Use left alignment

Left-aligned text has an even left margin and an erratic (ragged) right margin.

Don't center text.

Avoid these awkward situations in text:

• Orphans, which occur when the first line of a paragraph appears by itself at the bottom of a page or column

• Widows, which occur when the last line of a paragraph contains only one word or appears alone on the next page or column

• Lines that end with hyphens

In Word and PowerPoint, you can manage these situations without using manual line breaks.

To	Do this
Keep a hyphenated word from breaking at the end of a line	Insert a nonbreaking hyphen by pressing Ctrl+Shift+_.
Keep the last word of a paragraph with the word that precedes it	Insert a nonbreaking space by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Space.
Control widows and orphans in Word	Select a paragraph formatted with Normal style. On the context menu, select Styles > Apply Styles. In the Apply Styles pane, select Modify. Select Format > Paragraph. On the Line and page breaks tab, select Widow/Orphan control.