How do I center or right-align text to a specific width in Vim?

Explanation

Vim has built-in text alignment commands that adjust lines relative to a specified width. :center, :right, and :left reformat text with appropriate padding — useful for headers, documentation, and formatted output.

How it works

• :center {width} — center text within the specified width
• :right {width} — right-align text to the specified width
• :left {indent} — left-align with the specified indent margin
• All work with ranges: :'<,'>center 80 centers selected lines

Example

:center 60

Before:
Title of Document

After :center 60:
                     Title of Document

Before:
Right aligned text

After :right 60:
                                          Right aligned text

Tips

• Use textwidth if set: :center without a number uses textwidth
• :left 4 is a quick way to set indentation to exactly 4 spaces
• Combine with :g for selective alignment: :g/^#/center 80 centers all headings
• For column alignment of assignments or tables, use a plugin like vim-easy-align