How to Type Vertically in Word

A few different methods depending on what you actually need — here’s how each works

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“Typing vertically in Word” means different things depending on what you’re trying to achieve — text running down the side of a page, individual letters stacked on top of each other, or text rotated 90 degrees in a table cell or text box.

Word supports all of these but through different features.

Here’s how to accomplish each one.

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Vertical Text in a Text Box (Rotated 90 Degrees)

This is what most people mean when they want vertical text — text that reads top to bottom running along a margin, a sidebar, or a design element. The text itself is normal horizontal text that’s been rotated.

Method 1: Insert a Text Box and Rotate It

Go to Insert → Text Box → Draw Text Box. Click and drag to draw a text box anywhere on the page. Type your text inside it.

With the text box selected, go to Format → Text Direction in the Shape Format tab. Select Rotate All Text 90° or Rotate All Text 270° depending on which direction you want. The text rotates within the box.

Alternatively, right-click the text box border and select Format Shape → Text Options → Text Box → Text Direction for the same options.

Method 2: Use the Layout Options

With a text box selected, look for the Text Direction button in the Shape Format tab → Text group. Click it to cycle through horizontal, rotated 90 degrees clockwise, and rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise.

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Vertical Text in a Table Cell

Word tables support vertical text natively — useful for column headers in narrow tables where horizontal text would require very wide columns.

Click inside the table cell where you want vertical text. Go to the Layout tab (the Table Layout tab, not the Page Layout tab) and click Text Direction in the Alignment group. Each click cycles through the available text directions:

• Horizontal (default)
• Rotated 90° (reading bottom to top)
• Rotated 270° (reading top to bottom)

The cell height adjusts to accommodate the rotated text. You can resize the cell manually to control how much space the vertical text takes up.

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Stacked Vertical Text (Letters on Top of Each Other)

If you want each letter on its own line rather than rotated text — spelling a word downward with one letter per line — this is simply a formatting choice rather than a Word feature.

Type each letter followed by Enter to put them on separate lines. To keep them properly spaced and aligned, format the paragraph spacing to remove extra space between lines:

Select all the stacked letters. Go to Home → Line and Paragraph Spacing → Remove Space Before Paragraph and Remove Space After Paragraph. Also set line spacing to Single or Exactly with a specific point size matching your font size.

For a cleaner result, put the stacked letters in a text box so they can be positioned independently of the main document text.

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Vertical Text in a Header or Footer

For text running vertically in a margin — like a confidentiality notice or document label along the side of a page — a text box placed in the header or footer area persists across pages and doesn’t interfere with the main document flow.

Double-click in the header area to enter header editing mode. Go to Insert → Text Box → Draw Text Box and draw a box in the margin area. Type your text, then apply rotation via Format → Text Direction as described above. Position the text box in the margin using drag or the Position settings in the Shape Format tab.

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Vertical Text Using WordArt

WordArt provides additional text direction options including vertical stacking with individual letters upright rather than rotated.

Go to Insert → WordArt and select a style. Type your text. With the WordArt selected, go to Shape Format → Text Direction and look for Vertical as one of the options. This stacks letters vertically while keeping each letter upright — useful for spine text on book designs and similar decorative applications.

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Changing Page Orientation for a Section

If you need an entire page or section to run vertically — essentially rotating the page to landscape for a specific section — this is a section break and orientation change rather than vertical text.

Go to the page where you want the change. Go to Layout → Breaks → Next Page to insert a section break. Then go to Layout → Orientation → Landscape while the cursor is in that section. Page setup changes apply only to the current section when section breaks are in place.

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A Quick Reference by Use Case

What You Want	How to Do It
Text rotated sideways in a text box	Insert Text Box → Format → Text Direction
Vertical text in a table column header	Click table cell → Layout tab → Text Direction
Letters stacked vertically, one per line	Type each letter + Enter, remove paragraph spacing
Decorative vertical text	Insert → WordArt → Text Direction → Vertical
Vertical margin label across all pages	Text box in header area with rotation applied
Entire page turned sideways	Section break + Orientation change to Landscape

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The Bottom Line

The most common need — text running vertically along a side or in a design element — is handled through a text box with Text Direction applied. Insert the text box, type your content, and rotate it through the Format tab.

For table column headers, the Layout tab’s Text Direction button does it directly without needing a text box at all.

Stacked letters one per line is purely a line break approach — no special feature needed, just Enter between each character with tight paragraph spacing.

Word doesn’t type vertically by default — you tell it to rotate or stack through text boxes, table settings, or WordArt, depending on the effect you need.