How to Adjust Justification So the Last Sentences in Paragraphs Left Justify in Microsoft Word

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Pressing "Enter" returns the paragraph to Word's normal justification rules.

When Word justifies a short last line, it looks very strange; the few words string out across the whole page, with huge gaps of space between them. To fix this problem, you have two choices: You can left-align the entire paragraph, or you can change only the last line. Word's justification setting actually left-aligns the last line automatically, but sometimes a glitch occurs and justifies the whole thing -- or, you may have justified the last line manually by pressing "Ctrl" or "Shift" along with "Enter" when you created a new paragraph. To help avoid this problem, press only "Enter" at the end of a paragraph.

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Left-Align the Entire Paragraph

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Step 1

Open the Microsoft Word file in which you want to adjust the text. Click anywhere in the paragraph that needs a justification change. Or, if you want to apply these settings to the whole document, press "Ctrl" and "A" on your keyboard.

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Step 2

Click the "Home" tab.

Step 3

Click the "Justify" button on the ribbon in the Paragraph group -- it shows horizontal lines of equal lengths, representing the justification of text. Or, press "Ctrl" and "J" on the keyboard.

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Left-Align the Last Line Only

Step 1

Open the Microsoft Word file in which you want to adjust the text. Click in the text at the very end of the paragraph's last line, immediately after the last character.

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Step 2

Press "Enter" or "Return" on your keyboard. This will remove the justification and left-align this last line while preserving the justification of the rest of the paragraph.

Step 3

Press "Delete" on your keyboard to remove the extra line of space you just created by pressing "Enter."

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