NFRC Help changing case in Excel

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dawnnys

Well-known member
I'm hoping one of the editor wizards here ;o) will be able to help me. I am volunteering to do some entering of data for a local organization, and it's fastest if I enter the text all in lower case and then change them later.

I know how to change, say, cell A6 by typing in "=PROPER(A6)", but there must be some way to do the whole column. Can't I change a whole column at a time? I can't get it to work. The : function doesn't work for me for this. The copy-and-paste at the top of the column doesn't work for me, and there is nothing that addresses this on the Help section.

Help? Thanks!! 'Sure would save time, because I'm not going to change one cell at a time - it'd be easier just to type the cell in proper text at the time I'm typing it in!

 
Changing Case in Excel

Hi Dawn, I never knew about the "=PROPER A6" function. What I always did was copy the data cells into a MS Word document convert it and then copy it back to an excel file. It comes over as a table. Select the data (highlight) -- Not the Table or you'll have to do the same steps over until you get it all converted. Click on the

Copy your data from excel and paste into a Word document

Click on Format at the top of the document
Scroll down to Change Case…
Click on this option

a pop up box appears with the option you want to change the case to. These are your options:

o Sentance case
o lowercase
o UPPERCASE
o Title Case
o tOGGLE cASE

Choose the option you want and click on the OK box.

Then you can select the whole table and edit copy into an Excel file.

I know it's a lot of keystrokes but it was the only way I knew how to do it.

Hope this helps -- Good Luck!

 
Hi Dawn, I never knew about the =Proper function..I have not used excel in a lil bit, but I recall

being able to highlight a row/column with the shift key; ie shift and arrow up/down/right, etc...Then changing font; I would think it should work for Case.

Or even; Edit; Select All; then go into format...

Something to try!

Good Luck!

 
How come the copy/paste function didn't work for you? I just tried it, and it did....

I have the text in column A, and entered the formula, =PROPER(A1), into cell B1. Then I highlighted cell B1, Ctrl-C to copy, highlighted cells B2:B6, and hit enter.

The formula copied all the way down.

You can also copy it by highlighting cell B1. Place your cursor on the bottom right corner of the cell, so that the cursor turns into a cross. Hold down the left mouse button, and drag that cross down to highlight cells B2 thru B6. That works too.

 
Hi Barb... where do you change the font? It's not under Cells or Style. Those

(Column, too) are for width, formatting number, alignment, etc.

 
Yes! That worked. I think I tried every

other copy/paste/format command I could think of before, except your "highlight cell B1, Ctrl-C to copy, highlight cells B2:B6, and hit enter".

And if you look at MS's help section their directions are practically useless. I had to figure out by trying to realize that they had left out a bunch of steps. I had even tried what you said but then highlighted and pasted (not entered) into B2:B6, but that didn't work either, although now I see that it does. The cells just stayed blank, but maybe I did something funny in tryin it because I'm not that familiar with Excel. Thank you!! Can I send you some Honey Crisps for that? lol

 
Thank you Marie. Another hit-on-the-forehead moment... I should've tried

that when all else failed.

 
I believe it is under fomat style...Change preferences. I also think you can highlight and right

click the cells. My excel is a bit rusty; but could try it!

 
Remember that the Proper function leaves a formula in that cell and not the changed text.

To get the entire column to do the change enter the formula in the first cell in a blank column to the right, select that cell and move your cursor to the lower right hand corner of the cell until the cursor turns to a plus sign. Click and hold and drag down.

Next select the column, click copy, then Edit/Paste Special/Values/OK. This will replace the formula with text and you can delete the column with the lower case information.

 
Thanks Barb, but I must have a different version of Excel. No option

under Format to do that, and when I right-click, I only get those same width/alignment, etc. options. But thanks for trying to help me! :eek:)

 
I just toggled b/the "control `" key off and on, got the changed text. And you lost me at "formula"

;o) (well, sorta).

Really, though, it worked for me for some odd reason, using the directions in your first paragraph. I think it has something to do with having that "formula toggle" in the right mode.

Thanks tho!

P.S. Oh now I see what you meant... I guess the default for my version is Text, not the displaying of the formula, so I was able to see it as soon as I pasted it in the column. I did find out that you can toggle between the views (formala or actual text) by doing Control` - that, and typing in the word Proper I was able to learn on my own ;o)

 
Sounds like you got your answer, but fyi search is great for these things...

just enter your question such as:

change case in excel?

into a search engine box and 99 times out of 100 you'll find the answer that the MS help button didn't give you (use the question mark and you might want to add your version aka change case in excel 2007?). I do this all the time at work and a friend who is an IT person shared -- you have no idea how much I use this in my job, they all think I'm a know all goddess when half the time I just did a search.

 
I did that, but couldn't understand the directions. I google all the time... it's a lifesaver

Sometimes I just have to be walked through things "live" when it comes to directions on the computer because I never took classes in it and everything I know is self-taught. But thanks.

 
One error I may have been doing was not creating a blank column adjacent to my column. Directions

that I had read never said that. I think I learned that you have to do that extra step here, at FK :eek:)

I knew we had super-smart computer techies here, so I thought of you guys, and I'm glad I did ;o)

 
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