To change the case of a text in Excel, you could either go and do it yourself by rewriting every letter that needs replacement, or you could let Excel take care of it. Excel has three exclusive functions for changing the case of texts.

  • PROPER: Changes the case to a proper case or title case.
  • UPPER: Changes the text to uppercase.
  • LOWER: Changes the text to lowercase.

Let's see each of these functions at work.

Changing Text Case to Title Case

Usage of PROPER function in Excel

The PROPER function's main purpose in Excel is to take the text you've inputted and then turn it into proper text with proper case (title case).

The PROPER function has only one argument: the text itself, or a cell that contains the text. You can't use the PROPER function on a range of cells, because the output is displayed in a single cell.

To change the case to title case in Excel:

  1. Select the cell where you want to display the output.
  2. In the formula bar, enter the formula below:
    =PROPER(B2)
    B2 is the target cell in this example, which contains the text we intend to convert.
  3. Press Enter.
  4. Excel will now display the input text in the title case.

Changing Text Case to UPPER CASE

Usage of the UPPER function in Excel.

To change the text case to uppercase, you'll have to utilize the UPPER function in Excel. This function is exclusively programmed to change the text case to uppercase. Like the PROPER function, the UPPER function has only one argument: the text itself. It cannot be used on a range of cells, as the output is a single cell.

  1. Select a cell as your output cell.
  2. Go to the formula bar and enter the formula below:
    =UPPER(B2)
    This will take the text from the input cell, which is B2 in this example, convert it to upper case and then display it in the output cell.
  3. Press Enter.
  4. Excel will now convert the text to upper case and display it in the output cell.

Changing Text Case to lower case

Usage of the LOWER function in Excel.

Much like the previous two sections, you can use the LOWER function to convert your text into lowercase. The LOWER function's sole purpose is to convert text into lower case. The LOWER function is identical to its siblings, as it has one argument and cannot be used on a range of cells.

  1. Select the cell you want to display the output text.
  2. Enter the formula below in the formula bar:
    =LOWER(B2)
    The LOWER function will take the content of the input cell (B2), convert it to lowercase, and then display it.
  3. Press Enter.
  4. Your text will appear in lower case in the output cell.

Related: How to Count Negative Numbers in Excel

Skip the Manual Work

Excel and its functions exist to make life easier, and you should let them. Instead of having to change the case of every letter yourself, you can now write a simple formula that does the job for you.

If you're new to Excel and need a head start, you might want to read on some tips to get quickly started with Excel.