Setting the Text Alignment

You can query and set the text alignment for a device context by using the GetTextAlign and SetTextAlign functions. The text-alignment settings determine how text is positioned relative to a specified location. Text can be aligned to the right or left of the position or centered over it; it can also be aligned above or below the point.

The following example shows a method for determining which horizontal alignment flag is set:

switch ((TA_LEFT | TA_RIGHT | TA_CENTER) & GetTextAlign(hdc)) 
{ 
    case TA_LEFT: 
       . 
       . 
       . 
    case TA_RIGHT: 
       . 
       . 
       . 
    case TA_CENTER: 
       . 
       . 
       . 
} 

You can also use the SetTextAlign function to update the current position when a text-output function is called. For instance, the following example uses the SetTextAlign function to update the current position when the TextOut function is called. In this example, the cArial parameter is an integer that specifies the number of Arial fonts.

UINT uAlignPrev; 
char szCount[8];
HRESULT hr;
size_t * pcch; 
 
uAlignPrev = SetTextAlign(hdc, TA_UPDATECP); 
MoveToEx(hdc, 10, 50, (LPPOINT) NULL); 
TextOut(hdc, 0, 0, "Number of Arial fonts: ", 23); 
itoa(cArial, szCount, 10); 

hr = StringCchLength(szCount, 9, pcch);
if (FAILED(hr))
{
// TODO: write error handler 
}
 
TextOut(hdc, 0, 0, (LPSTR) szCount, *pcch); 
SetTextAlign(hdc, uAlignPrev);