Easily Change Case in Google Sheets (3 Ways)

In this tutorial, I will show you how to change text cases in Google Sheets. You can convert any text into Upper case, Lower case, Proper case (also called the Title case), or Sentence case.

If you’re not familiar with these text cases, below is an example that shows what each of these is.

The fastest way to change case in Google Sheets is by using formulas.

And the other way is using an add-on.

Let’s see how each of these work.

Up Your Skills First

The G Suite is Google’s powerful collection of apps and programs that can exponentially increase your productivity. But only if you know how to use them efficiently. Browsing our site will help with this, but for those that like a little more structure to their learning, check out the excellent G Suite guides on Udemy.

Change Case Using a Formula in Google Sheets

Google Sheets has three formulas that are meant to change the case of the text value:

• UPPER – this function converts the text into upper case
• LOWER – this function converts the text into lower case
• PROPER – this function convert all caps to mixed case convertiing it into proper case

Each of these formulas takes a single argument as input, which is either the cell reference that contains the formula or the text itself in double-quotes. These functions work with texts not numbers.

Capitalize All and Lowercase All

Google Sheets capitalize all turns all the letters in the texts into capital letters while Lowercase all converts all letters into small letters.

The UPPER function is used to capitalize all in Google Sheets.It only has one argument which is the text that is to be capitalized. This could either be the text string in quotation marks or as a cell reference.

For Example, if you have the text ‘lorem ipsum’ in cell A1 here’s how to change text to all caps in Google Sheets. You can use the UPPER function below:

=UPPER("A1")

and you can also hard-code the text into the formula and use the below formula

=UPPER("lorem ipsum")

In both the cases, the result would be LOREM IPSUM

You can use the same logic with LOWER function and PROPER formula as well. The proper function will convert the first character to uppercase.

How to Apply Sentence Case Using Functions, with the JOIN Function

While there are dedicated formulas for UPPER function, LOWER function  and PROPER function case, there is nothing in Google Sheets to give you a sentence case (which is probably the most needed option).

A sentence case is where only the first alphabet of the first word is capitalized and rest all is in  Google Sheet lower case.

Below is the example:

While there is no direct text function for this, you can still have Google Sheets capitalize first letter with the formula below:

=ArrayFormula(join(". ",replace(transpose(TRIM(SPLIT( A1 , "." ))),1,1, upper(left(transpose(TRIM(SPLIT( A1 , "." ))),1))))&".")

One of the drawbacks of using a formula to change case is that it requires you to add/use a new column and gets the result in those new columns. You can copy and paste (as values) the resulting data over the original data, but that adds a few more steps.

If you want to convert the case of the text in Google Sheets without using a new column, you can use an add-on (covered next in this tutorial)

Using an Add-On to Change Case in Google Sheets

If you’re open to using an add-on, this is definitely one of the easiest ways to handle change case in Google Sheets.

The best part about using an add-on, in this case, is that it doesn’t need me to add any new column as it works on your existing columns/cells and changes the case instantly with a single click. Also, you don’t need to remember and worry about formulas.

The add-on that I recommend to change case in Google Sheets is the ChangeCase add-on by Alec Tutin.

You can install it in a few clicks and it gives you a lot many options when it comes to changing case in Google Sheets.

Let me quickly give you the steps to install this add-on in Google Sheets:

1. Open the Google Sheets document in which you want to change the case of text
2. Click the Add-ons tab
   

   

3. Click on Get add-ons
   

   

4. In the Add-ons dialog box that opens, search for ‘ChangeCase’ in the field in the top-right
   

   

5. In the list of add-ons that are shown, click on the Blue buttons for the ChangeCase add-on
   

   

6. In the dialog box that appears, it may ask you to confirm your account by logging in to your Gmail. Enter the credentials and click on the blue ‘Allow’ button.

This would add the ChangeCase add-on to your Google Sheets.

Now let’s see how to make all caps in Google Sheets using the add-on to.

1. Select the cells in which you have the text that you want to change
2. Click the Add-ons tab
3. Hover your cursor on the ChangeCase option
4. Select from the options to change the text in the selected cells.

Since this uses a Google Script to change the case, it may take a few seconds to get the work done. In case you have selected a large range of cells, this may take a few more seconds.

Apart from the regular Upper, Lower, Proper, and Sentence case, the add-on also offers two extra options:

1. Invert Case – where it simply inverts the case of each alphabet
2. First letter capital – where it capitalizes the first letter of each word. This is similar to Proper case, with a minor difference that it would even capitalize words such as a, an, if, etc.

When you add an add-on in Google Sheets, it’s only available in the document in which you added it. If you open another Google Sheet document or a new one, you will have to add this again to use it.

Change Text Cases with Apps Scripts

App scripts is also another powerful tool in Google Sheets that can let a Google Sheet change cases using special functions.

In this case, inorder to change thecase we will use the function changeCase.

Here’s how to make text in all caps in Google Sheets using App Scripts:

1. Go to Extensions > App scripts
2. Copy and paste the code below in the code window:

function changeCase() {

  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName("Sheet2");

  for(var cell = 2; cell <=sheet.getLastRow(); cell++){

    var rng = sheet.getRange(cell,2);

    var val = rng.getValue();

    rng.setValue(val.toUpperCase());}

}

3. Click Save, then Run.

You will notice that the text in your spreadsheet will be converted to all uppercase. You may need to give it some time to reflect the changes.

If you want to convert them to lowercase instead using app scripts, you can replace the “toUpperCase” in the last line with “toLowerCase”

Wrapping Up

In this article, we have shown you Google Sheet uppercase, how to turn Google Sheets all caps into lowercase, and how to convert to mixed cases. These are the easiest ways to change case in Google Sheets.

If you found this article useful, feel free to check out our other article on find and replace in Google Sheets.

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