How to Convert Text in Excel: Upper Case, Lower Case, and More

Let's face it—if you're automating your data workflow with formulas, you shouldn’t be manually rewriting text just to change the case. Luckily, Excel offers handy formulas that allow you to convert text into upper case, lower case, title case, and even sentence case with minimal effort.

How to Capitalize Text in Excel

Need to make a bold statement by converting everything to upper case? Excel’s UPPER function has your back.

Syntax:

=UPPER(text)

This function takes one argument—the text you want to convert. You can reference a cell or input the text directly into the formula.

Imagine you're preparing a mailing list with all the customer names in lowercase. The format the email labels use is upper case. With UPPER, you can quickly turn john doe into JOHN DOE.

When converting entire ranges to upper case, you can use an array formula for efficiency. Enter the formula, and then hit Ctrl + Shift + Enter—this way, you don’t have to apply the function to each cell individually.

How to Convert Capital Letters to Lowercase in Excel

The LOWER function does exactly what you’d expect—it converts all letters to lowercase.

Syntax:

=LOWER(text)

This function works the same way as UPPER. Feed it a cell reference or text string, and Excel will handle the rest.

Let’s say you're migrating data from a database where names were entered in all caps and want them in a friendlier format. Instead of retyping, you can apply the LOWER function to turn JANE DOE into jane doe in one go. This is particularly useful when standardizing text across multiple records.

If the original text becomes redundant, hide the column or move it to another sheet to keep things clean.

How to Convert Text to Title Case in Excel

The PROPER function comes in handy when you need title case—where the first letter of each word is capitalized.

Syntax:

=PROPER(text)

Just like its case-changing cousins, PROPER needs only the text to convert. It’s especially useful when dealing with names, titles, or anything that requires a neat and professional look.

For example, the spreadsheet below is a product list with inconsistent formatting—some in all caps, some in all lowercase. By applying PROPER, you can effortlessly turn WIDGET A and widget b into Widget A and Widget B for consistency across your reports.

How to Convert Text to Sentence Case in Excel

Excel doesn't offer a one-click solution if you need text in sentence case (where only the first letter of the sentence is capitalized). But don’t worry! You can create a custom formula using the LEFT, RIGHT, LEN, UPPER, and LOWER functions.

Here’s what each of these functions does:

This may seem overwhelming but don't worry. The formula is quite easy to grasp once you understand the purpose of each function. To convert the text in cell A2 to sentence case, you can use the formula below:

=UPPER(LEFT(A2,1))&LOWER(RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-1))

This formula works in two parts. First, it converts the first letter of the text in cell A2 to upper case using the LEFT and UPPER functions. Then, it uses the LEN function to count the total number of characters, subtracts 1 (so we exclude the first letter), and hands it off to the RIGHT and LOWER functions, which handle the rest of the string.

This formula is perfect for cleaning up survey responses or feedback forms where people may have typed in all caps or lowercase. You can quickly convert THANKS FOR THE HELP to Thanks for the help, making the text look polished without any manual retyping.

Excel might not be the first tool that comes to mind for text formatting, but it’s surprisingly powerful when you know the right formulas. After all, the whole point of Excel is to make your life easier—so let it.