Comments on: #TuesdayTutorial: Avoid Centered Text

By: Clement Boateng

Clement Boateng — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 22:43:51 +0000

I do agree with Youngsu on his comment. I am used to formating tables using centered text. I do that on my lab reports and now that is what actually looks nice to me. This post is helpful because it identifies that major problem with centered text. It is hard to read through it, especially when there is a lot of text.

By: Youngsu Kim

Youngsu Kim — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 21:33:51 +0000

This video was very informative. I always wondered which text alignment is appropriate in my document. I often chose the centered text alignment when it comes to tables because it looked a lot better than left aligned text. In my opinion, the body text should be left aligned and the texts in the table, like titles or subtitles of the table, better be centered aligned. I’m used to that format so that’s why I feel that’s more natural.

By: Cassie Bienert

Cassie Bienert — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 21:10:57 +0000

I agree with you Thomas that the centering of text in tables looks better. Since tables are already condensed and organized I’m not sure it really benefits to have left alignment of words as it would when you have large bodies of text. This video didn’t really address the formatting of pictures in documents. It is my preference to center them. Even when I take notes I think it is easer to have them centered when I am reading. I wonder if there is research on the best place to put graphics? Overall, this was a good tutorial that explained how to format a lot of examples such as posters and business cards.

By: tengrrl

tengrrl — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 05:06:23 +0000

Personally, I do tend just just left-align everything. That said most of my writing is online. With responsive design (pages that make the text fit the screen whether it’s on a cell phone or a giant lcd monitor), centered text can be strange: What is nice looking on a smaller screen looks silly on a bigger one when it’s centered.

So with that caveat, use your common sense. You don’t have to completely avoid centered text. It can be nice for variety. Do be sure that you’re consistent. If you have one column heading centered, they all need to be centered. It’s okay to mix some things up too. Perhaps centering the document title and then left aligning the column heading.

By: tengrrl

tengrrl — Fri, 23 Feb 2018 05:01:45 +0000

Justified text is used in formal publications. Look at a newspaper or magazine copy and you’re probably going to see justified text. Usually in books as well. Maybe not in fiction. Certainly not in poetry. Textbooks though are usually justified.

By: shuai liu

shuai liu — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 03:47:27 +0000

It was a very interesting video. After, I watched the video. I looked my Log, it’s flush left. However, the text was written in the table, it made the left edges are ragged. Then, I have adjusted the width of each columns for making the gaps look a little bit better.

By: Mackenzie Knox

Mackenzie Knox — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 05:23:38 +0000

These videos are always my favorite. I feel going into the video that concepts are intuitive but after watching the video I realize that I only knew a small portion of the information. I appreciated the examples given in the video of when to use the different text alignments. I also never never about the concept of rivers before and I now know to be on the lookout for it.

By: Ben Joel

Ben Joel — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 22:04:49 +0000

I found this video very informative. Thinking back, I can remember times when I would use center alignment in tables, charts, and shorter pieces of writing. After watching the video, and recalling the F-shaped reading pattern, I agree that flush left text is best. I often used justified alignment when writing lab reports, but I had never noticed the “river” affect. This video is also making me rethink that as well.

By: Mariel Jastrebsky

Mariel Jastrebsky — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 18:49:15 +0000

I agree! I’ve always kind of wanted my texts to be centered in any tables that I make, but now after watching the tutorial I can see how for different circumstances flush left and flush right could be important. I personally think either justified or flush left looks the most visually appealing, but I can also see that the flush right can be used for certain things. This also makes sense because for my professional bio statement there were weird gaps that were in between the structure of my sentence. However, now I understand that it is just because of the format of the document.

By: Kimberly

Kimberly — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 17:21:59 +0000

Prior to viewing this tutorial, I favored centering my text in charts and tables. After viewing this tutorial and recalling the F-shaped reading pattern previously mentioned, it makes more sense as to why flush left alignment is preferred. While aligning text to the left is not always the most visually appealing, it certainly makes documents easier to read through. I also enjoyed the discussion about justified text alignment as I have never found a situation where this type of alignment was suitable. After viewing this tutorial I will certainly keep these tips in mind when formatting text for future documents and assignments.