Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 14, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Have you ever run into people who insist on typing everything with the Caps Lock key on? In some worksheets, that may not be acceptable. Yet, there you are, with a worksheet full of text cells that are all in uppercase. How do you convert everything to upper- and lowercase, without the need to retype?
If you find yourself in this situation, the MakeProper macro may do the trick for you. It will examine a range of cells, which you select, and then convert any constants to what Excel refers to as "proper case." This simply means that when you are done, the first letter of each word in a cell will be uppercase; the rest will be lowercase. If a cell contains a formula, it is ignored.
Sub MakeProper()
Dim rngSrc As Range
Dim lMax As Long, lCtr As Long
Set rngSrc = ActiveSheet.Range(ActiveWindow.Selection.Address)
lMax = rngSrc.Cells.Count
For lCtr = 1 To lMax
If Not rngSrc.Cells(lCtr).HasFormula Then
rngSrc.Cells(lCtr) = Application.Proper(rngSrc.Cells(lCtr))
End If
Next lCtr
End Sub
If you would rather convert all the text in the range into lowercase, you can instead use the following macro, MakeLower().
Sub MakeLower()
Dim rngSrc As Range
Dim lMax As Long, lCtr As Long
Set rngSrc = ActiveSheet.Range(ActiveWindow.Selection.Address)
lMax = rngSrc.Cells.Count
For lCtr = 1 To lMax
If Not rngSrc.Cells(lCtr).HasFormula Then
rngSrc.Cells(lCtr) = LCase(rngSrc.Cells(lCtr))
End If
Next lCtr
End Sub
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2026) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.
Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!
Need your macro to get some input from a user? The standard way to do this is with the InputBox function, described in ...
Discover MoreIf you have a large, complex workbook, you may want to make sure that it is always calculated manually instead of ...
Discover MoreExcel allows you to define names that can refer to either ranges of cells or to constant information, such as formulas. ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)
Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments