• Overview
• Pictures
  • Overview
  • Image Properties
    • Image Data
    • Tile or Stretch Image to Fill
    • Effects
  • Non-Visual Properties
  • Shape Properties
• Shapes
  • Overview
  • Non-Visual Properties
  • Visual Properties
    • Size of Bounding Box
    • Location of Bounding Box
    • Geometry
      • Preset
      • Custom
    • Shape Fill
      • Solid Fill
      • Picture Fill
      • Gradient Fill
      • Pattern Fill
      • Group Fill
    • Effects
    • Outline Style
    • 2D Transforms
    • 3-D
      • Shape Properties
      • Scene Properties
  • Styles
  • Text
    • Text Body Properties
      • Positioning and Insets
      • Fit, Wrap, Warp and 3D
      • Columns, Vertical Text and Rotation
    • Paragraphs
      • Paragraph Properties
        • Bullets and Numbering
        • Spacing, Indent and Margins
        • Alignment, Tabs, Other
      • Run Properties
    • List Properties
• Connectors
  • Non-Visual Properties
• Text
• Charts
• Diagrams
• Tables
  • Defining Structure
  • Rows, Cells, Cell Content
  • Cell Properties
    • Alignment, Margins, Direction
    • Borders and Fill
  • Table Styles and Properties
• Placement within Docs
  • Overview
  • Inline Objects
  • Floating Objects
    • Positioning
    • Text Wrapping
• Placement within Spreadsheets
  • Overview
  • Absolute Anchoring
  • One Cell Anchoring
  • Two Cell Anchoring
• Placement within Presentations

DrawingML Shapes

Alignment

Alignment of text within a paragraph in a shape is specified with the algn attribute on the <a:pPr> element for the paragraph. The most common values are:

• l (left, the default value)
• r (right)
• ctr (centered)
• just (justified)
• dist (distributed, which distributes text across the entire line)

Below is a sample shape with alignment on the first paragraph set to justified (algn="just").

Font Alignment

Vertical alignment of words on a line is specified with the fontAlgn attribute on the <a:pPr> element for the paragraph. This is relevant when some words on a line are larger than others. In such a case, should the smaller words be positioned in the middle relative to the larger words, at the bottom or top? Possible values are:

• auto (when the text flow is horizontal, this is the same as base below)
• b (the very bottom of a line, which may be different than base because of letters such as g, q, and y, which hang below the baseline)
• base (the baseline--the default)
• ctr (centered)
• t (top)

Below is a sample with font alignment at the top (fontAlgn="t").

Tabs

Custom tab stops can be specified for a paragraph within a shape with the <a:tabLst> child element of <a:pPr>. The <a:tabLst> can contain one or more tab stop definitions, each within a <a:tab>. Each such <a:tab> has a pos attribute specifying the stop relative to the left margin (either in EMUs or by a number immediately followed by a unit identifer), with each tab in the order increasing its pos value. Each <a:tab> may also have a algn attribute which specifies the alignment of text. Possible values are ctr, dec (the decimals are lined up, so right-aligned until the decimal and then left aligned after the decimal), l and r.

The default tab size can also be specified with the defTabSz attribute on <a:pPr>. Possible values are specified either in EMUs or as a number immediately followed by a unit identifier. Below is a shape with tabs between text, and the default size is set to 1 inch or 914400 EMUs.

Below is the same shape, but with custom tabs as follows.

Word Breaks

A long Latin word by default can be broken and wrapped onto the next line without a hyphen. However, it is possible to prevent this behavior by specifying the latinLnBrk attribute on <a:pPr>. A value of false or 0 will prevent a line break in such a case. Below is first a sample with latinLnBrk="1".

Below is the same shape and same paragraph, but with latinLnBrk="0".

Hanging Punctuation

It is possible to prevent punctuation at the end of a run from being carried onto the next line by specifying the hangingPunct attribute on <a:pPr>. A value of true or 1 forces the punctuation to not be carried over and a value of false allows the punctuation to be carried to the next line. The default is false.