Capitalizing the First Letter of a Cell

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 30, 2025)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365


1

Georgia has a column of text values extending over thousands of rows. She would like to change the capitalization of the text so that only the first letter of each cell is capitalized.

Assuming that the column, indeed, only contains text values, then you can use the following formula:

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

This formula assumes that the text values are in column A. Copy the formula down for as many rows as needed, and you'll have your result. If you simply want to make sure that the first character is uppercase without changing the case of anything else in the cell, then this shorter version will work:

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

If, instead, you want to capitalize the first letter of each word in the cell, then the formula is even simpler:

=PROPER(A1)

These formulas presume that you have a spare column available to house the formula. If you prefer to make your changes in-place, then you'll need to rely on a macro to do the work. Here's an example:

Sub UpperFirst()
    Dim c As Range
    Dim t As String

    For Each c In Selection
        If Not IsEmpty(c.Value) And VarType(c.Value) = vbString Then
            t = Trim(c.Value)
            c.Value = UCase(Left(t, 1) & LCase(Mid(t,2))
        End If
    Next c
End Sub

Select the cells you want to affect, then run the macro. It makes sure that the cell contains something and that the something is really a text string. Then, it capitalizes the first letter and makes sure the rest is lowercase. In the process, it also deletes any leading or trailing spaces in the cell.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (13952) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Excel in Microsoft 365.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

RGB Values for Automatic Colors

When you create a chart, Excel automatically assigns different colors to the various data series in the chart. At some ...

Discover More

Keyboard Shortcuts for Zooming

For whatever reason, Microsoft has never seen fit to provide built-in keyboard shortcuts for zooming in and out. Here are ...

Discover More

Finding Missing Spaces before Numbers

If you want to insert a space between letters and digits in your document, you have a couple of tasks to perform. First, ...

Discover More

Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Combining Cell Contents

Excel allows you to easily combine text together. Interestingly, it provides two ways you can perform such combinations. ...

Discover More

Deriving a Secant and Cosecant

Two rather common trigonometric functions are secants and cosecants. This tip provides information on how to derive ...

Discover More

Removing Duplicates at a Reduced Precision Level

The precision of numeric values you display in a worksheet can be less than what is actually maintained by Excel. This ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 7 - 4?

2025-08-30 06:09:56

Barry

Just what I neede thank you.
One small typo but took awhile to find it (still a novice!).
c.Value = UCase(Left(t, 1) & LCase(Mid(t,2))
s/b c.Value = UCase(Left(t, 1)) & LCase(Mid(t,2))
Just an extra bracket before '&': ...(Left(t, 1)) &...


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.