How to Center a Text in Google Docs

Aligning text in the center in your Google Docs document is one of the most common formatting changes people make. Centered text can make section headers stand out, help emphasize important points, and improve the overall look of your document. Luckily, Google Docs makes it super simple to center text on the page.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through the different ways to center text horizontally or vertically in Google Docs, using both keyboard shortcuts and the alignment options in the formatting toolbar. Whether you want to center a heading, a paragraph, or just a few words, you’ll learn how to do it with just a couple of clicks or keystrokes.

Why Would You Want to Center Text?

Before jumping into the step-by-step instructions, let’s first go over some of the main reasons you might want to center text in a Google Doc:

Section headers: Centering your headings and subheadings is a great way to make them stand out on the page. This helps visually separate different sections of your document.
Emphasize key points: Drawing attention to important words, phrases, or quotes by centering them gives them more visual weight. This technique can boost memorability.
Improve appearance: Centered text tends to look better than left- or right-aligned text for short lines like headings and captions. It balances out the page.

Creative styling: You can get creative and center some text while left- or right-aligning the rest. This mixing and matching of alignment styles gives your document more visual interest.

Now that you know why you might want to center text, let’s look at how to do it.

How to Center a Heading or Title

Centering headings in Google Docs helps them stand out on the page. Here are the two easiest ways to quickly center a heading:

Use the keyboard shortcut:

Highlight the heading text you want to center.
Press Ctrl + E (Windows) or ⌘ + E (Mac). This keyboard shortcut is the fastest way to center text.

Use the alignment options:

Highlight the heading text.
Click the Center align icon in the toolbar (it looks like text centered between two vertical lines).

And your heading will now be centered on the page!

How to Center a Paragraph

You can also center entire paragraphs in Google Docs. Here’s how:

Click anywhere in the paragraph you want to center to place the cursor there.

Click the Center align option in the text formatting toolbar, as covered above.

Or use the keyboard shortcut:

Click anywhere in the paragraph to place the cursor there.

Press Ctrl + E (Windows) or ⌘ + E (Mac) to center the paragraph.

All the text in that paragraph will now be centered.

How to Center Just Part of a Paragraph

If you only want to center a few words or a single line in a paragraph—while keeping the rest of the paragraph left- or right-aligned—here’s what to do:

Highlight the text you want to center.
Click the Center align icon in the toolbar.

The selected text will now be centered within that paragraph.

This is useful for emphasizing key points or statistics by centering them within a paragraph.

How to Center Text Vertically (Top to Bottom)

By default, the center alignment options center text horizontally on the page. But you can also center text vertically from top to bottom using the following steps:

Highlight the text you want to center.

Click Format > Alignment in the toolbar.
In the Alignment window, click the Vertical align center radio button.
Click OK.

This will center the text vertically within the line height.

Use vertical alignment sparingly though, as it can make longer text more difficult to read. It works best for short lines and creative styling.

Quick Recap on How to Center Text in Google Docs

Just to recap, here are the main ways to center text in Google Docs, along with when you might want to use each one:

To center a heading: Use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/⌘ + E with the heading text highlighted, or click the center align icon with the heading text highlighted.
To center a paragraph: Click anywhere in the paragraph and use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/⌘ + E, or click the center align icon.
To center part of a paragraph: Highlight the specific text first and then use the center align options.

To center vertically: Choose Format > Alignment > Vertical Align Center with the text highlighted.

And that’s all there is to it! Aligning text in the center in Google Docs is super straightforward once you know these handy tricks.

Quickly Center Text with Keyboard Shortcuts

The fastest and easiest way to center text is using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + E (Windows) or ⌘ + E (Mac).

Here are some useful things to know about using keyboard shortcuts to center text:

You first need to highlight/select the text you want to center before pressing the shortcut.
It will center all types of text including headings, paragraphs, and selected words.

You can press it multiple times to cycle between left align, center, right align, and justify.
The shortcut works the same whether you’re using a Windows PC or an Apple Mac computer.

So get in the habit of using the handy keyboard shortcut anytime you want to quickly center text in Google Docs!

Adjusting Indents When Centering Text

One thing to keep in mind when centering text is that any indents on the left or right margin will still apply.

So if you center a paragraph, but it’s indented half an inch from the left and right, there will be extra space on those sides even though the text is centered.

To get text to center perfectly between the actual margins, make sure to set the left and right indent to zero first:

Highlight the centered text.
Click Format > Align & Indent > Indentation options.
Set Left and Right indents to 0 inches.

Click Apply.

This will remove any existing indentation before centering the text, allowing it to truly center within the document margins.

Common Questions About Centering Text in Google Docs

Here are answers to some common questions people have about centering text:

How do I center an image in Google Docs?

To center an image between the text margins:

Click on the image to select it.

Click the center alignment icon in the toolbar.

Can I center text in a table?

Yes, you can center text within any table cell. Just highlight the cell text and use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl/⌘ + E or click the center alignment icon.

How do I center text around an image?

You can use columns to center text on either side of an image:

Insert the image on its own line between paragraphs.

Select Format > Columns to create columns.
Center the text within each column.

This will center text on the left and right of the centered image.

What’s the shortcut to justify text?

The keyboard shortcut to justify paragraph alignment is Ctrl/⌘ + J. This aligns the text to both margins, adding spaces between words as needed.

Get Creative with Centered Text Styling

Now that you know how to center text in Google Docs, feel free to get creative with different alignment styles!

Here are some ideas to make your documents stand out:

Center some key stats or pull quotes within regular left- or right-aligned paragraphs.
Style entire sections by centering all the headings but keeping paragraphs left-aligned.