Change text case in Word, Excel and Google Docs
The Word shortcut, the three Excel functions, the Google Docs menu and a browser option for text that lives elsewhere, with a look at where each one slips up.
In Word, select the text and press Shift+F3 until it reaches the case you want, or use the Change Case button on the Home tab. Excel has no such button, so you use the UPPER, LOWER and PROPER functions. Google Docs puts it under Format, Text, Capitalization. When the text sits in an email, a web page or a chat and you don't want to open an app, you can change its case in your browser: paste, pick a mode, copy the result, with nothing sent to a server.
Here are the options side by side, with the places each one trips over names, acronyms and accents.
In Word
Select the text, then use one of these:
- Shortcut: press Shift+F3 repeatedly. According to Microsoft, it cycles through lowercase, UPPERCASE and Capitalize Each Word. On some laptops you also need to hold Fn.
- Button: on the Home tab, Change Case offers Sentence case, lowercase, UPPERCASE, Capitalize Each Word and tOGGLE cASE.
Press Ctrl+Z to undo.
In Excel
There's no equivalent button. The three functions are UPPER, LOWER and PROPER:
| Function | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
=UPPER(A2) | Everything in capitals | Jane Doe becomes JANE DOE |
=LOWER(A2) | Everything in lowercase | JANE DOE becomes jane doe |
=PROPER(A2) | First letter of each word capitalized | JANE DOE becomes Jane Doe |
You can drag the formula down to convert a whole column at once. The catch is that the result is a formula in another column: to keep just the text, copy the column and paste it back over the original as values.
In Google Docs and Sheets
Select the text and open Format, Text, Capitalization. Per Google's help page, the choices are lowercase, UPPERCASE and Title Case. In Google Sheets the same UPPER, LOWER and PROPER functions exist.
When the text isn't in an office app
That's the usual case: text pasted from an email, a product description, a list copied from a PDF. Instead of opening a program, paste it into the case converter and choose a mode:
- UPPERCASE and lowercase, which keep accented letters intact ("café" becomes "CAFÉ", not "CAFE").
- Title Case, which follows standard English rules and leaves short articles, conjunctions and prepositions such as a, an, the, and, but, of, in, on and for in lowercase unless they come first.
- Sentence case, which lowercases everything and capitalizes the first letter of the text and the one after each period, question mark or exclamation mark.
- aLtErNaTiNg, camelCase, PascalCase, snake_case, kebab-case and CONSTANT_CASE, built for programmers. These strip accents on purpose, since an accented identifier tends to break.
Below the result you get character and word counts, and you can copy it or download it as a .txt.
Sentence case or Title Case for headings?
That is a style choice, and style guides disagree. What matters is picking one convention for a document or a site and applying it everywhere. Title Case reads formal and is common in English headlines, while Sentence case reads plainer and is easier to get right, since it only depends on where sentences start. If you convert a batch of headings, convert them all with the same mode so they match.
Where each option slips up
| Input | Sentence case (the tool) | Sentence case (Word) |
|---|---|---|
| NASA AND NEW YORK USE THE PDF. | Nasa and new york use the pdf. | Nasa and new york use the pdf. |
Both lowercase everything except the first letter of each sentence, so acronyms and proper nouns need fixing by hand. Title Case has the same blind spot: it writes "Pdf" and "Nasa". No automatic conversion knows which words in your text are names. Check the output before you use it, especially for headings, product names and anything with an acronym.
Which route should you take?
- A Word document: the Shift+F3 shortcut or the ribbon button.
- A column of names in Excel: PROPER, then fix surnames with particles or acronyms by hand.
- Text pasted from the web, an email or a chat: the browser converter, which doesn't make you open anything.
- Variable or file names: the camelCase, snake_case or kebab-case modes.
If everything was typed in capitals by mistake
Usually Caps Lock was on. Select the text and convert it to Sentence case in Word or in the tool, then repair names and acronyms. For a long text that is quicker than retyping it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I change uppercase to lowercase in Word?
Select the text and press Shift+F3 until it is lowercase, or use the Change Case button on the Home tab and pick lowercase.
How do I do it in Excel?
Use LOWER for lowercase, UPPER for capitals and PROPER to capitalize the first letter of each word. Then copy the result and paste it as values if you want to keep just the text.
Does changing case remove accents?
Not in the tool's reading modes: "café" becomes "CAFÉ". Only the programmer modes, such as camelCase or snake_case, strip accents.
Why does "New York" turn into "new york"?
Sentence case lowercases everything and only capitalizes the start of each sentence. Proper nouns and acronyms have to be fixed by hand.
What does Title Case do with short words?
It capitalizes words but leaves short articles, conjunctions and prepositions, like a, an, the, and, of, in, on and for, in lowercase unless they are the first word.
Is my text uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion happens in your browser. You can check the Network tab in developer tools: analytics requests show up, but no POST or PUT the size of your file.
Change case without opening Word
UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case and Sentence case in your browser. Runs locally, free, no signup.
Open Case Converter →Related tools
- Case Converter: ten modes, with character and word counts.
- Text Cleaner: remove double spaces and stray line breaks.
- Word Counter: count words and characters in a text.
- Slug Generator: turn a title into a clean URL.
You might also like: 10 text utilities you'll actually use every week and what is a URL slug and how to write good ones.