How to Capitalize All Letters in Excel – The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide

If you’ve ever spent more than ten minutes formatting names or data in Excel, you already know: the software wasn’t exactly built with text formatting in mind. Numbers? Sure. Charts? Yup. But if you’re trying to clean up a long list of names that look like “john doe” or “Acme corp.” and turn them into something neat like “JOHN DOE” or “John Doe”… yeah, that’s where things get weird.

I found myself in that exact situation a few years ago, managing spreadsheets for a small event planning business. We’d pull names from online forms, and half the time they’d come in lowercase. Clients’ names. Event titles. Vendor lists. It was a mess.

So I did what most people would—I Googled it. And sure, there are formulas, tutorials, keyboard tricks… but honestly? A lot of it felt like it was written by robots for robots.

That’s why I wanted to write this. Think of it as your friend sitting next to you, showing you real-world ways to capitalize all letters in Excel (and more) without pulling your hair out.

Starting Simple: The Formula Everyone Uses

Let’s get this one out of the way first. It’s the classic method. You probably already came across it.

The UPPER function.

It’s exactly what it sounds like. You point it to a cell, and it makes everything uppercase.

Here’s what it looks like:

=UPPER(A1)

That’s it.

So if cell A1 says “susan hill”, Excel will turn it into “SUSAN HILL”. You can drag the corner of the cell down to apply it to an entire list.

Now, is it elegant? Not really. But it works. Every time.

No Formulas? No Problem

If you’re like me, maybe you don’t want formulas cluttering up your sheet. Especially if you’re sending it off to someone else, or just want to clean your original data in place.

Luckily, there are two very cool ways to do this without formulas.

1. Flash Fill

Think of Flash Fill like Excel reading your mind—but only if you feed it the right signals.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Let’s say you’ve got a list of names in column A.
2. In column B, type the first one how you want it to look. For example, turn “susan hill” into “SUSAN HILL”.
3. Press Enter.
4. Now in the next row down, just start typing the next name in uppercase—but don’t finish it.
5. Hit Ctrl + E.

Magic. Excel fills out the rest of the column based on what it thinks you’re doing.

It’s like having a mini-assistant built into your spreadsheet. Works well 90% of the time.

(If you’re using a Mac, the shortcut is Command + E.)

Power Query (Great for Larger Data Sets)

Power Query sounds intimidating, but it’s really not.

Use it when you’ve got a lot of data and want to avoid formulas or copy-paste madness.

Here’s what to do:

1. Select your data range.
2. Go to the Data tab.
3. Click From Table/Range.
4. The Power Query window opens. Click your column.
5. Go to the Transform tab, then choose Format > UPPERCASE.
6. Hit Close & Load.

That’s it. Your data is now uppercase, clean, and in a new sheet.

No formulas. Just results.

What About Just Capitalizing the First Letter?

Sometimes you don’t want all caps. You just want the first letter of each word capitalized, like “Susan Hill” or “New York City.”

For that, Excel has another built-in function: PROPER()

Here’s how you use it:

=PROPER(A1)

It turns “john smith” into “John Smith.” Super useful for names, addresses, or titles.

It works just like UPPER—drop the formula next to your original data, drag it down, done.

Mac Users, You’re Covered Too

If you’re using Excel on a Mac, good news—everything I’ve talked about so far works just fine.

The formulas (=UPPER(), =PROPER()) are exactly the same.

Flash Fill also works if you’re on Microsoft 365 or newer versions. Just remember to hit Command + E instead of Ctrl + E.

Even Power Query has made its way to Mac Excel. It wasn’t always available, but now it’s here and works pretty much the same as on Windows.

What About Google Sheets?

Hey, not everyone lives in Excel. A lot of people (myself included) use Google Sheets for quick collaboration.

If that’s you, here’s the good news: you can do almost all of the same stuff.

Use these formulas:

• =UPPER(A1) — ALL CAPS
• =PROPER(A1) — Capitalize First Letter of Each Word

There’s no Flash Fill in Google Sheets (yet), but the formulas work exactly as you’d expect.

Need to just capitalize the first letter of the first word (like a sentence)?

Try this:

=UPPER(LEFT(A1,1)) & LOWER(MID(A1,2,LEN(A1)))

That’ll take “excel tricks” and turn it into “Excel tricks.”

Real Talk: There’s No One-Click Shortcut for This

People ask all the time, “Can I just press a key and make everything uppercase?”

Short answer: not in Excel.

In Word, sure—you can hit Shift + F3 to toggle between lowercase, uppercase, and title case.

But Excel? Nope.

Best you can do is use Flash Fill or set up a custom macro (if you’re into that kind of thing). For most people, just sticking to formulas or Flash Fill gets the job done.

Random but Helpful: Use Word as a Backdoor Tool

Sometimes I just give up and use Microsoft Word.

Here’s what I do:

1. Copy the Excel column.
2. Paste it into Word.
3. Highlight the text.
4. Press Shift + F3 a few times until it’s in the case you want.
5. Copy it back into Excel.

Surprisingly fast. Especially if Flash Fill is being stubborn.

Changing Lowercase to Capital Letters (Because It’s the Same Thing)

A lot of people search for this exact phrase: “how to change small letters to capital letters in Excel.”

It’s just another way of saying: convert lowercase to uppercase. Same thing.

Just remember:

• Use =UPPER() for all caps
• Use Flash Fill for one-time conversions
• Use Power Query for bulk changes

Capitalizing Without Using Any Formula (Yes, You Can)

If you’re totally anti-formula (hey, I get it), here’s your go-to move:

1. Type the corrected version yourself in a new column.
2. Hit Ctrl + E (or Cmd + E on Mac).
3. Excel finishes the rest for you.

No formulas. No syntax. No copy-paste loops.

Final Thoughts (and a Little Encouragement)

When I first started using Excel for client work, I had no clue how powerful these simple tools were. Now I use them every week, if not every day.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, just try one method at a time. Start with UPPER, then mess around with Flash Fill. Eventually, it becomes second nature.

The key is to pick the method that matches your workflow. If you like formulas, go wild. If you want fast, no-fuss fixes, Flash Fill is your best friend.

Either way, once you learn these tricks, messy data won’t scare you anymore.

Don’t forget to check our article about How to Change Your Billing Address on Amazon: A Step-by-Step Guide for more tech news.