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    PROPER

    Text

    Capitalizes the first letter of each word in a text string.

    Translations
    EnglishPROPER
    FrenchNOMPROPRE
    SpanishNOMPROPIO
    GermanGROSS2
    ItalianMAIUSC.INIZ
    PortuguesePRI.MAIÚSCULA
    DutchBEGINLETTERS
    PolishZ.WIELKIEJ.LITERY
    RussianПРОПНАЧ
    TurkishYAZIM.DÜZENİ
    CzechVELKÁ2
    HungarianTNÉV
    SwedishINITIAL
    DanishSTORT.FORBOGSTAV
    FinnishERISNIMI
    Syntax
    PROPER(text)

    Arguments

    • textThe text to convert to title case
    Examples
    =PROPER("john doe")
    John Doe

    Capitalizes first letters

    =PROPER(A1)
    Title Case A1

    Title case cell content

    =PROPER("HELLO WORLD")
    Hello World

    Fixes all-caps text

    Tips & Best Practices
    • •Capitalizes after any non-letter character
    • •May capitalize unwanted letters (O'Brien becomes O'Brien)
    • •Great for cleaning up names
    Common Mistakes
    • •Expecting PROPER to handle acronyms correctly - it capitalizes only the first letter of every word, so 'IBM' becomes 'Ibm'
    • •Using PROPER on names with prefixes like 'McDonald' or 'O'Brien' and getting 'Mcdonald' or 'O'brien' instead
    • •Forgetting the source cell isn't updated, so other formulas referencing the original still see the old casing
    Related Functions
    UPPERConverts everything to uppercase instead of just the first letter of each word
    LOWERConverts everything to lowercase
    SUBSTITUTECan be used after PROPER to manually fix known exceptions like acronyms or name prefixes
    Frequently Asked Questions

    Why does PROPER mess up names like McDonald or O'Brien?

    PROPER only looks at spaces to decide where a new word starts, so it capitalizes strictly after each space, breaking mid-word capitalization patterns.

    How do I fix acronyms after using PROPER?

    Nest a SUBSTITUTE for each known exception, like =SUBSTITUTE(PROPER(A1),"Ibm","IBM"), or fix them manually if there are only a few.

    Does PROPER capitalize after a hyphen or apostrophe?

    No, it only treats spaces as word boundaries, so 'jean-paul' becomes 'Jean-paul', not 'Jean-Paul'.

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