See: There are several ways to do this. Create an em dash In Microsoft Word.
By default the table is left aligned.
When you insert a table or change text to a table, the word Places it between the left and right margins. You can easily change it. There are several ways to align the table on the horizontal plane between the left and right margins.
The first thing you want to change is the width. There is not enough text to fill the cells and it may look awkward. Also, readability is low. Your eyes try to take in the entire table at once instead of reading the content. Fortunately, changing the width is easy.
- Click on a table to select it. Doing so will reveal two handles: one in the upper left corner and one in the lower right corner.
- Hover the mouse over the handle in the bottom right corner and your mouse will turn into a double arrow.
- Simply drag up and left to decrease the width of the table and the width of each cell.
The resized table is a better fit, and you can easily stop here if you don’t want to align it differently.
See: Learn how to create a table. Using HTML. (Tech Republic)
How to Align Table Margins in Word
When you have a table that doesn’t extend from the left to right margin, you’ll want to align it. You can set a specific alignment or indent the table.
You have three alignments: left, center, and right. The default table is aligned to the left margin. You can easily test this by selecting the entire table (not the cells) and looking at the alignment options in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. The image above shows the Left Alignment option selected. To align the table, select the table and click one of the other options: Center or Left Align. Using these three options you can quickly and easily align your table to the left, center or right.
You can also use the Table Properties option to align the table. To access these options, right-click anywhere in the table and choose Table Properties from the resulting submenu. In the Table tab, select an option from the Alignment section, and click OK. There are many property options, but we only deal with those in the alignment section. You may want to come back later and review all the other options.
The final alignment option is indent from left. This allows you to easily indent the table from the left margin. There is an option to indent from the left if you need to be precise. You can also do the same by dragging the table and using the ruler to position the table. Or use the Increase Indent option in the Paragraph group to move the table half an inch at a time.
It’s just as easy to align the content within each cell using the table properties. On the Table tab, click the Options button to open the Table Options.
The Default Cell Margins section lets you change the size of all four margins. By default, the Automatically Resize Contents option is selected. To center or right-align the content in a cell, use the Alignment options in the Paragraph group. However, you should select the text instead of the entire table. Otherwise, clicking the option will align the table, not the content within the cells.
See: Windows 10: Voice Command Lists for Speech Recognition and Dictation (Free PDF) (Tech Republic)
How to Align Tables in Word Online
Aligning in Word Online is a little different, but still easy. With the table selected, right-click the table and select Paragraph Options. Use the Alignment drop-down in the General section. Using the Align options on the menu will align the text within the cells instead of the table. So far, everything we’ve done is clear, but you may have noticed that the text is placed as paragraphs. Text does not flow around the table.
How to wrap text around tables
If you want the text to wrap around the table, you need to change another default option. Return to the Table Properties dialog. Below the alignment options, you’ll see text wrapping options. The default is no wrapping. Just click on the Surround option and click on OK. This option draws the bottom text and wraps it around the table. I clicked backspace twice to align the text with the top of the table. Dragging text up like this can cause the paragraph to take on some of the properties of a table. Just click on Normal to fix it.
Alignment the word Overall tables are a simple task, and there are several ways to achieve the alignment you want.
Megan Krause updated this article.