To left-align or center cell contents in Google Sheets, select the cell or range, open the horizontal alignment control in the toolbar, and choose Left or Center. On a computer, you can also use keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+Shift+L or Ctrl+Shift+E on PC, and Command+Shift+L or Command+Shift+E on Mac.
Align cell contents using the toolbar
- Select the cell or range. Click one cell, or select the cells you want to format together.
- Open the horizontal alignment control. In the Sheets toolbar, find the text alignment control.
- Choose an alignment. Select Left to place contents at the left side of the cell, or Center to position them in the middle horizontally. Google lists horizontal text alignment among its spreadsheet formatting options (Google Sheets computer formatting help).
The setting applies to the selected cells. Select a different range and repeat the steps to format other cells.
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Use a keyboard shortcut on a computer
| Action | PC | Mac |
|---|---|---|
| Left-align | Ctrl+Shift+L | Command+Shift+L |
| Center-align | Ctrl+Shift+E | Command+Shift+E |
Select the target cell or range before using a shortcut. Google notes that shortcuts may not work with every language or keyboard layout; if a combination does not work, use the toolbar instead (Google Sheets computer keyboard shortcuts).
What to know on iPhone or iPad
Google’s iPhone and iPad shortcut instructions cover using Sheets with an external keyboard. They do not establish a touch-only sequence for changing horizontal alignment, so the computer steps above should not be treated as verified mobile-app instructions (Google Sheets iPhone and iPad keyboard shortcuts).
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Horizontal alignment is different from other text controls
Left and center alignment change where cell contents sit horizontally. They are separate from vertical alignment, text wrapping, and text rotation. This procedure applies to cells in Google Sheets, not paragraph alignment in Google Docs.
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