thing as “left justified” or “right justified.” Justified means text is spaced out so that \*\*both \*\*left and right margins are even. Flush left, or as Word calls it, align left, evens up the left margin but not the right, and flush or align right does the opposite.