object.style.writingMode 

and set it as:

object.style.writingMode = sFlowDir;

where sFlowDir can be one of the following:

Value	Effect
lr-tb	Content flows from left to right and from top to bottom. The next horizontal line will be placed underneath the current one. All glyphs are positioned upright. The default.
tb-rl	Content flows from top to bottom and from right to left. The next vertical line is positioned to the left of the current line. Wide-cell glyphs are positioned upright; nonwide-cell glyphs — also known as narrow Latin or narrow Kana glyphs — are rotated 90-degrees clockwise.

Although the "tb-rl" style is mostly used in Asian typography, you can also use it to place English typography on its "side", similarly to how you see a book on a shelf. The following script implements a paragraph that the user can flip on its side by clicking the mouse anywhere on the page:

<DIV ID="test" STYLE="position:absolute">Click anywhere on the page to rotate me</DIV>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
document.onclick = rotate;

function rotate() {
  if (test.style.writingMode == "lr-tb") {
    test.style.writingMode = "tb-rl";
  }
  else {
    test.style.writingMode = "lr-tb";
  }
}
</SCRIPT>

Here is the object:

Click anywhere on the page and see how the text inside the object rotates 90 degrees each time.

People who read this tip also read these tips:

• Probing the Left ALT Key
• Netscape 6 JavaScript Console
• Retrieving Element Event Location
• Owning an Element
• Changing Inline Images