Can the alignment property be used in a text format to specify columns?

[Roger L Costello]

Hi Folks,

Suppose that a data format about fruits has data like this:

orange          orange          tree
banana          yellow          tree
raspberry       red             bush
                             
There are 3 columns. The data for the first column starts in column 1. The data 
for the second column starts in column 30. The data for the third column starts 
in column 60.

Can this data format be specified using the alignment property?

I've always thought that the alignment property was exclusively for binary data 
formats, but if it can be used to describe columnar text data formats, that 
would be pretty cool.

/Roger