How to rotate a table in Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is one of the best productivity apps available. You can do many things with Word. But when it comes to turntables, it’s no brainer.

This article will show you how to rotate any table in Microsoft Word. Read on to find out.

How to create a table in Microsoft Word

Before we move on to rotating a table, if you haven’t already done so, we’ll show you how to create one in Word. To create a table in Word:

1. Open Microsoft Word on your PC and select Empty document to create a new document.
2. Choose insertion menu from the menu bar > Insert table.
3. Enter the number of rows and columns you want your table to have and tap OK.
4. Alternatively, you can hover your cursor over the table structure provided to select the table rows and columns, and left click to insert the table.

You should now have a table ready. If not, check out our tips for creating perfect tables in Microsoft Word. And if you need to create more complicated tables, use Microsoft Word’s Draw Table feature instead.

How to rotate a table in Microsoft Word

Once you have your table ready, there are three ways to rotate the table in Word. But none of these methods are an official way to change table alignment in Word.

1. By changing the text direction

An easy way to rotate your table in Word is to use the built-in text direction feature. It’s not an official way to change the table orientation, but it can be an easy way if you want to flip your table.

1. Select the entire table by hovering over it and pressing the four-way arrow that appears at the top.

2. Select the layout Tab from the top menu bar.

3. Beat text direction from the toolbar. Word rotates all table text 90 degrees clockwise. Another tip on text direction rotates the text from 90 degrees to 180 degrees and so on.

As you may have noticed text direction does not give you full autonomy in which angles to turn your table. Also, it doesn’t rotate the table itself, only the text within it.

To achieve full autonomy we need to use a workaround. That brings us to method number two.

2. Converting a table into an image

Unlike the text direction method, the image method gives you much more freedom to rotate your table. The main problem with this method is that you cannot edit the table after converting it to an image.

1. Open your Word document with a table.
2. Select the entire table by hovering over it and tapping quadruple arrow Button.
3. Right-click anywhere in the table and select Copy. Alternatively you can use Ctrl+C for Windows or Cmd+C for Mac to copy the table. Here is a comprehensive list of Microsoft Word shortcuts.
4. Delete the original table.
5. Tap in the same place in the document where the original table was.
6. Right-click and select picture (represented as a clipboard with an image) below paste options.

   The table is now inserted as an image. With a picture table, it’s pretty easy to rotate at will.

7. Tap on the image to select it and place your cursor over the rotate icon at the top of the table.

8. Shut left mouse button on the mouse, and then move your table to rotate it to your preferred orientation.

3. Using Microsoft Excel

If you use Word, you most likely also use Excel. So, in the third and final method, we’re going to use Excel to rotate your spreadsheet in Word.

1. Copy your table into Microsoft Word.
2. Open Microsoft Excel and create a new document by selecting Empty workbook.
3. Include your spreadsheet Ctrl+V or Command+V.

4. Copy your pasted table into Excel.
5. Click in an empty cell and right-click. A pop-up menu will appear.
6. Choose Transpose under paste options. If you can’t find the Transpose option under paste optionsgo to Insert special > Transpose.

   The Transpose option rotates the table from portrait to landscape.

7. Next, Copy the transposed table and paste it in your Word document.

Transform your tables in Word

If you want to rotate your tables in Microsoft Word, this tutorial is for you. Depending on what you want to do, you can choose one of the three methods.

The Excel trick just rotates your spreadsheets to landscape, but you get more freedom by using the image option. Hopefully Microsoft Word will add a native option to rotate tables, which should make the process a lot easier.

This article was previously published on Source link