Let’s continue the topic of uncommonly used text alignment.  This time, it’s Distributed.

Honestly, another format rarely used in my work life.  So what is it about?

From the screenshot above, you may see that Distributed will evenly distribute the text string to fit the column width, by expanding the width of Space, if any.  When there is no space, the effect looks like Centre aligned with Wrap Text applied.

What to do with it in Excel? I have two examples for reference:

1) Better align Date with Day

Although it’s still not perfectly aligned (because of the font type chosen), I think the Distributed aligned (on the right) looks better.

2) Better align percentage change with +/- sign

This is another common situation I used Distributed alignment.  It better aligns the + and – sign to the left while leaving the number to the right. (note: it does not look nice when the column width is too wide)

Recently, I learned a direct way to achieve the same by using custom formatting from datapig‘s blog: http://datapigtechnologies.com/blog/index.php/aligning-custom-formatting-icons/

Actually I learned a lot from there!  🙂

Do you have other idea in using Distributed Text Alignment? Pls share with us.