Sunday, December 16, 2007

How do I rotate text in Pages?

As there is no support for vertical text, the only way to rotate text in Pages is to use text boxes.

To do that, click once on the textbox, so it gets eight white diamonds to grab for resizing.

Then hold down the command key and hover the mouse over one of the diamonds. The mouse pointer turns into a bent double arrow, which you can use to rotate the text box.

To rotate in exact multiples of 45 degrees, hold down shift and command at the same time as you rotate.

If you want more precise control of the rotation, you can go to the Inspector > Metrics (the ruler symbol) and then type a value in the field for Angle.

62 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much! This was super helpful!

Anonymous said...

Thanks Mate

Anonymous said...

GREAT REVIEW 100 OUT OF 100, I'm new to mac so this is great thanks for the help. mack rocks.

Anonymous said...

Just bought a mac, that helped instantly so thanks!

Anonymous said...

AWESOME...thanks for the helpful information!

Anonymous said...

Thank you that was really helpful.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, I never would have figured it out myself.

Anonymous said...

I love you. Thank you!

Unknown said...

Great for office rats, which do not use indesign or illustrator :) Thanx a lot!

Anonymous said...

GREAT job! That was very very helpful <3

Carla Ulbrich, The Singing Patient said...

thanks for the help!

Elpis said...

Thanks. I don't understand why Apple don't fix this problem and give us text direction in Pages.

Unknown said...

Ah, thank you SO MUCH. You just saved my Sociology project from design death.

Anonymous said...

saved my skin at work! thank you thank you thank you!

Anonymous said...

It worked perfectly! THANK YOUUU :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you! I have never been able to figure this out...

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much!!

Jonathan Pearson said...

This was a big help. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much it was simple and easy and it worked!!!!

Anonymous said...

I just tried that but it still won't work...? I'm holding down the command key but the arrow isn't changing when I hover over the resize diamonds and it still won't let me rotate my text... I'm positive I have the text box selected, so what can I try now?

heidi F said...

for anonymous 1/27/11
Do all of th above and when you go to rotate hold command & left click.

Christy said...

I was just trying to figure this out today, so THANK YOU!!

Hannah said...

Helpful! Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much I would have never figured this out!

ebony said...

thanks! there is no way i would have figured that out!

Anonymous said...

thank u so much

tiffini said...

Thanks so much for this info, I knew it could be done! Just look at what can be done with a little ingenuity! Thanks again!

Anonymous said...

thanks a lot !!!!

Stuart said...

Do you know if its possible to rotate multiple boxes at the same time?

Magnus Lewan said...

Stuart, highlight all text boxes with shift-click. Then use the inspector method, as described in the last paragraph, and set the rotation angle to 90 or 270. All highligthed text boxes will rotate at the same time.

Tim Myers said...

This was VERY helpful. Thank you
Is it possible to rotate a single letter in a word through ay 90° or 180° ? -
If not. Can anyone recommend a design programme simpler/cheaper than InDesign that will allow rotating individual letters
(making a text box plays havoc with the letter spacing !
TM

Magnus Lewan said...

Tim, to rotate individual characters 180˚, you may be better off using other unicode characters, like zʎxʍʌnʇsɹbdouɯlʞɾıɥƃɟǝpɔqɐ. They do not exist in all fonts, but you could search for fonts that match.

Marie-Louise Wagner said...

Thanks a lot! I just made an invitation for my next exhibition and wanted to print the addresses "up-side-down". Your rotating solution showed up number one in google (great job!) so I picked yours and it worked great!

Anonymous said...

Thank you!!! I never would have figured this out on my own!!!!

shell said...

Thank you! saved me!

Derr Luk said...

Thank you for the SUCCINCT how-to!

Anonymous said...

Very helpful!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a Million!
leave it to apple to make it easy!
your post was helpful!

Anonymous said...

OMG Thanks so much!!!

Anonymous said...

Can this be done within a table cell?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this. It helped me make a cool graph.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to rotate the TEXT - not just the box but the actual words in the box. I can't believe my beloved Mac is letting me down and my crappy PC at work has a word art programme that makes it so easy.

Can anyone please tell me how to make my text run from bottom to top of a page?

Thank you.

Unknown said...

This helped a lot! Thanks.

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU! FINALLY, AN ANSWER!

Anonymous said...

thanks a lot this was extremely helpful ive been looking everywhere on the internet for an answer thanks!

Anonymous said...

Such an easy answer, don't know why it was impossible to find in Pages!

Anonymous said...

hey guys! another question: what if I need to rotate text within the table? for some reason I can't even place the text box inside..

Anonymous said...

Thanks, SO AWESOME!

Rebecca said...

Thank you...I never ever would have figured this out!

Anonymous said...

Thanks a TON. Super helpful.

Anonymous said...

from me too - wonderfully clear
thank you, I am deeply grateful
T

Anonymous said...

thanx alot

ilikecorn500 said...

I'm great with Macs and didn't know this. Thanks a bunch!

Anonymous said...

Ditto

Lisa Greenfelder said...

Thank you so Much!!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you!!! I have been trying to figure this out for forever!!! Thanks :))

Anonymous said...

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Thanks this has saved me sooo much time!

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much! I should have asked sooner. This was a great help!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much! I looked under help in Pages and nothing showed. Just learned something new. Again thanks!

Unknown said...

thanks!

Anonymous said...

Amazing Idea, Superb!