Rotating Text in Excel With an AutoShape

If you use Excel's AutoShapes, you've probably discovered a limitation: If you add text to an AutoShape, the text is not rotated when the AutoShape is rotated.

Here's one way to circumvent that problem:

  • Create your AutoShape, add text, and format it to your liking.
  • Ctrl+Click the AutoShape to select it. Pressing Ctrl ensures that you select the AutoShape itself, not the text inside.
  • Press Shift, and choose Edit - Copy Picture. This command is available only when the Shift key is pressed.
  • In the Copy Picture dialog box, choose As shown on screen, and Picture. Click OK.
  • Choose Edit - Paste

The result is a picture of the AutoShape. But, unlike the AutoShape, the text is also rotated when the AutoShape is rotated.

The only potential problem with this technique is that you can no longer edit the text or modify the formatting of the graphic.

Option 2

Another option is to delete the text from your AutoShape, and use WordArt for the text. Then you can group these two objects (the WordArt and the AutoShape). After doing so, both objects will rotated together.

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