Use vertical text

Numbers supports vertical text in shapes and text boxes, so you can enter and edit text from top to bottom, such as in Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Each new line appears to the left of the one before it.

To use vertical text, your spreadsheet must be formatted for Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, or you must have at least one of these languages on your device’s preferred language list. To learn more, see Create a spreadsheet with the formatting of a different language and Change a spreadsheet’s language and formatting.

Add vertical text to a text box or shape

You can turn vertical text on or off in text boxes and shapes at any time.

  1. Control-click the object you want to use vertical text.

  2. Choose Turn On Vertical Text.

    If the object already contains text, it becomes vertical and any additional text you add is vertical. If the object didn’t already contain text, any text you add is vertical.

  3. To make the text horizontal again, Control-click the object, then choose Turn Off Vertical Text.

Fit characters horizontally in vertical text

You can fit two to four characters horizontally within vertical text. This is useful for writing a few Latin characters, such as numbers, so they can be read from left to right.

  1. While writing vertical text, select two to four characters you want to rotate.

  2. In the Text tab of the Format  sidebar, select the Advanced options checkbox, then choose Rotate to Horizontal.

    When editing the horizontal characters, you can make all of the characters bold, italic, and so on, but you can’t edit the individual characters separately.

If you want the horizontal characters to appear vertically again, delete the characters and reenter them.

Make characters full width

You can change text to full-width, upright characters.

  1. Select the vertical text you want to make full width.

  2. In the Numbers menu bar at the top of your screen, choose Edit > Transformations > Make Characters Full Width.

Tips for using vertical text

Here are a few things to keep in mind about using vertical text in your spreadsheet:

See alsoFormat a spreadsheet for another languageUse bidirectional textFormat tables and sheets for bidirectional textFormat Chinese, Japanese, or Korean textUse phonetic guidesUse accents and special characters