What is the first letter in excel

This post will guide you how to extract first letter from each word in a given cell in Excel. How do I extract the first letter of each word in a range of names in your current worksheet in Microsoft Excel 2013/2016. Assume that you have a range of First, Second and third names and you would like to extract the initials to a separate cell.

For example, one name called “Nigolas Kate”, and you want to extract the first letters so that the result would be “NK”.

Since there is not built-in function to extract the first letter of each word in Excel, and you can define a user defined function by Excel VBA code to achieve the result. Just do the following steps:

Step1: open your excel workbook and then click on “Visual Basic” command under DEVELOPER Tab, or just press “ALT+F11” shortcut.

Step2: then the “Visual Basic Editor” window will appear.

Step3: click “Insert” ->”Module” to create a new module.

Step4: paste the below VBA code into the code window. Then clicking “Save” button.

Function ExtractFirstLetter(text) As String
    mystring = Left(text, 1)
    For i = 2 To Len(text) - 1
        If Mid(text, i, 1) = " " Then
            mystring = mystring & Mid(text, i + 1, 1)
        End If
    Next i

    ExtractFirstLetter = WorksheetFunction.Substitute(UCase(mystring), " ", "")
End Function

Step5: back to the current worksheet, then type the following formula in a blank cell, and then press Enter key.

=ExtractFirstLetter(A1)

If you want to extract the first letter from each word in a cell in Excel, you can use a combination of the CONCATENATE, LEFT, MID and FIND functions and return them as a concatenated string.

You need to enter the following formula in a blank cell:

=CONCATENATE(LEFT(A1,1),MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1,1),IFERROR(MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1,1),""))

Press Enter to apply the formula.

You can then copy and paste the formula to apply it to other cells, or drag the fill handle to apply it to a range of cells.

Here’s how this formula works:

The LEFT function is used to extract the first letter of the first word in the cell.

The MID and FIND functions are used to extract the first letter of the second and subsequent words in the cell.

The CONCATENATE function is used to join the first letters of each word in the cell.

The IFERROR function is used to handle cells with only one or two words. If the cell has only one or two words, the formula returns the first letter of those words.

If you want to learn how to extract the first letter from each word in a cell in Excel, you can watch this video that shows you how to use a formula or a VBA code to achieve this task.

Apart from using Excel with numeric data, a lot of people also use it with text data. It could as simple as keeping a record of names to something more complex.

When working with text data, a common task is to make the data consistent by capitalizing the first letter in each cell (or to capitalize the first letter of each word in all the cells)

In this tutorial, I will show you a couple of methods to capitalize the first letter in Excel cells.

So let’s get started!

Capitalize First Letter Using Formula

There can be two scenarios where you want to capitalize:

1. The first letter of each word
2. Only the first letter of the first word

Capitalize the First Letter of Each Word

This one is fairly easy to do – as Excel has a dedicated function for this.

The PROPER function, whose purpose of existence is to capitalize the first letter of each word.

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below and you want to quickly convert the first letter of each word into upper case.

Below is the formula you can use:

=PROPER(A2)

This would capitalize the first letter of each word in the referenced cell.

Pretty straight forward!

Once you have the desired result, you can copy the cells that have the formula and paste it as values so it’s no longer linked to each other.

Capitalize Only the First Letter of the First Word Only

This one is a little more tricky than the previous one – as there is no inbuilt formula in Excel to capitalize only the first letter of the first word.

However, you can still do this (easily) with a combination of formulas.

Again, there could be two scenarios where you want to do this:

1. Capitalize the First Letter of the First Word and leave everything as is
2. Capitalize the First Letter of the First Word and change the rest to lower case (as there may be some upper case letter already)

The formulas used for each of these cases would be different.

Let’s see how to do this!

Capitalize the First Letter of the First Word and Leave Everything As Is

Suppose you have the below dataset and you only want to capitalize the first letter (and leave the rest as is).

Below is the formula that will do this:

=UPPER(LEFT(A2,1))&RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-1)

The above formula uses the LEFT function to extract the first character from the string in the cell. It then uses the UPPER function to change the case of the first letter to upper. It then concatenates the rest of the string (which is extracted using the RIGHT function).

So. if there are words that already have capitalized alphabets already, these would not be changed. Only the first letter would be capitalized.

Capitalize the First Letter of the First Word and Change the Rest to Lower Case

Another scenario could be where you want to change the case of only the first letter of the first word and keep everything in lower case. This could be when you text that you want to convert to sentence case.

In this scenario, you may get some cells where the remaining text is not in the lower case already, so you will have to force the text to be converted to lower case, and then use a formula to capitalize the first letter.

