Align or rotate text in a cell

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If you want to change the way data appears in a cell, you can rotate the font angle, or change the text alignment.

Change the orientation of text in a cell

1. Select a cell, row, column, or a range.

2. Select Home > Orientation  , and then select an option.

   You can rotate your text up, down, clockwise, or counterclockwise, or align text vertically:

   

Rotate text to a precise angle

1. Select a cell, row, column, or a range.

2. Select Home > Orientation   > Format Cell Alignment.

3. Under Orientation on the right side, in the Degrees box, use the up or down arrow to set the exact number of degrees that you want to rotate the selected cell text.

   Positive numbers rotate the text upward. Negative numbers rotate the text downward. 

Align a column or row

Begin by selecting the cell or cells you want to align. You can align text in a single cell, a range of cells, a row or rows, a column or columns, or the entire worksheet. (Use Ctrl+A to select all cells.)

1. Select the cells you want to align.

2. On the Home tab, in the Alignment group, select a horizontal alignment option:

   Align Left

   Center

   Align Right

3. On the Home tab, in the Alignment group, select a vertical alignment option:

   Top Align

   Middle Align

   Bottom Align

Rotate text

We're sorry. Excel for the web doesn't have the font orientation option for you to apply vertical text or rotate text in an angle.

To express your interest in having this feature in Excel for the web, please go to the Visio Suggestion Box and click the Vote button. 

If you have the Excel desktop application, you can use it to open your workbook and rotate text there.

Align text

The alignment options let you define the placement of text within a cell on the horizontal axis and on the vertical axis.

1. Select a cell, row, column, or a range.

2. On the Home tab, in the Alignment section, select an alignment option:

3. Top Align	Middle Align	Bottom Align
   Align Left	Center	Align Right

Indent text

You can indent text or undo an indent.

1. Select a cell, row, column, or a range.

2. On the Home tab, in the Alignment section, select an indent option:

   • Increase Indent  shifts text rightward.

   • Decrease Indent  shifts text leftward.

If you want to change the way data appears in a cell, you can rotate the font angle, or change the text alignment.

Change the orientation of text in a cell

1. Select a cell, row, column, or a range.

2. Select Home > Orientation  , and then select an option.

   You can rotate your text up, down, clockwise, or counterclockwise, or align text vertically:

   

Rotate text to a precise angle

1. Select a cell, row, column, or a range.

2. Select Home > Orientation   > Format Cell Alignment.

3. Under Orientation on the right side, in the Degrees box, use the up or down arrow to set the exact number of degrees that you want to rotate the selected cell text.

   Positive numbers rotate the text upward. Negative numbers rotate the text downward. 

Align a column or row

Begin by selecting the cell or cells you want to align. You can align text in a single cell, a range of cells, a row or rows, a column or columns, or the entire worksheet. (Use ⌘+A to select all cells.)

1. Select the cells you want to align.

2. On the Home tab, select a horizontal alignment option:

   Align Left

   Center

   Align Right

3. On the Home tab, select a vertical alignment option:

   Top Align

   Middle Align

   Bottom Align

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community or get support in the Answers community.

See Also

Change the format of a cell

Select cell contents

Format text in cells

Format numbers

Format a date the way you want