How to right align text but left align lines on first character?

G

Guest

My daughters teacher specified for my daughter's homework that her name and
class has to be right aligned but aligned on each first character. In other
words, the longest line will be right aligned, but the shorter lines will be
right aligned but aligned with the first character of the longest line, e.g.

Joan Smith
English Lit
Period 2

and NOT

Joan Smith
English Lit
Period 2

How is this done??

Thanks.
 
J

Jay Freedman

Unfortunately, this isn't one of the things Word does with great ease.

The simplest way isn't "elegant" but it will work:
- Type the three lines at the left margin, with a tab character as the first
character of each line.
- Select all three lines.
- Click on the ruler to insert a tab stop, which will be in the same
position for each of the three lines.
- Drag that tab stop to the right until the longest line just reaches the
right margin. All three lines will move at once, maintaining their alignment
at the tab stop.

This will do for a quick-n-dirty -- for instance, if you plan to print the
document and then throw away the electronic copy. However, it isn't robust,
because anything that increases the length of that longest line will make it
wrap to the next line. If you plan to reuse the document or to set up a
template that can be used for all homework, then you should use something a
little more complicated but better behaved:

- With the cursor in the first paragraph, use Insert > Text Box and draw a
text box in the upper right corner, approximately the right size. Type the
three lines in it.
- Right-click the edge of the box and select Format Text Box.
- On the Colors and Lines tab, under "Line", set the Color dropdown to "No
Line".
- On the Layout tab, click the Advanced button. Another dialog opens.
- On the Picture Position tab, under Horizontal, click the Alignment option
button and set its two dropdowns to "Right" and "Column". Under Vertical,
click the Alignment option button and set its two dropdowns to "Top" and
"Margin".
- On the Text Wrapping tab, click the "Top and bottom" option. Click OK.
- In the Format Text Box dialog again, on the Text Box tab, check the box
for "Resize AutoShape to fit text". Click OK.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
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