Suppose you have the dataset below:

Below is the formula that will capitalize the first letter of the first word and change the rest to lower case:

=REPLACE(LOWER(A2),1,1,UPPER(LEFT(A2,1)))

Let me explain how this formula works:

• LOWER(A2) – This converts the entire text into lower case
• UPPER(LEFT(A2,1) – This converts the first letter of the text string in the cell into the upper case.
• REPLACE function is used to only replace the first character with the upper case version of it.

One of the benefits of using a formula is that it keeps the resulting data dynamic. For example, if you have the formula in place and you make any changes in the data in column A (the original text data), the resulting data would automatically update. In case you don’t want the original data and only want to keep the final result, make sure to convert the formula to values

Capitalize First Letter Using VBA

While using formulas is a quick way to manipulate text data, it does involve a few extra steps of getting the result in an additional column and then copying and pasting it as values.

If you often need to use change the data as shown in one of the examples above, you can also consider using a VBA code. With a VBA macro code, you just have to set it once and then you can add it to the Quick Access Toolbar.

This way, the next time you need to capitalize the first letter, all you need to do is select the dataset and click the macro button in the QAT.

You can even create an add-in and use the VBA code in all your workbooks (and can even share these with your colleagues).

Now let me give you the VBA codes.

Below code will capitalize the first letter of the first word and leave everything as-is:

Sub CapitalizeFirstLetter()
Dim Sel As Range
Set Sel = Selection
For Each cell In Sel
    cell.Value = UCase(Left(cell.Value, 1)) & Right(cell.Value, Len(cell.Value) - 1)
Next cell
End Sub

And below is the code that will capitalize the first letter of the text and make everything else in lower case:

Sub CapitalizeFirstLetter()
Dim Sel As Range
Set Sel = Selection
For Each cell In Sel
    cell.Value = Application.WorksheetFunction.Replace(LCase(cell.Value), 1, 1, UCase(Left(cell.Value, 1)))
Next cell
End Sub

You need to place this VBA code in a regular module in the VB Editor

These are some methods you can use to capitalize the first letter in Excel cells. Based on the scenario, you can choose the formula method or the VBA method.

Hope you found this Excel tutorial useful.

You may also like the following Excel tutorials:

• Convert Date to Text in Excel
• Convert Text to Numbers in Excel
• How to Extract a Substring in Excel (Using TEXT Formulas)
• How to Extract the First Word from a Text String in Excel
• Remove Characters From Left in Excel

In cell B2, type =PROPER(A2), then press Enter. This formula converts the name in cell A2 from uppercase to proper case. To convert the text to lowercase, type =LOWER(A2) instead.

Change the capitalization or case of text

1. Select the text for which you want to change the case.
2. Go to Home > Change case .
3. Do one of the following: To capitalize the first letter of a sentence and leave all other letters as lowercase, click Sentence case. To exclude capital letters from your text, click lowercase.

What is the shortcut to capitalize words in Excel?

Whenever we want to make the text all caps (uppercase), we must select the corresponding cells and press the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + A using the keyboard. The selected cells or text will be converted to uppercase instantly at one go.

Which Excel function capitalize only the first letter in someone’s name?

the function ‘PROPER’ The ‘PROPER’ function works the same way its cousins ‘LOWER’ and ‘UPPER’ do. The difference is, that it only capitalizes the first letter of each substring of text.

How do you auto capitalize the first letter on a keyboard?

To turn on auto-caps of the first word please follow these steps:

1. Open Settings, and click/tap on Devices.
2. Click/tap on Typing on the left side, and turn On (default) or Off Capitalize the first letter of each sentence under Touch keyboard on the right side for what you want. (

How do you capitalize in Excel?

Capitalize all letters in cells with formula

1. Select a blank cell adjacent to the cell you want to capitalize all letters.
2. Type formula =UPPER(A1) into the Formula Bar, then press the Enter key.
3. Drag the Fill Handle down to the range which you need to capitalize all letters.

How do you capitalize the first letter in Google Sheets?

To capitalize the first letter of each word in Google Sheets, do the following:

1. Type “=PROPER(” into a spreadsheet cell, as the beginning of your formula.
2. Type “A2” (or any other cell reference) to set the reference of the cell that contains the words to be capitalized.
3. Type “)” to complete/close your formula.

How do you capitalize the first letter in Excel without formula?

To convert the text to lowercase, type =LOWER(A2) instead. Use =UPPER(A2) in cases where you need to convert text to uppercase, replacing A2 with the appropriate cell reference.

