Skip to main content

Change Cell Alignment

Use the align and valign attributes to set the horizontal and vertical alignment for cells in a table. You can use these attributes to align individual cells, a row of cells, or all cells in a table. To align all cells in a column, you will need to use the table settings as described in Change Column Alignment.

A picture of a table cell. It contains the word text. Arrows point from the top of the cell to the bottom of the cell to indicate vertical alignment.
A picture of a table cell. It contains the word text. Arrows point from the left and right sides of the cell to the left and right edges of the text. This indicates horizontal alignment.

To the left - Vertical alignment. To the right - Horizontal alignment

  1. Select the topic or component in the Content Manager to open it in the Editor.

    Content Manager in Paligo. It shows the Documents section contains an Acme 100 Topics folder. Inside the folder there is a publication and many topics, including "Connect to Network (100).

    Alternatively, you can Create a Topic and edit that.

  2. Place the cursor in a table cell that you want to have different alignment.

  3. Select the appropriate element in the Element Structure Menu and then select Go to element.

    The appropriate element is:

    • tbody for all cells in a table except those in the header or footer

    • thead for all cells in the selected table header

    • tr for all cells in the selected row

    • td for the selected cell in the main body of the table

    • th for the selected cell in the table header

    Close up of the element structure menu in Paligo. It shows the structure from the top to the cell. In this case the structure is section, section, table, tbody, tr, td. The td is selected, revealing a menu and Go to element is highlighted.

  4. In the Element attributes panel, add:

    • align if you want to change the horizontal alignment.

    • valign if you want to change the vertical alignment.

  5. Set the alignment value(s).

    For the align attribute, choose from:

    • Left - Aligns content to the left of the cell.

    • Right - Aligns content to the right of the cell.

    • Center - Aligns content to the middle of the cell.

    • Justify - Adds space between the characters in a cell. The first character of the first word is on the left boundary and the last character of the last word is on the right boundary.

    • Char - In DocBook XML, char can be used for aligning content to a specific character, usually a decimal point. Char is only included as part of our support for DocBook imports is not intended for use in Paligo.

    Element attributes panel. The td element is selected. The align attribute has been added and its value options are shown. The menu has options for left, center, right, justify, and char.

    For the valign attribute, choose from:

    • Top - Positions the content at the top of the cell.

    • Middle - Positions the content in the center of the cell.

    • Bottom - Positions the content at the bottom of the cell.

    • Baseline - Positions the content at a common baseline position for that row. The baseline is the invisible line that text characters "sit" on. This setting applies to the first line of text in a cell, but can affect all cells in a single row.

      The word "content". It sits on a dotted line that represents the baseline.
    Element attributes panel. The td element is selected. The valign attribute has been added and its value options are shown. The menu has options for top, middle, bottom, and baseline.

  6. Repeat steps 2-5 inclusive for each row or cell that needs different alignment.

  7. Select Save. Save icon.