Hi All buddies!

Eventually, I would like to have a macro for this but first at least manually:
In a justified paragraph, the last line is centered (without losing the justification of the rest of the paragraph).

The closest thing I have been able to do is: on the line before the last to insert shift+enter and then use tabs to center the last line. But doesn't seem like a good solution.

Formatting a paragraph like this is available in MS Publisher so the code is there, called distribute last line center- see attached) and over 20 years ago I asked them to implement it in Word but nothing has been done. Any Ideas?



Susan

Attached Images

Screenshot_209.jpg (125.5 KB, 15 views)

Unfortunately, this option isn't supported in Word. You have found a workaround, and I believe it is the best that you can do in Word. :-(

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

I wonder why MSoft refuses to implement it. They have the corresponding code in Publisher and I submitted a request for this over 20 years ago I guess they don't invest too much in user customization requests.

In traditional Hebrew literature, all books follow this layout (justified two sides last line center), and thousands of Word users would benefit from it. I have a friend who created a Word add-on, expensive, to automate this but after dissecting his work it seems that he is using LF and then some hard space that is not showing up even after I show hidden chars! What could it be? In InDesign, there is an adjustable white space but I don't think Word has such a possibility. Correct?
I am including a file that I used his adding to center the last line. (It is in Hebrew so it will be jibberish, but just ignore that) maybe you can detect what he using to move the last line?

Susan

Attached Files

last line centered.docx (13.2 KB, 3 views)

For certain languages, additional options may be available. I am not sure which additional options would apply to Hebrew. I take it you have installed full support for Hebrew on your system? If you have, and you still don't see the alignment option you are asking for, the conclusion is that it isn't supported. You can send feedback to Microsoft, of course.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

No, there is no such option even in fully supported Hebrew systems.

Did you look at the attached file? Can you see how he is indenting the last line? It is not atab or as pace, so what in the world is it?

Sorry, I don't know anything about the format, beyond the fact that it is a text paragraph with a line break before the last line.

Attached Images

ScreenCapText.png (19.3 KB, 8 views)

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Ok thank you

It is a Hair Space character expanded to 107 points.

Attached Images

	Screenshot 2024-02-19 121033.png (37.7 KB, 8 views)
	Screenshot 2024-02-19 120952.png (39.0 KB, 8 views)

Ok, so you discover the cat and let it out of the bag. Thank you. But the problem with solutions like this is that if you have to edit the paragraph in any way it is going to ruin the effect. My friend who created the word add-in says" Only use the add-in when you are finished editing the doc (does that ever happen? That is why I would hope that M$oft would hard-code this capability. Publisher has it, InDesign has it so why can't Word have it?

You can send feedback to Microsoft, using Help > Feedback in Word, and hope that they incorporate the functionality in a future update.

Adding the functionality in Word seems like a good idea, especially now that Publisher is about to be discontinued.

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

>>You can send feedback to Microsoft, using Help > Feedback in Word
Wasn't connecting till today but now works. Wonder what happened to my request >20 years ago.
>>especially now that Publisher is about to be discontinued.
Such a slick and easy-to-use tool. Why they would discontinue it...

Microsoft usually doesn't respond to feedback, but my understanding is that they do read all suggestions that they receive. :-)

I believe that Publisher has been having a very limited team of developers over the past years, but it is still sad news that Microsoft is going to get rid of the program. The decision is published on the Microsoft site:

Microsoft Publisher will no longer be supported after October 2026 - Microsoft Support

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

Italophile,

Thanks for the explanation!

__________________
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP

Microsoft 365 apps for business
Windows 11 Professional

The macro you paid for seems overly complicated to arrive at that solution. You can get that kind of alignment two simpler ways without using a macro to add a special-sized space.

Method 1. Add a tab at the END of the paragraph and apply this paragraph alignment
Selection.ParagraphFormat.Alignment = wdAlignParagraphDistribute

This method is the one I recommend because the text can be edited freely without breaking the layout at any time. You can also apply it quickly to existing text with a style and a simple find/replace macro to make sure there is a tab at the end of every paragraph.

Method 2. There are special alignment tabs which can be inserted into a header/footer (only available via the Header/Footer tab on the ribbon) and then copy/pasted into the body of the document. One of these 'special' tabs allows you to centre the text. It could be used instead of the space shim that the addin placed in your sample doc. The benefit of this is that you don't need to calculate the size of that shim for every paragraph.

This second method is barely better than than the addin method since you still need to work out where the soft return goes and would need to fiddle a lot when the paragraph is subsequently edited to fix it up when line lengths change.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia

Absolutley superb!

Imagine, since Word was born Hebrew users were looking for a solution to this with almost no elegant success. And there you did it! And you can edit the paragraph after this and it keeps the correct form.

No words to express my (and many others in days to come) awesome appreciation!

Susan