Word with Screen Reader: Alignment

Hello, my name is Vikki Vaughan. Today we'll examine using shortcut commands to align our text within a Microsoft Word document. Our task will include selecting text and applying alignment features to change its position on the page. We use the position of text to bring typographical emphasis, or fit a specific format.

Horizontal alignment determines the appearance and orientation of the edges of the paragraphs. The standard layout in most documents is for the text to be aligned to the left margin. This means the left edge of the text is flush with the left margin.

Other layouts include centered, right aligned, and justified. Let's begin with our most common alignment, the left alignment. This is the default alignment, and as I mentioned, the one we most commonly use. I'll demonstrate moving text to the left margin by placing the insertion bar within a word and then use our shortcut command of control plus L for left. Let's try that on the title of our document.

Screen Reader: Left aligned.

Vikki: We hear our screen reader announce the current alignment. Let's imagine we have a document that is not currently left aligned, such as this poem by Robert Frost. When we wish to align more than one paragraph, or an entire document, simply select the paragraphs or the entire document and repeat the process. Control plus L makes this task easy. I will select my entire document with control plus A.

Screen Reader: 599 characters selected.

Vikki: Then use control plus L to align the entire document to the left margin.

Screen Reader: Left aligned.

Vikki: Once we apply an alignment, all of the text that's entered afterward will follow our selected alignment. I'll navigate to the bottom of my document and type a few words to demonstrate.

Screen Reader: Blank.

Vikki: I'll type the word, the end.

Screen Reader: T-H-E space E-N-D.

Vikki: Our new text is aligned to the left margin. As I mentioned, left alignment is the default setting and it is appropriate for most situations. However, there are times when text should be aligned differently. Right alignment is often used when formatting tables of data. In some styles of business letters, aligning the date to the right margin is preferred.

Captions are also occasionally aligned with images to the right. There are some languages that read text right to left, such as Arabic and Hebrew. In these languages, text is commonly aligned to the right. The command to write a line is control plus R. Simply place our insertion bar anywhere in the paragraph and use the shortcut command for a quick adjustment to the right margin. I'll demonstrate that now.

Screen Reader: Right aligned.

Vikki: Now, each line of the paragraph ends at the right margin. Keep in mind, as with the left align command, all words typed after the command will be aligned to the right. I'll demonstrate by opening a blank document and use the align right command of control plus R to enter the date.

Screen Reader: Right aligned. J-U-L-Y, one, six, comma, space, two, zero, one, eight.

Vikki: I'll now press enter and use control plus L to adjust back to the default of aligning to the left margin.

Screen Reader: Left aligned. D-E-A-R, space B-O-B, comma.

Vikki: Our date remains aligned to the right, but the next line is aligned to the left. All of the remaining text that I enter will be aligned to the left until I change the alignment setting. Next, let's consider centered alignment, in which each line is centered evenly between the margins. Center alignment is used for titles, headlines, and for poems and songs.

Some people like to center their name and address when creating personal stationary. The command to center text is control plus E. I will demonstrate this shortcut command by placing my insertion bar in the title of our document and press control plus E.

Screen Reader: Centered.

Vikki: Our title is now centered. As with our previous alignments, if we press control plus E, then enter text, this text will be centered until we press control plus E again to toggle off centered alignment. When we toggle it off, the default setting of left alignment takes effect. Returning to the standard left alignment is desirable in most documents, unless we wish for all subsequent paragraphs to be centered.

We have one final alignment choice to consider, justified. The command to justify is control plus J. When we apply the justified setting, Microsoft Word adds spacing between the words so that each line has a character at both the left and right margins. With justified alignment, all lines of the paragraph, except the last one, are spaced in that style. The final line of the paragraph is left aligned. Newsletter text is often justified, making for a tidier looking page. I'll demonstrate the justified alignment by placing the insertion bar within a paragraph and pressing control plus J.

Screen Reader: Justified.

Vikki: All of our text is now aligned between the two margins. A side note, business letters often use various block formatting, meaning that a blank line is used between paragraphs and most lines are left aligned, including the first line of the paragraph. In modified block style, the letterhead, date, and signature all begin at the center point of a line. I have two samples of business letters.

The first one shows the standard block formatting with a blank line between the paragraphs and all text is left aligned. The second sample letter, the modified block style, also has blank lines between the paragraphs, but the letterhead, date, and signature, all begin at the center point of the line. Each paragraph is indented five spaces.

Lastly, screen readers provide a means for us to identify the position, font type, size, and style of selected text. This enables us to determine the attributes of a specific document. As we heard earlier, some screen readers announce alignment changes as we listen to the document. If we configure the screen readers Microsoft Word settings to do so.

In NVDA, we use the command of NVDA and the F key to determine what attributes have been applied to the text. We hear the selected text style, font, point size, color, and attributes, such as bold, alignment, and line spacing. Let's try that now. I'll place the insertion bar within our bolded title and press NVDA and the F key.

Screen Reader: The Bill of Rights. Style normal, Arial 27 PT, default color, bold, aligned left, line spacing single.

Vikki: The JAWS command to announce attributes is JAWS and the F key. With these helpful tips, you can use Windows shortcuts to select text for alignment purposes. I'm Vikki Vaughan and I thank you for joining me today.