How to Center Text Vertically in a Microsoft Word Table without Going Crazy

Vertically centering text in an MS Word table is challenging at the best of times. Review the steps below.

Fast Reference Steps – Quick Summary

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Need More Detail? Center Text Vertically in a Microsoft Word Table

If you use tables in Microsoft Word you will know how frustrating it is to not have your text look great centered vertically in the middle of the cell.

Do you need to center text vertically in a Microsoft Word table without going crazy? Follow these steps and you can fix it fast. Here is how you do it the easy way with pictures.

Table of Contents

Fast Reference Steps in Images

Easy Reference – Center Text Vertically in a Microsoft Word Table

Click the images below as the steps are also on the images for easy reference.

Microsoft Word snip showing 3 steps on how to Center Text Vertically in a Microsoft Word Table. Microsoft Word snip showing Step 4 on how to Center Text Vertically in a Microsoft Word Table.

Need More Detail? Then Try These Steps

Step by Step Detail – Center Text Vertically in a Microsoft Word Table

This is the process step by step in more detail if you can’t get the above to work.

Step 1: Insert Your Table

Insert your table as you normally would. If you have an existing table – select the whole table.

You can do this by positioning your mouse over the table and a small box in the top left hand corner appears. Just click that. See highlighted below.

Microsoft Word snip showing how to select a table for centering text

Step 2: Set Line Spacing

Make sure your line spacing is set to 1.0. You can do this in the Home menu and then click the little box – see highlighted below.

Microsoft Word snip showing how to find line spacing settings to center text in an MS Word table

Make sure your whole table is selected then set the line spacing to 1.0 in that little box mentioned above.

Microsoft Word snip showing how to set line spacing for centering text in an MS Word table

Step 3: Choose Normal Style

Also make sure the Normal Style is selected. See highlighted below.

Microsoft Word snip showing how to select the style to center text in an MS Word table

Step 4: Hover Mouse

Then you can hover your mouse over the lines of the table and drag the cells up or down.

The text should stay centered all the time. If it doesn’t, also check the properties of the table. See the next step.

Microsoft Word snip showing how to adjust table cells to center text in an MS Word table

Step 5: Table Properties

Right click on the table and a popup box should appear. Select Table Properties.

Microsoft Word snip showing how to select table properties to center text in an MS Word table

Step 6: Vertical Alignment

Choose the Cell tab and then choose Vertical alignment to be Center.

Microsoft Word snip showing how to choose Vertical alignment to be center to center text in an MS Word table

That should fix it.

There is nothing more frustrating when your text is not perfectly aligned in a cell. It is easy to center it horizontally, but centering it vertically is a bit more of a challenge. However the method mentioned above is the fastest and easiest way to fix it without going crazy.

Leave a comment if this helped you. Thanks for visiting and don’t forget to leave a comment if this worked for you.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do you center text vertically in a table in Word?

Step 1: Insert Your Table, Step 2: Set Line Spacing, Step 3: Choose Normal Style, Step 4: Hover Mouse, Step 5: Select Table Properties, Step 6: Adjust Vertical Alignment

Why can’t I vertically center text in Word?

Because you need to look at styles, tables and line spacing settings.