Specifying Vertical Cell Alignment

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. (Click here to see a related figure.) 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.

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. 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.