Capitalize First Letter of Every Word in a Cell - PROPER Function

In Excel you can use a function to capitalize the first letter of every word in a cell.  This allows you to prepare your data in Excel quickly and easily.

To do this, we use the PROPER function.

Syntax

PROPER Function Example

Here we have sample text:

Put the proper function in cell B1 and reference cell A1 for the text argument:

Hit enter and here's the result:

I did this on one cell, but it will really save you a lot of time if you have a large list of data and you need each first letter to be capitalized.  Then, you just enter it for the first cell and copy the function down by double-clicking the quick-fill handle, which is located in the bottom right of any cell that you have selected.

PROPER Function with Hard-coded Text

You will probably never do this but you can.

The result:

Make the New Capitalized Text Actual Text Instead of a Function

Even though cell B1 and B2 look like text, they are actually cells with a function, the PROPER function, inside of them.

To make them actual text, we need copy them and then paste-special their values.

First, select the desired cells:

Hit Ctrl + C:

Hit Alt + E + S + V and then Enter:

Now, both cells B1 and B2 are filled with the text that you see instead of a function.