Page Layout ⇒ Center Block of Text horizontally

[Stretto]

To create a left justified block of text I use

Code: Select all

\begin{center}
\begin{flushleft}
\hspace{1cm}text line 1\\
\hspace{1cm}text line 2\\
\hspace{1cm}text line 2 ...\\
\hspace{1cm}...\\
\end{flushleft}
\end{center}

where the 'center' environment does not actually center in this case but I want it to. If I do not justify then each line is individually centered and the result is that the left side of the text is jagged.

All I want is to be able to center the text as a block with the left side to be aligned.

So

• text line 1
  text line 2 ...
  ...

I emulate the centering using the hspace but I have to manually center and determine the values. Latex should have no problem figuring it out for me... but how?

Essentially I want the equivalent to \vspace*{\fill} but horizontally and only on a block of text. (I use \vspace*{\fill} to center everything vertically on the page)

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Stretto,

welcome to the board!

You could use \parbox, which contains the left aligned text, within a center environment, such as

Code: Select all

\begin{center}
\parbox{5cm}{
  text ccccline 1\\
  text line 2\\
  text line 2 ...\\
  ...\\
}
\end{center}

Stefan

[Stretto]

The problem with parbox is I have to specify the size too. I want latex to automatically calculate the size for me else if I change the longest line I'll have to manually figure out a value.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

A tabular environment can do the left alignment for you while calculating the width:

Code: Select all

\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{l}
  text ccccline 1\\
  text line 2\\
  text line 2 ...\\
  ...\\
\end{tabular}
\end{center}

Stefan

[Stretto]

Thanks, that will do it.