Just In Case – Upper, Lower, & Proper Case Text

Have you ever typed your text in lower case, but changed your mind afterward and would rather have it all in upper case? Maybe you’d rather have the first letter of each word capitalized and wished there was a way that you didn't have to type it all over again? Well there is!!! Without this formula I’m going to tell you about, you would have to start all over and type it all again. Using the nifty UPPER or LOWER or PROPER formulas will take care of it for you. Just select a blank cell (or column) beside the data and type in the formula(s).

The formula for changing everything to upper-case is =UPPER(text or cell to convert)

The formula for changing everything to lower-case is =LOWER(text or cell to convert)

The formula for changing everything to proper-case is =PROPER(text or cell to convert)

It really doesn’t get easier than that!

The next thing you need to do is copy and Paste the Values where you want to display the text (this will most likely be the original cell or column that contained the text in the improper case - unless you want 2 columns with the same data!)

There is one caveat with the PROPER formula: it will capitalize the first letter in any text that follows any character other than a letter. What this means is if you wanted to put “that’s all folks” into proper case, it would result in “That’S All Folks” As you see it capitalized the s after the apostrophe. There is no direct way around this (that I know of) but is not a major issue. Depending on how many I have to change (or how much data I have to look through to find them) what I do is either manually change them one-by-one, or I use a Find & Replace (after I’ve Pasted the Values). I could probably go on, but in the spirit of not confusing  you, I’ll stop right there.

If you have any questions, please post a comment below!

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The Paste Special: Values Function

 If you use Excel to create formulas, you will inevitably need to move the data result of those formulas somewhere else. We spoke a little about this in the “Holding Down the Fort – Anchors” post, but in that post what we actually did was move the formula (when we move a formula, as long as its anchored, we move the result also).

But what if you want to move ONLY the data, WITHOUT    the formula? This is where the “Copy & Paste Special - VALUES” comes in to play. By copying the formulas, then selecting the Paste Special option, you can select Values from the dialog box and paste only the result.

Throughout the years and the different versions of Excel, there have been different methods of accessing the Paste Special dialog box. Some have a button the tool bar, while others don’t. Since I don’t know which version you have, there is one method to access the Paste Special dialog box that works with all versions: Alt+E+S. (I find it quicker this way anyway!)

To use this shortcut and go directly to the Past Values function, just add a V to that shortcut: Alt+E+S+V. Striking the Enter Key (or clicking the OK button) will apply your selection (Values) and you will then have removed all the formulas while keeping the values.


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