How to Change Lowercase to Uppercase in Excel Without Formula?

Do you have a spreadsheet in Microsoft Excel with text in lowercase that you want to convert to uppercase? You might think you need to use a formula like UPPER() to accomplish this. However, there are actually several easy ways to change lowercase to uppercase in Excel without using any formulas. In this article, we’ll walk through step-by-step how to make text uppercase in Excel, with no formulas required.

Converting text case is a common task when working with data in Excel. You may receive a dataset where the text is all lowercase and want it to be uppercase for consistency or formatting purposes. Or perhaps you accidentally typed something in lowercase and want to quickly switch it to all caps. Whatever the reason, Excel provides a variety of straightforward methods to change text case without resorting to formulas.

Use “Format Cells” to Change Case in Excel

One of the simplest ways to convert text from lowercase to UPPERCASE in an Excel spreadsheet is by using the “Format Cells” feature. This method changes the formatting of the cells so that the text appears in uppercase, without altering the actual content of the cells.

Here’s how to use “Format Cells” to make text uppercase:

1. Select the cell or range of cells containing the lowercase text you want to convert to uppercase. You can click and drag to select multiple adjacent cells, or hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Command (Mac) while clicking to select non-adjacent cells.
2. Right-click on any of the selected cell(s) and choose “Format Cells…” from the context menu that appears. Alternatively, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+1 on Windows or Command+1 on Mac to open the Format Cells window.
3. In the Format Cells window, go to the “Font” tab if it’s not already selected.
4. Under the “Effects” section, locate the checkbox labeled “All caps”. Click this box to add a checkmark and enable the uppercase formatting.
5. Click the OK button to apply the change and close the Format Cells window.

The text in your selected cells will now appear in all uppercase letters. However, it’s important to note that this doesn’t actually change the underlying text content to uppercase – it only affects how the text is formatted and displayed in the cells.

Advantages of Using Format Cells

• It’s a quick and easy way to make text appear uppercase, without needing to write any formulas
• The original lowercase text content is preserved in the cells, just in case you need it later
• You can easily undo the uppercase formatting by repeating the steps and unchecking the “All caps” box

Disadvantages of Using Format Cells

• This method only changes the display formatting of the text, not the actual text content
• If you copy and paste the uppercase-formatted text to another location, the pasted text will revert back to lowercase since the actual content is still lowercase

Convert to Uppercase with the “Change Case” Feature in Excel

Another easy way to switch between lowercase and uppercase in Excel is by using the built-in “Change Case” feature. Unlike the formatting approach, this method actually converts the text content itself to uppercase directly in the cells.

Follow these steps to use Excel’s “Change Case” to capitalize text:

1. Select the cell or range of cells with the text you want to capitalize. You can select multiple cells at once.
2. Navigate to the Home tab on the Excel ribbon toolbar. In the “Editing” section, look for the “Change Case” button (it may just show the uppercase ABC icon). Click the arrow next to this button to open the dropdown menu.
3. From the “Change Case” dropdown menu, select either:

• “UPPERCASE” to convert all letters in the selected cells to uppercase
• “Capitalize Each Word” to capitalize the first letter of each word in the selected cells and make the rest lowercase

As soon as you make your selection, Excel will change the case of the actual text content in the selected cells. This modifies the underlying cell contents themselves, rather than just the display formatting like the previous “Format Cells” method.

Benefits of Using Change Case

• This feature modifies the actual text content in cells to uppercase, so the changes remain even if you copy/paste the text
• It’s easy to access and use right from the main Excel ribbon toolbar
• Great for quickly converting case for large ranges of cells at once
• Provides options for both making all characters uppercase, or capitalizing each word

Drawback of Using Change Case

• Once you convert the text to uppercase, you can’t automatically revert it back to the original lowercase, since the cell contents themselves are changed

Using Flash Fill to Capitalize Text in Excel

Flash Fill is a powerful Excel feature that intelligently detects patterns in your data and suggests entries to fill in the rest of a column. You can leverage Flash Fill to quickly generate uppercase versions of lowercase text and autofill an entire column.

To use Flash Fill to change lowercase to uppercase:

1. Select the cell in the column immediately to the right of your lowercase text. Type in the uppercase version of the first text entry in this new column.
2. Move to the cell below and start typing the uppercase version of the second text entry. As you type, Excel will use Flash Fill to detect the pattern and display a preview of suggestions to fill in the remaining cells in the column, with the lowercase text converted to uppercase.
3. If the Flash Fill preview looks correct, simply press the Enter key to accept the suggestions. Excel will automatically fill in the uppercase versions of the remaining text entries in the column.

Flash Fill is an excellent way to rapidly convert a full column of text values from lowercase to uppercase. Keep in mind that it populates the uppercase text in a new adjacent column, leaving your original lowercase column intact.

Uppercase Shortcut on Mac

If you’re using Excel on a Mac, there’s a handy keyboard shortcut that lets you quickly type in uppercase or change existing lowercase text to all caps.

To type in all uppercase letters:

1. Hold down the Shift key and press the Caps Lock key to enable Caps Lock
2. Type your desired text, which will appear in all uppercase
3. Press Caps Lock again to turn it off

To change existing lowercase text to uppercase:

1. Highlight the text you want to convert to uppercase
2. Press and hold the Command (Cmd) key, then press Shift+K

This shortcut works in Excel and most other applications across macOS. It’s useful for rapidly capitalizing small amounts of text without having to navigate through menus or use the mouse.

Using VBA Code to Change Lowercase to Uppercase

Advanced Excel users who are comfortable with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) can write a macro script to convert text case. This provides a reusable and customizable way to change lowercase to uppercase.

Here’s a sample VBA subroutine that capitalizes selected text in a spreadsheet:

Sub LowercaseToUppercase()
    For Each cell In Selection
        cell.Value = UCase(cell.Value)
    Next cell
End Sub

To use this VBA script:

1. Open the Visual Basic Editor in Excel by pressing Alt+F11 (Windows) or Option+F11 (Mac)
2. In the VBA Project pane, right-click on the workbook name and select “Insert” > “Module” to add a new module
3. Paste the above VBA code into the module code window
4. Select the cells in your spreadsheet containing the lowercase text you want to convert
5. Run the macro by pressing F5 or clicking the Run button to change the selected text to uppercase

With a VBA macro, you have complete control over which cells get converted to uppercase. Writing your own macro also allows you to customize the functionality, like adding a prompt for the user to select cells or applying different case styles.

Of course, the downside is that this method requires knowledge of how to use the VBA editor and write VBA code. If you’re not already familiar with Excel macros, it may not be the most practical solution.

Final Thoughts

In summary, there are numerous methods to easily change text from lowercase to uppercase in Microsoft Excel without using formulas. Depending on your specific requirements and preferences, you can choose from Excel’s cell formatting options, the Change Case feature, Flash Fill, keyboard shortcuts, or even VBA macros.

Consider which approach best fits your needs based on factors like:

• Whether you want to change the actual text content or just the visual formatting
• How much text you need to convert to uppercase
• If you need to be able to undo the case change
• Your comfort level with different Excel features and tools

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Vaishvi Desai

Vaishvi Desai is the founder of Excelsamurai and a passionate Excel enthusiast with years of experience in data analysis and spreadsheet management. With a mission to help others harness the power of Excel, Vaishvi shares her expertise through concise, easy-to-follow tutorials on shortcuts, formulas, Pivot Tables, and VBA.