/vtx

vertical text for google spreadsheet

Primary LanguagePHP

VTX

Alt text

Example: http://bit.ly/2ef7gsx

I was quite annoyed to find out the non-feature of Google Sheets, not being able to have rotated vertical text. It makes for cryptic narrow cells. Some people had figured out how to do vertical text with letters stacked atop each other, but I didn't find a way to do rotated text, like you can in Excel. Sometimes, it's the only reason I stick with Excel.

I decided write a quick solution that takes advantage of the Google Seets =image() function, which allows for embeding a URL-referenced image file in a cell.

##Basic Example

http://vtx.rooby.me/?tx=Yo_Vertical

In Google Sheet, add this code to a cell:

=image("http://vtx.rooby.me/?tx=Yo_Vertical",3)

A font and size can also be specified:

=image("http://vtx.rooby.me/?tx=Go_Vertical,_Yo!!!&size=22&font=blue-highway-cd",3)

where, the font can by any one of the fonts in the font directory. Sized defaults to 12 (12 point).

The script generates a transparent PNG so cell background colors will shine through. Note: underscore characters are translated to spaces for tx= falue. But HTML special characters can be used too, I.e.:

http://vtx.rooby.me/?tx=Mother%20Of%20Dragons