Can I rotate the display orientation in Word?

  • Thread starter Austin W. Fergusson
  • Start date
A

Austin W. Fergusson

Can I rotate the display orientation in Word by 90 degrees so that a long
page can be displayed for reading ease?
 
J

Jay Freedman

That will be a function of your monitor and its display driver, if it's
available at all. Word neither knows nor cares about the monitor's
orientation.

In the Windows Control Panel, open the Display icon and go to the Settings
tab. Click the Advanced button. Look through the tabs in that dialog for
anything related to rotation or orientation.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.
 
J

jrr

I suppose this answer is technically correct, but it illustrates a limitation
with the Word software. Adobe acrobat reader, and Frame Maker, as well as
other applications allow you to rotate the displayed page without relying on
monitor functionality.

Not all monitors support rotation, and document writers often rotate
landscape images to portrait so it meshes with the rest of the document.

This is functionality that word SHOULD have, but is lacking.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

I'm not seeing any of the previous messages in this thread, but I gather you
want to *see* a landscape page rotated to portrait orientation? Why? You can
certainly rotate the page for printing, but even Print Preview will display
a page that is readable, so you don't have to turn your head sideways to
look at it.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
 
J

jrr

We have technical documents with board layouts. These are Vizio images, not
Word images that are landscape images.

These images have been placed into the word document.

These image have been rotated 90 degrees from landscape mode to portrait
mode to fit on the portrait page in the word doc. Why this is done? I don't
know. The rest of the document is fine, its just these few images that are
embedded in the document.

So I want to have word rotate the page display from portrait to landscape,
so I can view the image on the word page in its normal format.

The options I have are to print the page and then rotate it for viewing --
which wastes paper, and requires hard copy. Or convert it to a PDF and then
use acrobat reader to rotate the page for reading. Which is an annoying waste
of time when this is something that Word should support -- given that
competing applications support it.
 
T

Terry Farrell

You could request this feature to be considered in future versions. But the
simple reason why you cannot do that in Word is because Word is a wysiwyg
word processor and if the page is in portrait, it displays it in that
orientation regardless of contents.

A simple answer would be to use the free Office PDF add-in to save the
document as a PDF and use Acrobat Reader to view the document. I have to
admit that I used to criticise Acrobat Reader for being so large and
unwieldy, but in its latest versions, it has really great print functions
that are far better than Word has. I frequently save an A4 document to PDF
and use AR to print it as an A5 booklet.
 
J

jrr

Hi Terry,

Being a WYSWIG word processors does not impose a limitation like this. Or at
least it shouldn't I say this based on the premise that FrameMaker is also a
WYSWIG word processor and FM has this ability.

We are currently using the PDF solution, but that is a hassle, and we have
found other problems with the word->PDF conversions. Things don't always
convert correctly -- at least unless we are using the official acrobat
acrobate professional tool -- but then that causes more licensing costs for
our users.
 
T

Terry Farrell

FM does not need a printer (driver) in order to layout a document. FM is a
true page layout publishing application: Word is just a word processor that
relies on interrogating the printer driver to ensure that it lays out the
page as it will be printed. So although I understand your argument, it isn't
true of Word. Word just cannot do what the printer driver won't let it do
which is often a problem.

Terry
 
J

jrr

Nuts!

I think I understand your answer. I don't LIKE it, but I think understand it.

But then I ask, why would converting to PDF work? Is it because the PDF
version is a page layout?
 
T

Terry Farrell

The main attributes of PDF is that is totally independent of the printer and
looks the same regardless of which computer you use to view it or which
printer you use to print it. PDF And Adobe have exploited the printing
options in AR exceptionally well. I find myself frequently switching to PDF
and AR to print what Word cannot.

Terry
 

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