MS Excel: PROPER function to capitalize first letter of each word

The PROPER function in Excel is designed to capitalize the first letter of each word in a text string while converting all other letters to lowercase. It’s often used to standardize names, titles, addresses, or any other textual data that needs to follow title case formatting.

Syntax

=PROPER(text)

Parameter:

Argument	Description
text	Required. The text you want to convert to proper case. This can be a string, a cell reference, or a formula result.

Returns: A text string with each word’s first character in uppercase and all others in lowercase.

Examples with Tables

Example 1: Simple Name Formatting

=PROPER("jOHN doE")

Input	Formula	Result
jOHN doE	=PROPER("jOHN doE")	John Doe

Example 2: Using Cell Reference

Assume cell A1 contains:

mr. aNDRew SMITH

Formula:

=PROPER(A1)

A1	Formula	Result
mr. aNDRew SMITH	=PROPER(A1)	Mr. Andrew Smith

Example 3: Address Cleanup

=PROPER("123 main STREET, new YORK")

Input	Result
"123 main STREET, new YORK"	"123 Main Street, New York"

Use Cases

• Formatting customer names imported from legacy systems

• Standardizing addresses before printing or exporting

• Making titles or labels presentable for reports or dashboards

• Improving data consistency and readability

Comparison: PROPER vs UPPER vs LOWER

Function	Description	Example Input	Result
PROPER	Capitalizes each word	"aLiCE bOB"	Alice Bob
UPPER	Converts all letters to uppercase	"aLiCE bOB"	ALICE BOB
LOWER	Converts all letters to lowercase	"aLiCE bOB"	alice bob

Summary

Feature	Description
Function Name	PROPER
Purpose	Capitalize the first letter of each word
Input Type	Text (string, cell, or formula)
Output Type	Proper-case text
Common Use Case	Name and address formatting

Notes

• Words are separated by spaces and punctuation. Each separated group is treated as a “word.”

• It does not ignore numbers—they remain unchanged.

• Abbreviations (like “CEO” or “USA”) may be incorrectly converted (e.g., Ceo, Usa).

Related Functions

Function	Description
UPPER	Converts text to uppercase
LOWER	Converts text to lowercase
TEXT	Formats numbers as text
TRIM	Removes extra spaces
CLEAN	Removes non-printable characters

Final Thoughts

The PROPER function is a great tool for quickly cleaning and formatting text data, particularly in customer-facing outputs like reports, print-outs, or forms. However, be cautious when using it for abbreviations or acronyms that should remain in full uppercase.