How to Make Things Center on Tumblr
By Tammy Columbo
If you want your entire Tumblr blog timeline to be centered on the page, install a simple center-justified theme that does not contain columns. Several such themes are available free of charge from Tumblr Theme Garden. Themes like Art She Said, The Minimalist and Observer all display posts centered in the middle of the page. Once you have installed a center-justified theme, you can center the content in each of your text posts by “tricking” the platform with HTML code. The content of your text posts will be centered on the page. Some themes center the post title while others do not.
Apply Theme
Log in to the Tumblr dashboard, click the down arrow next to your primary blog and select the blog that you want to modify.
Click “Customize” to open the blog theme in Edit mode.
Click the “Browse Themes” tab to open Theme Garden.
Type the name of one of the centered themes in the Search box. As you type, the specified theme displays in the Customize menu. You can also click the “All Themes” tab, then click “Minimal” to view only themes with simple designs.
Click the desired theme to preview the theme applied to your blog in the Preview pane. Repeat clicking on themes to preview them applied to your blog. When you find the theme you want to apply, click the “Use” button.
Click “Save,” then click “Exit.”
Center a Post
Open the timeline of the blog you wish to modify.
Click the “Aa Text” icon to open a New Text Post form.
Type an optional title for the post, then type your text in the post body.
Click the “<html>” option in the New Text Post form to change to HTML code view. Your text will be enclosed between the <p> and </p> tags.
Edit the first “<p>” tag to “<p align=”center”>.”
Click the drop-down arrow next to the “Post” icon, then click “Save as Draft.” Click “Save Draft” to save and close the post. The draft post is saved in your Drafts folder. This step is important in centering the text.
Click the “Drafts” tab in the dashboard to open your Drafts folder. The new post is listed at the top of your Drafts list.
Click the “Publish” option at the bottom of the post, then click “OK” to publish the post. Note that the post text does not appear centered in your dashboard. The dashboard uses the default Tumblr Redux layout, which supercedes the Paragraph tag.
Select your blog from the dashboard to open its main page. If you installed a center-justified theme, the content you posted in the text post is centered.
Tips
Tumblr also supports custom themes designed by you or a third-party designer. To install a theme from a source other than Theme Garden, copy and paste the new theme HTML code over the existing code in the Tumblr HTML editor.
Warnings
If you attempt to insert HTML code to center the text in a text post, then publish the post without saving it as a draft first, the HTML code is stripped out of the post.
Writer Bio
Based in the live music capital of the world, Tammy Columbo continues to work in the information technology industry as she has done for more than 10 years. While living in Austin, Columbo has contributed to high profile projects for the State of Texas, Fortune 500 technology companies and various non-profit organizations. Columbo began writing professionally in 2009.