# Forcing an Alignment to a Specific Part of the Page

I know how to align these equations along the equal sign. What I want to do is put the equal sign anywhere on the page I want to, as though I was taking the aligned equations and shifting them left or right. Any ideas?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\begin{document}
\begin{align*}
W&=\frac{4}{3}\cdot\rho_w\cdot L_s\int\displaylimits_1^3(3-x)xdx\\
W&=78480J\int\displaylimits_1^3(3x-x^2)dx\\
W&=261600J
\end{align*}
\end{document}

• just left or right? go the ugly way and add \hspaces to one equation (or any other horizontal spacing, e.g. \quad )
– Bort
Jul 27 '15 at 9:06
• Welcome to TeX.SX! You can have a look at our starter guide to familiarize yourself further with our format. Jul 27 '15 at 9:50
• Thanks for all the help. I didn't realize I could do that with \hspace. I'm off! Jul 27 '15 at 16:44

Adding an \hspace before or after the longest align field will shift the whole block 1/2 of the \hspace value. So, in this MWE, after showing the generic align, I add a 2in shift first to the left and then to the right of the longest element. These should result in a net 1" shift of the block.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\begin{document}
\begin{align*}
W&=\frac{4}{3}\cdot\rho_w\cdot L_s\int\displaylimits_1^3(3-x)xdx\\
W&=78480J\int\displaylimits_1^3(3x-x^2)dx\\
W&=261600J
\end{align*}
\begin{align*}
\hspace{2in}W&=\frac{4}{3}\cdot\rho_w\cdot L_s\int\displaylimits_1^3(3-x)xdx\\
W&=78480J\int\displaylimits_1^3(3x-x^2)dx\\
W&=261600J
\end{align*}
\begin{align*}
W&=\frac{4}{3}\cdot\rho_w\cdot L_s\int\displaylimits_1^3(3-x)xdx\hspace{2in}\\
W&=78480J\int\displaylimits_1^3(3x-x^2)dx\\
W&=261600J
\end{align*}

\end{document}


As seen in the result, enhanced with the PDF measuring tool, the left/right shifts are as predicted.

Here is a solution useing parbox

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\begin{document}\begin{align*}
W&=\frac{4}{3}\cdot\rho_w\cdot L_s\int\displaylimits_1^3(3-x)xdx\\
W&=78480J\int\displaylimits_1^3(3x-x^2)dx\\
W&=261600J
\end{align*}

\hspace{5cm}\parbox{\textwidth}{%
\begin{align*}
W&=\frac{4}{3}\cdot\rho_w\cdot L_s\int\displaylimits_1^3(3-x)xdx\\
W&=78480J\int\displaylimits_1^3(3x-x^2)dx\\
W&=261600J
\end{align*}}

\hspace{-5cm}\parbox{\textwidth}{%
\begin{align*}
W&=\frac{4}{3}\cdot\rho_w\cdot L_s\int\displaylimits_1^3(3-x)xdx\\
W&=78480J\int\displaylimits_1^3(3x-x^2)dx\\
W&=261600J
\end{align*}}
\end{document}