Does shift F3 work in Excel?

“Shift + F3” keys will open Insert function window which you can insert any function of your choice. This will open the Create Names from Selection window & are used to create names from row or column labels.

But, here, I can talk about a useful way to solve this task.

1. Extract first letter of each word from Cell with User Defined Function.
2. Hold down the ALT + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.
3. Click Insert > Module, and paste the following code in the Module Window.< /p>

How do you combine a first and last name in Excel?

To join first and last name by merging cells, here’s what you do:

1. Select the two columns of names you want to combine.
2. On the Ablebits tab, in the Merge group, click the Merge Cells drop-down arrow, and choose Merge Columns into One:
3. The Merge Cells dialog box will show up.
4. Click the Merge button.

How do you not capitalize the first letter?

How to turn off auto-capitalization on Android

1. On the on-screen keyboard, tap the gear icon.
2. In the Settings menu, select “Text correction.”
3. Swipe up on the Text Correction menu until you locate “Auto-capitalization.”
4. Tap the slider next to “Auto-capitalization” so that it appears gray instead of blue.

How do you capitalize all letters in a spreadsheet?

In a spreadsheet cell type =UPPER( and click on the cell that contains text that you want in uppercase. Press enter. =UPPER(A1) will express what is in A1 to uppercase.

Steps (formula Explanation):-

1. We can use the SPLIT function to split the string into three parts based on the space delimiter. =split(A2,” “)
2. Then using the LEFT function, we can extract the first letter from each word. =ArrayFormula(left(split(A2,” “),1))
3. Just combine the result.

What is Ctrl D in Excel?

Ctrl+D in Excel and Google Sheets
In Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets, pressing Ctrl + D fills and overwrites a cell(s) with the contents of the cell above it in a column. To fill the entire column with the contents of the upper cell, press Ctrl + Shift + Down to select all cells below, and then press Ctrl + D .

What does control F5 do in Excel?

Shortcut keys in Excel – Function Keys (6 of

How do you capitalize all letters?

Selecting a case

1. Highlight all the text you want to change.
2. Hold down the Shift and press F3 .
3. When you hold Shift and press F3, the text toggles from sentence case (first letter uppercase and the rest lowercase), to all uppercase (all capital letters), and then all lowercase.

How do I remove the first 4 characters in Excel?

How to Remove first characters from text in Excel

1. =REPLACE(Text, 1, N, “”)
2. =RIGHT (Text, LEN(text)-N)
3. =REPLACE(A2, 1, B2, “”)
4. =RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-B2)

How do I select the first two letters in Excel?

B3 is the cell you extract characters from, 3 is the number of characters you want to extract. Press Enter key to get the extracted result. Then drag fill handle over the cells to apply this formula. B9 is the cell you extract characters from, 6 is the number of characters you want to extract.

Ok, I found a somewhat ridiculous answer which is basically concatenating a lot of ifs to loop through each word (VBA would be easier here). Below formula is for up to 9 words. If your strings have more you just have to add some FIND(A1," ")+1. Should the formula not work for you, delete the returns in it.

=IFERROR(UPPER(
IF(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1>=1,IFERROR(IF(SUM(--(LEFT(A1,FIND(" ",A1)-1)={"the","of","a","and"})),"",LEFT(A1,1)),LEFT(A1,1)),"")&
IF(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1>=2,IF(SUM(--(MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1,IFERROR(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1),LEN(A1))-(FIND(" ",A1)+1))={"the","of","a","and"})),"",MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1,1)),"")&
IF(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1>=3,IF(SUM(--(MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1,IFERROR(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1),LEN(A1))-(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1))={"the","of","a","and"})),"",MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1,1)),"")&
IF(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1>=4,IF(SUM(--(MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1,IFERROR(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1),LEN(A1))-(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1))={"the","of","a","and"})),"",MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1,1)),"")&
IF(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1>=5,IF(SUM(--(MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1,IFERROR(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1),LEN(A1))-(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1))={"the","of","a","and"})),"",MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1,1)),"")&
IF(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1>=6,IF(SUM(--(MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1,IFERROR(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1),LEN(A1))-(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1))={"the","of","a","and"})),"",MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1,1)),"")&
IF(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1>=7,IF(SUM(--(MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1,IFERROR(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1),LEN(A1))-(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1))={"the","of","a","and"})),"",MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1,1)),"")&
IF(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1>=8,IF(SUM(--(MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1,IFERROR(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1),LEN(A1))-(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1))={"the","of","a","and"})),"",MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1,1)),"")&
IF(LEN(A1)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""))+1>=9,IF(SUM(--(MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1,IFERROR(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1),LEN(A1))-(FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1))={"the","of","a","and"})),"",MID(A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1,FIND(" ",A1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1)+1,1)),"")
),"")

