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No rotation handle on text box

Anonymous
2011-11-29T21:49:05+00:00

To type a bit of text on an angle in Word 2010, I entered it into a text box, presuming I could then rotate the text box to the desired angle.  However, the text box has no 'green ball' rotation handle.  Why not?

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Stefan Blom 340.7K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2011-11-30T00:08:40+00:00

Sorry, I missed the fact that you are working in the *.doc format which doesn't support rotating text boxes. Thank you for the follow-up.

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-11-29T23:34:44+00:00

    I think I found the anwer to my question.  I was working in compatibility mode (.doc instead of .docx).  Apparently rotation of text boxes is not possible in older versions of Word.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-01-28T03:16:55+00:00

    I know this string is old, but here's my updated work around.  I have office 365 and you can't rotate a text box anymore. I don't want to use the "word art" feature because I don't want to mess around with font changes and so forth.  I want the upside down text to have the same format as the right side up text and that isn't very easy to do now that the rotation feature is so buried (if it even exists at all - I've never found it anyway.)  I don't know why Microsoft insists on fixing things that aren't broken, especially usable features like rotating text...but...

    Anyway, my work around:

    1.  Create a separate word file with just the text you want to rotate.  Make sure its formatted exactly how you want it.  
    2. PDF the word file.
    3. Once in PDF, use the PDF tools under "Documents" to rotate your PDF and crop your document to the size of your text.
    4. Save as a JPEG
    5. Insert your JPEG back into your original Word doc using "Insert, Picture" feature.  Then move your image around, rotate, justify, resize it how you want.

    You could also do something similar by using PowerPoint.  Same concept...different program.  A hassle to go through the extra steps, but it works.  I do this a lot to work around problems in Word and "force" Word to do what I want.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-11-29T23:57:21+00:00

    Thanks, Stefan.  I did as you suggested but there is still no handle for rotation, and the Rotate options in the Arrange group of Text Box Tools on the ribbon are greyed out.

    I found a work-around by saving the .doc version as .docx, rotating the text box, capturing the screen image, and then pasting it into the .doc version as a picture.

    Why not just create the document in the .docx mode you might well ask.  The answer to that is that I also wanted to use WordArt of the type that's available in Word 93-97 but not apparently in Word 2010.  Unless I'm missing something, WordArt in 2010 does not offer the interesting text configurations that 93-97 has (sloping, curved, etc.)

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-11-19T19:41:05+00:00

    In you want to rotate text but retain the ability to change it: one way is to rotate the text in an Excel spreadsheet cell, then copy the cell. Finally, 'Paste Special' into Word, selecting 'Microsoft Office Excel Worksheet Object'. The box you have created remains a tiny spreadsheet.

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