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I have a word 2007 document in portrait mode. I have a table that is too wide to fit in 8.5" but would fit in 11". Is there a way to make just one page landscape? Or alternately is there a way to rotate a table 90 degrees?

11 Answers 11

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Yes, you can. Insert a section break before and after the page you want to turn to landscape and then you can use page layout on that page only. Also, here is another approach using margins.

In general, section breaks in Word are a good way to change any of the settings that you usually think of as global to your document. For example, you can use section breaks to change the way page numbers work in the middle of the document, to change margins, orientation, and more.

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  • This doesn't work if you want to save your document as a PDF as each section gets generated as a different PDF.
    – slayton
    Apr 5, 2013 at 20:54
  • 2023 Update: Word 365 correctly translates sections breaks, including those with portrait-to-landscape layout changes.
    – cb4
    Mar 28, 2023 at 18:53
12

Here’s a method that works in Word 2010, but I don’t see a reason for it to not work in Word 2007.

Insert a text box (Insert > Text Box > Simple Text Box).

Delete the default text, and insert a table. You should resize the text box to suit.

When you’re done, click on the text box and you should get the normal box sizing controls including a green Rotation handle. Drag that rotation handle round in the direction you wish, and it’ll snap to a 90° angle.

Then right-click on the border, and choose More Layout Options… and in the Text Wrapping tab choose “In line with text”. The whole object should then behave nicely when the surrounding text changes.

Also, while you’re at it, go to Table Properties and indent from the left by a couple of mm, which should make the table sit nicely on the text box margins. Oh, and remove the text box border too.

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  • 5
    This should be the accepted answer. It's the easiest solution, does not need to mess with broken header/footer when doing section-break + orientation change workaround, and it also allows proper centering via "position".
    – fabb
    Feb 26, 2013 at 11:10
  • This doesn't work; I don't get any rotation options. They're greyed out.
    – slhck
    Jun 11, 2015 at 10:55
  • Text box in word is a slice of hell with rotations.
    – Minnow
    Aug 7, 2015 at 13:59
  • This worked in Word 365, but only for a table that is one page or less in size. I had longer tables with the same header row at the top of each page. Easiest was to insert each page as a separate image.
    – cb4
    Mar 28, 2023 at 18:48
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I figured it out. You can copy the table in excel. Do a paste special with Transpose turned on. Then copy the transposed table over to Word. Finally, you can change the text orientation of the table to the text is rotated 90 degrees.

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You want to rotate a table in word? its easy! :)

You can do teh following:

Copy paste:

  1. Copy your table, paste to Excel

  2. Copy your data (table) in Excel

  3. Go to new sheet, then right click, select Paste Special..., tick to select Transpose, ok

Flip table:

  1. Insert new column at leftest(A), type 1,2,3,....(in column A)

  2. Arrange table Descending by A (No header row, Z-A)

  3. Delete Column A (we just inserted)

Paste:

  1. Copy data area (table), paste to Word (table will be chaos, don't worry)

  2. Point to menu: Table\select\table, (to select table),>menu Edit\clear\format, >menu Format\text direction

  3. Re-size cell for good looking

  4. Done !

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In my case I wanted to put the table on a 1-page document, with header and footer in portrait mode. So using sections was not an option.

Since the table was from Excel, I used paste-special and selected the Image option. As commented above, it does not allow editing within word, but gives the presentation quality I was looking for.

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  • But quality is poor... Nov 29, 2016 at 9:48
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Print the table from Excel as a .pdf, then insert the .pdf as a photo. You can then position it as you would any other object (with a rotation function).

The downside is you can't edit the table in Word at this point, you have to go back to Excel, edit the table, and re-print to PDF, and then replace the image in Word.

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Paul's instructions above were helpful, except it didn't just "orient" my table, it actually changed the location of my data within the table (my header was in the left column instead of in the top row). But I found a solution. After you "flip" the table, then revers the columns by inserting a temporary row at the top, numbering each cell 1, 2, 3, etc. Then Sort, with no header row, and choose the option to sort left to right instead of top to bottom. Then delete the numbered row you just created.

Past in your document, then re-format the text direction in the table menu.

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IMHO, transpose is not similar to rotation. So the excel's transpose is unlikely the solution. I do prefer the use of different paper orientation by assigning a subset of the document (section) to different paper orientation. Eg. section 1-2 are portrait, section 3 is landscape, section 4 is portrait. You may put your wide table in section 3.

My problem with different orientation is when i use header and/or footer in my document. We can still produce footer and/or header in section 3 in a way such that when we print the whole document and stack all the paper in portrait direction, the footer and/or header of section 3 are at lower and upper (respectively) side of the paper face. However, i find difficulties in making header and/or footer of section 3 to be exactly similar (in size and position) with those of other sections.

FYI i often use table of 1 row and 2 columns (containing chapter title and page number) in footer.

What do you think ?

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Have the cursor on the page before you want to start going to landscape. Then go to Page Layout-Margins. Then click on custom margins. Click on the orientation desired and then go to the bottom left in the apply to and pick the area. Do not for get to change it back when you want to go back to Portrait.

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2014

A bit late, but in Word 2013 you can do screenshot of the table and then reinsert it as a picture, then just rotate the image.

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  • The existing answers include a number of good solutions, including simply rotating the table using a text box. Several others are variations on exporting it to an image format that can be rotated externally or rotated in place as an object. This answer doesn't contribute a new method, nor does it provide any detail on how to accomplish it.
    – fixer1234
    Dec 7, 2014 at 0:48
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the textbox approach may work better than the excel for complex tables, however, after turning 90 degrees, it sees a mirroring operation is required to maintain the top and leftmost edge relationship.

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