Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Setting Vertical Alignment.

Setting Vertical Alignment

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 10, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

Excel provides several different ways you can align information from top to bottom (vertically) within a cell. You set the alignment by first selecting the cells you want to format and then displaying the Alignment tab of the Format Cells dialog box. (To display the dialog box, display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the small icon at the bottom-right of the Alignment group.) (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Alignment tab of the Format Cells dialog box.

On the Alignment tab, use the Vertical drop-down list to make your selection. There are five different alignment options available:

  • Top. The information in the cell is situated such that the top line of text appears at the top of the cell.
  • Center. Information is centered half-way between the top and bottom borders of the cell.
  • Bottom. This is the default vertical alignment. Information is aligned at the bottom of the cell.
  • Justify. Text is spread evenly throughout the cell. The information within the cell is wrapped within the column (if necessary), and the row height is adjusted so that all lines fit within the cell and so all information reaches both the top and bottom borders of the cell. Column width is not affected at all.
  • Distributed. When selected, text is spread evenly between the top of the cell and the bottom. Effectively, blank space is placed between each line so that the complete cell is filled.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6261) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Setting Vertical Alignment.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Understanding R1C1 References

Referring to cells is typically done using a letter and a number, which represent the column and row. That's not the only ...

Discover More

Turning Off Line Numbering

Need to have line numbering turned off for a paragraph or two? You can accomplish the task by following these steps.

Discover More

Changing Body Text to a Heading

When working on a document in Outline view, you may need to change regular body text to a heading in the outline. It's ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Matching Formatting when Concatenating

Convert a numeric value to text and you may be surprised by how Excel displays the value. Here's a run-down on exactly ...

Discover More

Formatted Dates Appear Differently on Different Systems

When you format a date in a specific manner, you may be surprised to see that the format changes when you open the ...

Discover More

Differentiating a Header Row

When you use the sorting tool, Excel tries to automatically figure out if your data includes a header row or not. Here ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 8 + 2?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.