Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 5, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016
For some printing jobs, you may have a need to print text both rightside-up and upside-down on the same piece of paper. Unfortunately, Word doesn't have a way to easily do this, instead only allowing you to rotate text 90 degrees left or right. (To print something upside down you need to rotate it 180 degrees.)
There are several workarounds you can try, however. First, if the information you have to print upside down is fairly short, you could use WordArt. Your text is actually saved in your document as a graphics object, which Word allows you to rotate freely on the page. The only drawback to this is that WordArt doesn't give you the range of text control that Word does, and it was never meant to handle large selections of text, such as a quarter page or a half page of information.
Another option is to create your text in a different application and then insert it into Word as an object. (This is very similar to the WordArt approach, as you are dealing with non-Word objects within Word.) For instance, you could create a fully rotated text object within PowerPoint and then insert it in your Word document.
If you have access to a graphics program you could also try these steps:
Now you can position your upside-down text anywhere you want. Of course, if you want to make changes to the upside-down text, you can't do so without redoing all these steps. Why? Because the upside-down information is not really text, but a graphic image.
As mentioned earlier, Word allows you to rotate text 90 degrees either left or right. This capability can be utilized to achieve the look that is wanted. Try these general steps:
The result, of course, is that you have text that is 180 degrees in relation to each other, which means it appears upside down when printed. Formatting text using this approach can be a bit challenging, but for some uses it may be an easy way to achieve the desired result.
You could use a similar approach using a text box instead of a table. Follow these steps:
Finally, perhaps the two easiest solutions don't even use Word at all. First, you could use a different program (such as Publisher) that supports upside-down text. Second, you could simply put your paper through the printer twice—once for the rightside-up text and once for the upside-down text. (Of course, you would have to rotate the paper by 180 degrees for each printing pass.)
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8341) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Upside-Down Printing.
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2021-03-08 04:27:13
ERIK EILERTSEN
If you want upside down text and think it will look odd on the Word page then go to PPT and create both sets of text inside a text box. Rotate one through 180degs marry them up then GROUP them and then save them as jpeg or similar that you can then inset on your page. You may have to mess around a bit to get the sizing right. Make sure to remove borders on the text boxes and be sure to create your work on a PORTRAIT orientated PPT page.
This would probably look best if it is justified...??
You may find this hard to do or not possible in older versions of word.
2016-11-26 07:29:22
Doug Frith
I sometimes print cart signs for the golf course I work at. The front of the sign would have the golfers' names and either the hole they're starting on or their tee time while the back has some information the course wants the golfers to know. I prlace the course information in a text box and simply rotate it 180 degrees. When the page is printed, we simply fold it in half and it fits the cart sign holder perfectly. I use Word 2011 for the Mac.
2016-11-26 04:59:39
Ken Endacott
The method of rotating a textbox does not work in Word 2007. Textbox rotation was only introduced in Word 2010.
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