How to Change Case in Excel: UPPER, lower and Proper Case

Word has a Change Case button. Excel doesn’t — you use a formula (or Flash Fill), then replace the original.

The three functions

Step by step

1. Insert an empty column next to the data (right-click the column letter › Insert).
2. In the first row type =PROPER(A2) and double-click the fill handle.
3. Copy the new column › select column A › Ctrl+Alt+V › Values › OK.
4. Delete the helper column.

Flash Fill (no formula)

Type the first value the way you want it, then Ctrl+E below it. Works for all three cases. See Flash Fill.

Sentence case (first letter only)

=UPPER(LEFT(A2))&LOWER(MID(A2,2,1000))

“THIS IS URGENT” → “This is urgent”.

PROPER gets some names wrong

“McDONALD” → “Mcdonald”, “o’neil” → “O’Neil” (right), “iPhone” → “Iphone”. Fix the few exceptions by hand, or with SUBSTITUTE: =SUBSTITUTE(PROPER(A2),"Mcd","McD").

Clean spaces at the same time

=PROPER(TRIM(A2))

See remove spaces.

Type in capitals automatically

You can’t force case as people type, but data validation with =EXACT(A2,UPPER(A2)) rejects lower-case entries.