To change the alignment of a paragraph, you can click the Align Left, Center, Align Right, or Justify buttons on the Formatting toolbar. You can also select Format | Paragraph, click on the Indents And Spacing tab, and choose the desired setting from the Alignment dropdown list.

But, when you’re typing the paragraph you need to align, where are your hands? They’re on the keyboard, of course. Instead of breaking the flow by moving to the mouse to apply alignment settings, you can keep your fingers on the keyboard using the helpful alignment shortcut keys listed in Table A. Using these shortcut keys, you’ll see your productivity soar as you shave time off your document work.

Table A:
Paragraph alignment shortcuts

Alignment command	Shortcut key
Align Left	[Ctrl]L
Align Center	[Ctrl]E
Align Right	[Ctrl]R
Justify	[Ctrl]J
Note: On the Mac, use [command] instead of [Ctrl]

Filed under: Microsoft Office Tutor