How to reverse text in Word

People usually mean one of three things when they ask how to reverse text in Word. They want the characters in reverse order (Hello becomes olleH), they want the words in reverse order (one two three becomes three two one), or they want the text to look mirrored or upside down for a design. Word handles the third case with a visual effect, but the first two require a workaround.

What Word can and cannot do

Word has no Reverse Text command. It can sort paragraphs, rotate a text box, and apply real bold or italic formatting, but it cannot reverse the characters inside a run of text. The distinction matters because a visual mirror and a reversed string look similar in a screenshot but behave differently when someone copies the text.

• Reversed characters changes the text itself. Hello becomesolleH. This is what the browser tool does.
• Reversed words keeps the letters intact but changes their order. The browser tool has a separate “Word order” mode for this.
• Visual mirror rotates or flips a text box. The text inside is unchanged when copied, and a screen reader reads it normally.

Method 1: an Excel formula (no macro)

If you have Microsoft 365 or Excel 2021, the cleanest manual route is a formula in a spare spreadsheet. Put the text in cell A1, then use this formula in B1:

=TEXTJOIN("",TRUE,MID(A1,SEQUENCE(LEN(A1),,LEN(A1),-1),1))

SEQUENCE(LEN(A1),,LEN(A1),-1) creates a list of character positions from the end of the string down to the beginning. MID pulls one character at each position, and TEXTJOIN glues the pieces back together in that reversed order. Copy the result, then paste it into Word with Keep Text Only so the cell formatting does not come along.

Google Sheets can do the same job with:

=JOIN("",ARRAYFORMULA(MID(A1,LEN(A1)-SEQUENCE(LEN(A1))+1,1)))

This route reverses characters, not words. If you need word order instead, use the browser tool’s “Word order” mode; building a reliable word-reversal formula is more trouble than it is worth for a one-off.

The catch is Unicode. Excel and VBA reverse UTF-16 code units, and spreadsheet formulas can split an emoji, a flag, or an accented letter made from a base character plus a combining mark. Test the result before you paste it into a document that matters.

Method 2: a VBA macro in Word

If you are comfortable with macros, Word can reverse the selected text with its built-in StrReverse function. Save a copy of the document first, then open the editor with Alt+F11, insert a module, and paste this procedure:

Sub ReverseSelectedText()
    Dim selectedText As String
    selectedText = Selection.Text
    Selection.Text = StrReverse(selectedText)
End Sub

Close the editor, select the text you want to reverse, and run the macro with Alt+F8. The selection is replaced in place. If you want to keep the macro, save the document as a macro-enabled .docm file; a normal .docx will drop the code.

Macros are powerful and can be blocked by Word’s security settings. Do not run code from a source you do not trust, and do not distribute a document with a macro unless the recipient expects one. StrReverse also works in UTF-16 code units, so it has the same emoji and combining-mark limitation as the spreadsheet formula.

Method 3: a visual mirror (not reversed text)

If the goal is a design effect rather than a reversible string, insert a text box, type the text, and open Format Shape → Effects → 3-D Rotation. Set the X rotation to 180° for an upside-down flip, or the Y rotation to 180° for a left-right mirror. The box can then be placed over a background or exported as an image.

This does not change the text. Copying it from the text box gives you the original words, and a screen reader will read them normally. That is good for accessibility and bad for anyone who expected the characters themselves to be reversed. If you need copyable upside-down characters, the Fancy Text Generator has an “Upside down” style, but it is a character substitution with its own font-coverage limits.

Method 4: the browser tool

The Text Reverser is the shortest route when you do not want to open Excel or enable macros. Paste the text, choose a mode, and copy the result back into Word as plain text.

1. Paste the text into the input box.
2. Choose Characters — whole text to reverse everything, Characters — each line to keep the line order, Word order to move words, or Line order to flip a list.
3. Check the preview and the character count before copying.
4. Paste into Word with Keep Text Only to avoid bringing over web formatting.

Hello, world! 👋

👋 !dlrow ,olleH

The emoji stays whole because the tool segments the input into grapheme clusters instead of UTF-16 code units. That is the main reason to use it over the Excel or VBA route when the text contains emoji, flags, or accented letters built from combining marks.

If you only need to flip a list, use Line order rather than reversing every character. If you need the last word first but the letters intact, use Word order. The mode names are literal; the helper text under the selector explains what will move.

Check the result

Reversal is easy to verify on a short string and easy to get subtly wrong on a long one. Compare the beginning and end of the original and the result, check punctuation, and look for emoji or accented letters that changed shape. If the text is going into a document with tracked changes or comments, paste it as plain text first; otherwise Word may carry over formatting or merge the result into an existing revision.

• Keep the original until the reversed version is in place and has been read once.
• Do not use reversed text for essential instructions, prices, legal text, or navigation. Screen readers may read the characters in an unexpected order, and search will not find the reversed string.
• If the result is a puzzle or a design, save a plain-text answer key separately. The reversed copy is not a substitute for the original.

For the opposite office problem — cleaning up a list before you paste it into a document — see how to remove duplicate lines in a text file.

Page updated 29 October 2026