# How do I change all lower case to caps in excel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 25, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441 "2008-11-25T16:37:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/1 "2008-11-25T16:37:49Z")
I’d like to change all the letters in a column from lower case to capital letters. Is there a way to do this, short of doing it by hand? I can’t find a route using help. Seems that there has to be a pretty easy way to do this. Any help, Dopers? xo, C. ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/2 "2008-11-25T16:41:18Z")
One dirty way to do it: Copy and paste your column into MS Word. Highlight column. Format \> Font \> All Caps (checkbox under “Effects”). Copy and paste column back into Excel. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/3 "2008-11-25T16:42:27Z")
How about [this?](http://support.microsoft.com/kb/263580) ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/4 "2008-11-25T17:03:54Z")
Jeez, I guess I’ll try \*\*Emily’s \*\*fix, since that looks easier. But it’s surprising that there isn’t a function or something that you could just invoke to do that. On second thought, I probably won’t even make _that_ effort. Thanks, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![amaguri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@amaguri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amaguri)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/5 "2008-11-25T17:08:18Z")
it’s really easy, the function in Excel is =UPPER(cell reference) ---
**Author:** ![Anaglyph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Anaglyph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaglyph)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/6 "2008-11-25T17:13:49Z")
insert an empty column next to the one you want to convert next to the first cell you want to convert, type =Upper() with the insertion point between the two brackets, click on the cell that should be converted. Autofill down for the length of the column select the cell containing the now uppercase text, copy and past special as “values” now you can delete the column with the lowercase text. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/7 "2008-11-25T17:17:07Z")
Are there formulas involved? If not, I would just do a text dump of the Excel spreadsheet (saving it as a CSV file), then upcase all the letters with a one-line Perl or tr script and read it back in to Excel. **perl -ne ‘tr/a-z/A-Z/; print $\_;’ lowcase.csv \> upcase.csv** You can download Perl for Win32 for free [here](http://www.perl.com/download.csp). ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/8 "2008-11-25T17:24:58Z")
Why not just use the UPPER function in the top cell of an adjacent column then copy that cell down equal to the end of the lowercase column then Copy the entire new “UPPER” column and “Paste Special - values” back into the original column. I’m not understanding why others don’t want you to use the UPPER function. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/9 "2008-11-25T17:34:33Z")
I can insert a blank column and get it to turn the other column into caps using the =Upper function. But I’m not finding the “paste special - values” function anyplace, which seems to be the last step I’d need, so I’m a bit stuck mid-process. This is Excel 2000, if that makes any difference. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/10 "2008-11-25T17:39:27Z")
Paste-special is accessed under the Edit menu. You have to copy black of cells first, move your cursor if necessary, then click on Edit, Paste Special, and the radio button for values. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/11 "2008-11-25T17:42:57Z")
**CC** - Do a right mouse click where you want to paste. Right below “Paste” is “Paste Special”. Left click. click on the third selection down - “Values”. If you have a formula which has given you a value in a cell (A2+B2), you can copy and Paste Special Values to make the cell vulue the actual number, rather than the equation. StG ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/12 "2008-11-25T17:44:55Z")
Man, thanks to all, I’ve figured it out. It reinforces for me, however, the idea that there’s a step missing in a lot of Help manuals, etc., where a naif such as myself could use some regular talk in explaining things. I believe that the people who invent the processes also describe how to use them, forgetting that a lot of people are basically nitwits. They joke about the guys who call for help and have to be told to plug in the computer, but if you haven’t used Excel much, for example, it’s not easy to try to figure it out on your own. And it should be. Thank you, again. Now let me try to do it a few more times to be sure I have it. xo, C. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/13 "2008-11-25T19:44:18Z")
I agree CC. I learned more from Google than have from the Microsoft Help feature. I’m an experienced Excel user and VBA programmer and, for the life of me, most times I can’t make heads nor tails out of anything in the Excel help menus. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2008, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-change-all-lower-case-to-caps-in-excel/474441/14 "2008-11-25T21:26:21Z")
> [@BubbaDog](#): > > I agree CC. I learned more from Google than have from the Microsoft Help feature. > > I’m an experienced Excel user and VBA programmer and, for the life of me, most times I can’t make heads nor tails out of anything in the Excel help menus. I totally agree with this. I do not use Excel formulas that often so I often have to consult the syntax and it is very annoying. I feel I need a “Help” function on how to use the Help function.