This blog is part of my series Making Data Tell a Story With SSRS Properties.

Property: WritingMode

The purpose of this property is to allow you to display text horizontally or vertically within a text box or tablix cell.

To access the property, select the text box and go to WritingMode. The options are Horizontal, Vertical, and Rotate270.

Modes

Horizontal: Text will be horizontal, read left to right.

Vertical: Text will be vertical, read top to bottom.

Rotate 270: Text will be vertical, read bottom to top.

Example: I have a product inventory report with several headers. By default, the text displays horizontally.

I change the WritingMode of the column headers to Vertical. The text is read from top to bottom, starting in the top right corner of the cell.

I change the WritingMode of the column headers to Rotate270. The text is read from bottom to top, starting in the lower left corner of the cell.

Further Reading:

Set Text Box Orientation (Report Builder and SSRS)