Vertical and horizontal alignment settings and orientation options

- [Instructor] Excel has a number of alignment options available on the Home Tab in this group called Alignment. We're going to be showing you different tips using not only the button here called Orientation, but also the Horizontal alignment buttons which are widely used and not so widely used, the Vertical alignment buttons. We'll also be using a feature found in the Font group called Borders. In this worksheet we're setting up some data here with some headings and already I've got some data here. I don't want the column to be as wide as it would be if we saw 2017 followed by Salary on the same line.

Over here in column C, I want to be putting in a heading called 2017 Tax Code and the entries below here are only going to be one or two characters wide. So, a little tip here when typing data, although we could be using an alignment feature called Wrap Text, we can work with this feature indirectly by typing and using Alt+Enter to introduce a line break. So I'm going to type 2017, I'll press Alt+Enter, then the word Tax, and then Alt+Enter, and then Code, and finally Enter.

Now, for cell B1 and also C1, I want to use Right Align. I'll highlight both of these and use the Right Align button. That's a feature widely known. But not so widely known and something I'd want to use here and would make good sense to at least consider how these are aligned vertically within the cell. So above the three horizontal alignment buttons, we also have vertical alignment buttons. Right now the default bottom align is in effect. How might this look if we use middle align? Watch the data in A1 and B1 move upward to be aligned in the middle of the cells vertically.

While we're there, let's explore the other one, top align. So at different times you want to consider realigning the data this way. I'm not making a case for saying which one is best. That would be your choice. I like the one that way, so fine. Now at different times you do want to control alignment based on the way we are using titles. First of all, the way we're looking at the data here it seems like a lot of the columns are unnecessarily wide. It looks as if they've all been set up to be as wide as the September entry.

Let's consider some different options here. One option would be let's adjust all the columns ahead of time. Click in the upper left corner to select the entire worksheet. Double click any boundary between two column letters, how about right here, double click, and we see what's happening and that might not be the look that you want. Columns obviously are different width. Let's consider an alignment option. Let's highlight just the months, and then in the alignment group, click the drop arrow here, Angle Counterclockwise.

Now let's readjust the column widths. Click in the upper left corner, double click a column boundary. That might look a little bit better. They're still of different width though. You can see clearly September's wider. So how about a few other options? I think right away you would know that Angle Clockwise is not going to work any better. That's probably not a very common choice nor a favored one here so let's not use that one, but possibly use Vertical Text. I think most of us wouldn't care for that. I don't. But there's another one here we could consider using, Rotate Text Up.

How about that? Now readjust these column widths, upper left corner, double click a boundary. How about that? That could be viable, that could be the look you want. Now with the narrower columns, let's go back and reconsider possibly Angle Counterclockwise and that doesn't look very good. But here's something you wouldn't necessarily think of doing. Within the Font group there's a button here for Borders. Let's click the drop arrow. Let's first choose Outside Borders.

That might help a little bit. Yeah, that's okay. Another option you might consider is a bit more dramatic but it might include more dark lines than you actually want. Going back to the same button. What if we choose All Borders? That's a bit crowded too. Readjusting column widths, let's try that, see what happens. Click on the upper left corner, double click in the column boundary between letters. Maybe that looks a little bit better. But, you might be saying you know those dark lines there are a bit obtrusive.

How do we change those? Not an alignment feature here but a feature found on that same button in the Font group. Click the drop arrow, go down to More Borders and consider this possibility. Under Color here, click the drop arrow, choose the second lightest of the gray options. Make sure you choose the single thin line right here. Then off to the right, choose Outline and Inside, and then OK. That's got a more subtle look. That could be the look you're considering.

A possible adjustment here that might help too, select all these columns here and drag to make the column just a little bit wider. That might make that look a little neater, a little tidier and so on. Now not quite as well known is you can use the orientation tools with charts. Let's go to this next sheet over. Let's create a chart based on this data. Now it is surrounded by empty cells so we can simply press Alt+F1, it'll pick up all the data, there it is. Look at those titles down below. They're angled counterclockwise.

That might be the look you want. You might want to consider changing them, so click the entries and that selects the entire area here, and then go to the Home Tab, and although I think that looks okay and you might too, do consider the possibility of using Rotate Text Up. That could be a little bit better in some cases. The next worksheet over called Line Chart, that's a chart already in existence and we see those vertical totals down at the bottom. Click in that area of the chart and then go to the Home Tab and consider Angle Counterclockwise.

Is this going to be better? Let's try it. Unfortunately, although it's more readable, we're only seeing every other month. A possible alternate approach could be let's make the chart wider. Eventually, if we make this wide enough we're likely to see that additional month. There it is. Another option could be if we want this to be narrower is to, again, click in the months area down below and use a smaller font. Right now it's nine point, will eight work? Well it doesn't really change the number of entries there.

How about six? Well that could be a choice too. But this idea of alignment, not only is it used for text but it can also be used in charts. Remember it's that same button, the Angle Counterclockwise, the orientation choices. So we've seen some other capabilities. Here in the previous worksheet, we saw how to adjust existing titles there across the bottom using that same button. And over here we saw how to experiment using not only the Alignment feature, but also some of the options available here by way of Borders.

So lots of different choices here for controlling the alignment typically used with titles and also in charts.