Change text orientation to landscape in Visio

Question

In Microsoft Visio 2007, is there a way to change the text in the boxes so that it is oriented in landscape vs the defaulted portrait orientation? If so, how do I accomplish this? The box shape I am using is called "Interface" and I have it set so that it is a very tall, narrow box.

Answer 1

These steps may help.

First turn on Developer mode, if it isn't already enabled. Instructions are here: http://www.visguy.com/2008/08/04/top-9-reasons-for-turning-on-developer-mode/

Create a shape with some text:

Right-click on the shape and select Show Shapesheet. The screenshot below is from Visio 2010, but the menu item is also available in Visio 2007.

In the Shapesheet window look for a section called Text Block Format and Events. We need to manipulate section called Text Transform. If the section already exists, it will be between Text Block Format and Events. If not, we have to add it.

So right-click anywhere in the ShapSheet window and select Insert Section

Select Text Transform and click OK

Now you'll see the Text Transform section in the ShapeSheet window.

The cell of of interest is called TxtAngle. By default it is set to 0 deg. Change it to 90 deg and the text will change in the shape.

You'll notice that the shape looks a little confused, because we have rotated the text but the text block is still using the unrotated height and width of the shape. This can be addressed by swapping the values of the other cells (TxtWidth & TxtHeight, etc.)