How to Rotate Text in Google Sheets [Complete Guide]

In this article, we will learn how to rotate text in google sheets. Rotation of a text can be done for designing, making it more readable, and any other goal you may have. The rotation of text is very easy, and useful. We can rotate a text at the desired angle and make it look in three different ways. We can stack the text vertically, rotate up the text, and rotate down the text. we will see what these options look like when implemented.

Importance of Rotating Text in Google Sheets

To mostly change the headers of our data to stack vertically, down the text, and up the next, we need to know how to rotate text in google sheets. We often want to keep the data normally, the default position of the text is stack horizontally, we need to change the position to stack vertically means up to down, and similarly, we can mirror this sequence and rotate it to go down to up. It is mostly done to improve the design aspect of a table or to ensure the readability of the content. We will learn to do that in every possible way in this article, and we will see all the available options for rotation of text in google sheets.

How to Rotate Text in Google Sheets

From this section, we will explore each option and will see a demo of it. The best way to learn it is to practice each method on dummy data that help you remember the functions of each rotation feature in google sheets. Let’s start with some dummy data.

For this tutorial, I have simple dummy data, some words which I will rotate in many ways to show you how the rotation features work in google sheets

Rotate Text in Google Sheets – Tilt up

From all the given options in the google sheets rotation feature, the first one tilts up. Tilt up tilt the text inside a cell from bottom to top, and its default angle is 45 degrees. We can tilt up the text to make it look different from others and it can be a good design aesthetics.

To tilt up a text inside the cell(s), we need to follow simple steps.

Step 1

Select the cell or cells on which you want to apply the tilt-up rotation

Step 2

Go to Format > Rotation > then Tilt up

Step 3

It will transform your text, and now your selected text is tilted up.

Rotate Text in Google Sheets – Tilt down

The second option in the rotation feature is tilt down. Tilt down and tilt the text inside a cell from top to bottom, its default angle is -45 degrees. The angle can be changed from so many given options. Tilt-down can also be used for improving the design of headers. This feature can also be seen in the x-axis of a chart where the space is less and the entities are more, we call it slanted labels in the context of google sheets charts.

To tilt down your text simply you need the same steps as above.

Step 1

Select the cell(s) you want to tilt down

Step 2

Go to Format > Rotation > Tilt down

Step 3

You’re done, your text is transformed and tilted down

Rotate Text in Google Sheets – Stack Vertically

This is another great option inside the rotation feature, it’s one of the most used rotation features, that stacks the text inside a cell vertically. The normal writing dimension in google sheets, and any application is like English we write left-to-right, and in horizontal orientation. But to make some text of cells look different we can use this rotation feature inside google sheets. This feature transforms the text and now it’s written top to bottom, which means vertically. You can see this type of rotation is mostly used for designing purposes. The text is not rotated in this feature but is simply stacked vertically, so the change here is of orientation, not of angle.

Step 1

To stack the content vertically, first select the cell(s)

Step 2

Go to Format > Rotation > Stack vertically

Step 3

Your text is successfully transformed and now it’s stacked vertically

Note: Using any angle on this feature will remove this stacking, the stacked vertically do not use any angle, so make sure not to use any angle with this feature.

Rotate Text in Google Sheets – Rotate up

This is a simple rotation feature that rotates the overall text to the upside. This is the basic rotation of text that does not change the orientation of the text, which means if its re-rotated, so it will take its original position. The rotated-up text starts from below and goes upside, which means it can read bottom to top, and the default angle is 90 degrees.

Step 1

Select the cell(s)

Step 2

Go to Format > Rotation > click on Rotate up

Step 3

Your text is rotated-up

Rotate Text in Google Sheets – Rotate down

This is another simple and similar rotation feature in google sheets. The rotate down is the exact opposite of rotating up. In this style, the text looks mirrored with the rotation up. The text starts from the top and goes to the bottom, so the angle created is -90 degrees.

Step 1

Select the cell(s) you want to rotate down

Step 2

Go to Format > Rotation > click on Rotate down

Step 3

Your text is rotated downward.

The angle difference between rotate-up and rotate-down is only a minus sign both are at 90 degrees.

How to Rotate Text in Google Sheets – Custom angle

This is an option for controlling the angle of the text which is being rotated or not rotated. We can set any angle for our text, so it means that if we use no rotation feature on it. So, instead, we use a direct angle. Sometimes, users don’t understand the terms like stack-vertically, rotate-down, tilt-up, etc., but they know on which angle the text will look exactly like they want to display. So, it’s an alternative to the given options. We can tilt, or rotate the text using the custom angle feature. But a thing to remember is that we cannot make a text stack vertically by using a custom angle. Because there is no angle involved in the stack vertically feature.

To change the angle of rotation for any of the above except stack vertically, you can follow the below steps

Step 1

Select the cell(s) you want to change the rotation angle

Step 2

Go to Format > Rotation > Custom angle > pick any angle

Step 3

The selected angle will be applied to your selected text.

This is how you can do this; I hope you have understood how to rotate text in google sheets

One more thing I would like to add here is the restore method.

Rotate Text in Google Sheets – Custom Angle

To restore a rotated, tilted, or vertically stacked text, can simply restore it.

Step 1

Select the cell(s) you want to bring back in default writing

Step 2

Go to Format > Rotation > None

Step 3

You’re done. the none option is for restoring the text.

This is how to rotate text in google sheets, and how to restore it.

I hope you find this article helpful.

Download/Copy Google Sheets Workbook

Important Notes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I Rotate Text in Google Docs in the Same Way as in Google Sheets?

Is Cell Padding Necessary When Rotating Text in Google Sheets?

When rotating text in Google Sheets, a common question arises: is cell padding necessary? The answer depends on various factors, including the desired aesthetics and readability of the rotated text. While cell padding may not be essential for all cases, it can enhance legibility by providing space around the rotated text, preventing overlapping or crowding. Experimenting with different settings in the google sheets cell padding option can help in achieving the desired visual balance.

How to quickly rotate text in google sheets?

We can use the built-in google sheets methods to rotate texts or cell content. Go to Format > Rotation > and here you have many options, you can see the effect by seeing the images with every feature. This way you can rotate any text or cell content in google sheets. There is a None option which is used for no rotation, it can also be used as a reset to the default button. Below we have an option which is the custom angle, we can control the angle of the text rotated, or tilted here. The angles can be selected from a negative to a positive scale.

What is Stack vertically in google sheets?

The default text of google sheets is stacked horizontally, which means the stack of words we type in sheets will go left to right just like the English language. But, opposite to this, we have stack vertically which means the words will start from the top and leads to the bottom, the character will be automatically typed below the letter, it can be seen like a line breaking each word.

Conclusion

Wrapping up how to rotate text in google sheets. We have learned how to use the google sheets rotation features to rotate, tilt, and stack our text or any cell content vertically up, or down. We have discussed all the available options, and also, we saw the example of all the features of rotation. We saw custom angles, and why custom angles are not applicable on stack vertically feature. That’s all from how to rotate text in google sheets. I will see you soon with another helpful tutorial, till then take care.

I hope you find this article helpful and that you have learned everything about how to rotate text in google sheets. Thank you for reading. Keep learning with Office Demy.