Changing Horizontal Orientation

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 2, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2002 and 2003

For those who use Excel 2002 or Excel 2003 in an international environment, you may be interested in knowing that you can change the horizontal orientation of a worksheet. Normally cell A1 is in the upper-left corner of the worksheet, but you can configure Excel so that cell A1 is in the upper-right corner of any worksheets you create. Follow these steps:

  1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Excel displays the Options dialog box.
  2. Make sure the International tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The International tab of the Options dialog box.

  3. Near the bottom of the dialog box, choose the Right-to-Left radio button.
  4. Click on OK.

The change doesn't affect the workbook you have open, but it does affect any new workbooks you create.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (3038) applies to Microsoft Excel 2002 and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Limiting the Options when Saving as a Copy

Word allows you to save your documents in a wide variety of formats. If you want to limit the formats that are available, ...

Discover More

Printing a Number of Different Pages

If you don't need to print an entire workbook, it can be confusing to figure out how to print just certain pages. This ...

Discover More

Removing Duplicates at a Reduced Precision Level

The precision of numeric values you display in a worksheet can be less than what is actually maintained by Excel. This ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 365 applications with VBA programming. Written in clear terms and understandable language, the book includes systematic tutorials and contains both intermediate and advanced content for experienced VB developers. Designed to be comprehensive, the book addresses not just one Office application, but the entire Office suite. Check out Mastering VBA for Microsoft Office 365 today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Getting Audible Feedback

Want to get a little bit of sound with your data? Excel can provide audible feedback that you may find helpful. Here's how.

Discover More

Selecting Noncontiguous Ranges with the Keyboard

It's easy to select non-contiguous ranges using the mouse, but may seem more daunting if you are simply using the ...

Discover More

Maintaining the Active Cell

Move from one worksheet to another, and Excel selects whatever cell was last used in the worksheet you are selecting. If ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is one less than 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2026 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.