Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Changing Table Cell Text Direction.

Changing Table Cell Text Direction

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 21, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365

Word allows you to quickly change the direction in which the text in a cell faces. For instance, you may want the text to be vertical instead of horizontal. You can change text direction by following these steps:

Right-click your mouse on the cell whose text direction you want to change. A Context menu appears.
Choose Text Direction from the Context menu. The Text Direction dialog box appears. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Text Direction dialog box.

Select the Orientation you want used for your text.
When satisfied, click on OK.

You can also do the same task using the Layout tab of the ribbon. Follow these steps:

Position the insertion point in the cell whose orientation you want to change.
Make sure that the Layout tab of the ribbon is displayed. (Be careful—there are two layout tabs. You want the second Layout tab, the one for tables. It appears only when you perform step 1.)
Click the Text Direction tool in the Alignment group on the ribbon. Word changes the orientation of the text in the cell.
Continue clicking on the Text Direction tool until the orientation is exactly as you want it.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (5978) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Changing Table Cell Text Direction.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Browsing by Heading

The Object Browser can be a great (albeit underused) way of navigating through your document. One handy way to move about ...

Discover More

Printing Reports

The Report Manager allows you to create specialized reports that can be easily printed from your worksheet data. This tip ...

Discover More

Problems Using Words as Bullets

If you know the secret, you can use actual words as "bullets" in a bulleted list. The built-in bulleted lists in Word ...

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Cannot Combine Two Tables

When working with tables, a common editing task is to combine two tables into one. Sometimes, though, you may run into ...

Discover More

Counting Values in Table Cells

In Excel it is easy to count how many times a certain character occurs in a column of cells. In Word, it is a bit ...

Discover More

Displaying Table Gridlines

For those times when you remove the borders from your tables, Word provides a way that you can display non-printing ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is 0 + 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.