Column layout construct has the BaselinePosition option where you can specify the origin placement for the "bars", e.g. Bottom (Vertical orientation).
Here is some data to play with:
wrdBars = {{"one", "two", "three", "four", "five", "six", "seven",
"eight"}, {"one", "two", "three", "four"}, {"one", "two", "three",
"four", "five", "six", "seven", "eight", "nine", "ten", "eleven",
"twelve"}, {"one", "two", "three"}, {"one", "two", "three",
"four", "five", "six", "seven"}, {"one", "two", "three", "four",
"five"}};
I can get a nice horizontal orientation of my word bars with alternating background using
Column[#, Background->{{LightRed, LightGreen}}, Frame->All]& @ wrdBars
and I can switch to vertical orientation, although I am not sure if this is the right way to do it, with
Column[#, BaselinePosition->Bottom, Frame->All] & /@ wrdBars
although I am missing the alternating background for each bar, how can I get this ?
And how can I use a Grid construct to get a similar presentation on my data ?