05-30-2005, 06:05 AM

#1

05-30-2005, 07:05 AM

#4

05-30-2005, 07:05 AM

#5

05-30-2005, 07:05 AM

#6

05-30-2005, 08:05 AM

#7

05-30-2005, 08:05 AM

#8

05-30-2005, 10:05 PM

#9

Capitalize the first letter in Excel is very easy and you have 3 tools to do that

• By formula
• With Power Query
• With VBA

Capitalize the first letter by formula

To capitalize the first letter of each word in your cells by formula, just write the PROPER function

=PROPER(B2) or =PROPER([@columnName])

But the job isn’t finished 🤔

You must also transform the result of the formula into values with the tool copy/paste special (option values)

Capitalize the first letter with Power Query

If you build a query to manipulate your data with Power Query, you can quickly capitalize the first letter of a column.

1. Select one or more columns
2. Right-click in the header of the columns
3. Go to Transform
4. Capitalize each word

This technique is much better because you don’t duplicate the contain of your column. The transformation remplaces the previous contain of the column.

Capitalize the first letter with VBA

In VBA, the code to transform your string is the following possible with the instruction StrConv and the option vbProperCase

Sub Capitalize_First_Letter()
Dim MyText As String
Dim i As Long
    For i = 2 To 11
        Cells(i, 2) = StrConv(Cells(i, 2), vbProperCase)
    Next
End Sub

Sometimes we need to follow the standards of English writings even in Excel (which I am not good at). One of the basic standards of English writing is having the first letter of the sentence in Capital. So how do we capitalize the first letter in each cell?

In this article, we will learn how to make the first letter in uppercase in every cell of Excel.

The generic formula for making the first letter of cell capital is:

=UPPER(LEFT(text))&MID(text,2,LEN(text))

Text: It is the text of which you want to capitalize the first letter.

Let’s get this Formula some job.

Example: Capitalize the first letter of Sentance in Excel

Here, we have a sheet that contains some text values (keyword of this article). Each Cell contains one sentence. We need to capitalize the first letter of each sentence.

Write this formula in cell C3:

=UPPER(LEFT(B3))&MID(B3,2,LEN(B3))

Hit the enter button. You will have the first letter capitalized in C3. Drag this formula down to make the first letter uppercase in each sentence.

How does it work?

It is simple. We have two segments of formula. The first segment (UPPER(LEFT(B3)) capitalizes the first letter of a sentence. How? The LEFT function gets the first letter of the cell. The UPPER function makes it uppercase.

The other segment [MID(B3,2,LEN(B3))] concatenates the rest of the sentence to the uppercase letter.  The LEN function gets the total number of characters and MID function gets the text starting from 2nd character to rest of the text.

Finally, the concatenation operator & concatenates them.

Alternative Method

In this method, we use the RIGHT function instead of the MID function to get the rest of the text as it is.

=UPPER(LEFT(B3))&RIGHT(B3,LEN(B3)-1)

If you want to capitalize the first letter of each word in the sentence then simply use the PROPER function.

So yeah guys, this how you can capitalize first letter of each cell in excel. I hope it was explanatory and useful to you. If you have any doubts regarding this article or have any other excel/VBA related topic doubt, ask in the comments section below.

Related Articals:

How to Use UPPER function in Excel | The UPPER function in excel is used to capitalize all letters of a string. In this article, we will explore how you can use the UPPER function to do some really important tasks.

Validate only uppercase in data validation | To allow only upper case entries in Excel we can use conditional data validation. By using excel EXACT functions as key function along with function…

How to do Case Sensitive Lookup in Excel | The VLOOKUP function is not a case sensitive function. To lookup case sensitive values we can use EXACT function.

Extract Text From A String In Excel Using Excel’s LEFT And RIGHT Function |  To extract text from strings we normally use RIGHT and LEFT function. These function give a lot of control while manipulating texts.

Popular Articles:

50 Excel Shortcuts to Increase Your Productivity | Get faster at your task. These 50 shortcuts will make you work even faster on Excel.

How to use Excel VLOOKUP Function| This is one of the most used and popular functions of excel that is used to lookup value from different ranges and sheets. 

How to use the Excel COUNTIF Function| Count values with conditions using this amazing function. You don’t need to filter your data to count specific value. Countif function is essential to prepare your dashboard.

How to Use SUMIF Function in Excel | This is another dashboard essential function. This helps you sum up values on specific conditions.