Changing Orientation of a Text Box

Summary: Do you need to rotate a text box by ninety degrees? Unfortunately you cannot do this in Word, but you can change the apparent orientation of a text box by modifying its size. This tip explains the easiest way to make the change. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

Once a text box has been added to your document, you may want to rotate it and thereby change its orientation. Unfortunately, Word does not allow you to rotate a text box. Instead, you must resize the text box to achieve the desired effect. You can do that by using the handles that appear on the text box when you select it, but a more precise way is by following these steps:

Right-click on the text box. This displays a Context menu.
Choose the Format Text Box option from the Context menu. Word displays the Format Text Box dialog box.
Make sure the Size tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.) (Note that the Rotation control on the Size tab is grayed out. You cannot use this control with text boxes; it is only available with AutoShapes.)
Make note of the height and width settings for the text box.
Switch the height and width settings by typing them into the appropriate boxes on the dialog box.
Click on OK.

Notice that the rotation (resizing) of the text box does not result in the rotation of text within the text box. Instead, the text is simply reformatted to the new text box dimensions.

Tip #965 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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