Rotate Text for Effect

SUMMARY: Make header cells in an Excel 2010 worksheet stand out by rotating text.

To draw attention to certain text inside a Microsoft Excel 2010 worksheet, such as the headers of a table, you might consider rotating the text. You can rotate text any degree or display text vertically.

1. Select a cell that you would like to rotate.

2. Click the “Home” tab in the Ribbon.

3. In the “Alignment” section, click the “Orientation” button – it looks like the letters “ab” rotated and an arrow underneath them. See the below screenshot:

Rotating text inside a cell in an Excel 2010 worksheet

4. A pop-up menu appears; choose from the following choices:

* Angle Counterclockwise (45 degrees)
* Angle Clockwise (45 degrees)
* Vertical Text (Stackes the characters of a cell on top of each other)
* Rotate Text Up (90 degrees)
* Rotate Text Down (90 degrees)

If you want more control over the degree of rotation, click the “Format Cell Alignment” option. This opens the “Format Cells” dialog box to the “Alignment” tab.

You can either enter the number of degrees to rotate in the box next to “Degrees”, or click on anywhere in the half-circle underneath “Orientation” to visually choose your angle. Or, if you decide you want to stack the text vertically, click the box labeled “Text” with stacked letters next to the semi-circle.

When done, click “OK” to close the dialog box.