As you work in Excel, it’s quite helpful to rotate text in a vertical direction downward. By doing so, you can eliminate wide columns, while still displaying the values inside a given cell. Fortunately, Excel has a fast and easy to do exactly that. Let’s learn how to rotate text down in Microsoft Excel.
How to Rotate Text Down in Excel
Rotating text down in Excel is an effect that you can apply to any cell in your workbook. By default, characters are placed in cells in a horizontal, left-to-right position. Rotating text downward, in essence, rotates text clockwise. The first value sits on its right side, with succeeding characters positioned below.
To rotate text down in Excel, click into a cell. The cell can already contain text, or be blank. The new formatting rules will be applied to new or existing text. If you apply the effect to blank cells, any text that you type in will be rotated downward automatically, as you type.
Once you have a cell selected, you’ll need to find and click on the Home tab on Excel’s ribbon. The ribbon is the series of menus and options across the top of your screen, with labels like Home, Insert, Page Layout, and more.
There, find the Orientation dropdown menu. Click on it, and you’ll see several options displayed on it. The one you want is Rotate Text Down. Click it, and you’ll see Excel rotate the selected text downward instantly.
As you can see, it’s easy to rotate text down in Microsoft Excel. It’s an absolutely great way to display text in a stylish way, all while minimizing column width. You can make the adjustment in just a few clicks, and rapidly transform the look and feel of any spreadsheet. Try it any time you need to rearrange your text.