# Left align (to the page) displayed math

How can I left align the display math environment (either  or \[)? I keep running into people asking about the align environment; but I just want to change displayed math from center to left align relative to the page. - I saw that style in a book and like it, since I did not have to look all over the page width for the formulas, but found them on the left side as well. Is there something I should keep in mind, when I use this style? – queueoverflow Oct 23 '12 at 13:13 ## 1 Answer You can use flalign from the amsmath package: ## Note: • The showframe package was used just to be able to see where the text is relative to the page margins. ## Code: \documentclass{article} \usepackage{showframe} \usepackage{amsmath} \begin{document} \begin{flalign*} e & = mc ^2 &\\% Note the trailing & which is required to equations to the left F & = ma \end{flalign*} \end{document}  Alternatively, if you want all equations left aligned, you can use the package option fleqn as in \documentclass[fleqn]{article} which will align them towards the left. The indentation is controlled by \mathindent, so you could use \setlength{\mathindent}{0pt} if you wanted to eliminate that. ## Code: \documentclass[fleqn]{article} \usepackage{showframe} \usepackage{amsmath} \setlength{\mathindent}{0pt} \begin{document} \begin{align*} e & = mc ^2 \\ F & = ma \end{align*} \end{document}  - I don't get it - that's exactly what OP said he wants to avoid in question: I keep running into people asking about the align environment; but I just want to change displayed math from center to left align relative to the page. I think he means to align all displaymath (using ) left. I know this thread is old, but that's what I was looking for when entered this page through google. –  trakos Feb 9 '14 at 22:53
@trakos: I am not sure what you mean. The OP wanted to "left align the display math environment", which is what this answer does. I suggest you post a new question detailing what you want, and you can reference this question if it is relevant. Please do include a MWE including \documentclass and the appropriate packages that sets up the problem. –  Peter Grill Feb 9 '14 at 23:00