Sentence Case in Excel

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Excel Sentence Case

The sentence case feature of Excel changes the “case” of the supplied text string. The case can be changed with the help of three functions namely–UPPER, LOWER, AND PROPER. These functions are used because MS Excel does not have a button to change the case of the text, unlike MS Word.

Sentence Case in Excel
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How to Change Sentence Case in Excel?

The usage of the three built-in functions of sentence case is discussed as follows:

  1. UPPER(): Uppercase Function converts the text from any other case to the uppercase.
  2. LOWER(): Lowercase Function converts the text from any other case to the lowercase.
  3. PROPER(): Proper Function converts the text from the improper case (mixed form) to the proper case. In the proper case, the first letter of each word is capitalized and the remaining letters are in lowercase.

Note 1: The formula for changing the case should not be written in the cell containing the original text string.

Note 2: The case of the text containing symbols and punctuation marks can also be changed. For example, if the UPPER function is applied to “william d’orean,” it returns “WILLIAM D’OREAN.”

Example #1 - UPPER Function

Let us consider an example of the UPPER function.

  1. Step 1: In an Excel sheet, enter the data as shown in the following image.


    Example-1-Step-1

  2. Step 2: Insert the UPPER formula in the required cell. This cell can be adjacent to the data cell. We pass the first word u0022januArYu0022 as the text argument of the UPPER function. For this, select the cell containing the text whose case has to be changed.


    Example-1-Step-2

  3. Step 3: Press the “Enter” key. The corrected text appears in cell B1, as shown in the following screenshot.


    Example-1-Step-3

  4. Step 4: Drag the fill handle to apply the formula to the remaining cells, as shown in the succeeding image.


    Step-4

  5. Step 5: The complete data is converted into uppercase, as shown in the following image.


    Step-5

Example #2 - LOWER Function

Let us consider an example of the LOWER function.

  • Step 1: In an Excel sheet, enter the data as shown in the following image.
Sentence Case Example 2
  • Step 2: Insert the LOWER formula in the required cell. We pass the word “Phone” as the text argument of the LOWER function. This is done by entering the cell reference in the formula. Close the brackets of the formula.
Sentence Case Example 2-1
  • Step 3: Press the “Enter” key. The text of cell A1 is converted into lower case. The output appears in cell B1, as shown in the following image.
Sentence Case Example 2-2
  • Step 4: Drag the fill handle to obtain the output for the remaining cells.
Sentence Case in Excel - Example 2 - Step 4 - drag
  • Step 5: The complete data is converted into lowercase, as shown in the following image.
Sentence Case in Excel - Example 2 - Step 5 - Output

Example #3 - PROPER Function

Let us consider an example of the PROPER function.

  • Step 1: In an Excel sheet, enter the data as shown in the following image.
Use proper formula Example 3
  • Step 2: Enter the PROPER function in cell B1 and pass the data as the text argument.
Use proper formula Example 3-1
  • Step 3: Press the “Enter” key and the data is converted into the proper case, as shown in the following image.
Use proper formula Example 3-2
  • Step 4: Drag the fill handle to the remaining cells, as shown in the following image.
Use proper formula Example 3-3
  • Step 5: The complete data is converted into proper case, as shown in the following image.
Sentence Case in Excel - Example 3 - Step 5 - Output

Example #4

We have a phrase in the form of text data, as shown in the succeeding image. We want to capitalize the first letter of the first word with the remaining alphabets being in lowercase.

Sentence Case Example 4

We convert the data into sentence case by applying the formula given in cell A3.

Sentence Case Example 4-1

Press the “Enter” key. The first letter of the word “all” appears in capital. The rest of the text is in lowercase. The whole phrase appears in sentence case.

Sentence Case Example 4-2

Example #5

We have a phrase in the form of text data, as shown in the succeeding image. The text contains both uppercase and lowercase letters. We want to convert the phrase into sentence case.

Sentence Case Example 5

We apply the formula given in cell A3. This keeps the first alphabet in uppercase and the remaining text in lowercase.

Sentence Case Example 5-1

Press the “Enter” key. The text is completely changed into sentence case. For a series of text, drag the fill handle to apply the formula to the entire data.

Sentence Case Example 5-2

Frequently Asked Questions

#1 - How to change the case in Excel without formulas?

The steps to change the case with the help of flash fill are listed as follows:
Type the text (as you want it to appear) in the row adjacent to the original data row.

Press "Enter" and press the keys "Ctrl+E."
Alternatively, click on "Flash Fill" in the Data tab (under Data Tools group) or the Home tab (under the "fill" button of Editing group).
The output follows the case of the text that was typed in step 1.

Note: Flash fill detects the pattern and formats the cell accordingly. For instance, there is an extra space in the original text data which is eliminated on typing the data in the adjacent row. In such a case, flash fill does not place any extra space in the output.

#2 - How to change case in Excel using MS Word?

The steps to change case using MS Word are listed as follows:
- Select the data column in Excel.
- Copy and paste the column in Word.
- Highlight the text and click on Change Case icon in Font group (under Home tab).
- Copy the text in the output and paste it back in Excel.

Note: An alternate method is to select the text in Word and press "Shift+F3" until the case you want appears.

#3 - How to change the case with Excel VBA macro?

The code to convert the text to uppercase is given as follows:

Sub Uppercase()
For Each Cell In Selection
If Not Cell.HasFormula Then
Cell.Value = UCase(Cell.Value)
End If
Next Cell
End Sub

In a similar way, the code to convert the text to lowercase and proper case can be applied.

  • The sentence case changes the “case” of the text in Excel with the help of the functions UPPER, LOWER, and PROPER.
  • The UPPER function converts the text from any other case to the uppercase.
  • The LOWER function converts the text from any other case to the lowercase.
  • The PROPER function converts the text from the improper case (mixed form) to the proper case (the first letter of each word is capital and the remaining letters are in lowercase).
  • The formula for changing the case in Excel should not be written in the cell containing the original text string.
  • The case of the text containing symbols and punctuation marks can also be changed in Excel.