Member Avatar for birsha

New to all this, so if I've done it wrong, tell me!

EXCEL for MAC:

I have a long (3000 names) mailing list stored as data in columns, of course.

In combining lists, some of the address entries are in Caps others in Upper and Lower case.

Is there any command to format existing column content, for example, to ALL CAPS or UPPER case? Or better yet, the content to Title case. Microsoft word offers "Change Case" with a variety of choices. Is there something similar I can't find for Microsoft Excel?

I did find functions for UPPER and LOWER but can't see how to apply them to a column or group of cells.

Changing it one cell at a time is too ugly to even think about.

Thanks to all who take time to consider this.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by random1970

Dani AI

Generated

For (and anyone with a long address column): Excel already has text conversion functions (upper, lower and title-case), as noted and pointed toward in Microsoft’s documentation. The safest, easiest pattern for a large list is to generate converted text in a helper column, then replace the originals with the converted values — that keeps the source data intact until you confirm the results.

Practical, low-risk steps you can follow:

  • Insert a blank column immediately to the right of your names.
  • In the top cell of that helper column use the appropriate text conversion function that references the original cell (uppercase, lowercase or title case), then fill that formula down for all rows — double-click the fill handle to auto-fill to the end of the adjacent data range.
  • If entries have extra spaces or hidden characters, normalize them first by using TRIM and CLEAN together before converting.
  • When everything looks right, copy the helper column and use Paste Special -> Values over the original column to replace the text (then delete the helper column).

Cautions and tips: title-case conversion treats each word independently, so acronyms (e.g., USA) will become normal case and names like McDonald, O’Neill, or hyphenated surnames may need manual fixes or a second pass using targeted Find & Replace or a small macro. If this is a one-off and you prefer Word’s Change Case, copy the column into Word, change case there, then paste values back into Excel — still do a backup first.

For recurring work, record a short macro (or script) to run the steps above so you can repeat the cleanup reliably.

Member Avatar for random1970

Hi Birsha,

Upper, Lower and Proper are the text converters in Excel, but you have to create a new column, where the results can be stored.

Add a column to the right of the one you have. If you want title case, go to the cell next to the first entry (e.g. if your addresses are in column D, and your first entry in D2, do this in E2). Type in the formula =PROPER(D2), then fill down (you can do this by mouse - yeeuch! - but there's a nice keyboard shortcut to do this).

Hope this helps.

random1970

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