How to use the PROPER function in Microsoft Excel

Let's look at some Excel Proper function examples and explore how to use the Proper function as a worksheet function in Microsoft Excel:

Summary

The Excel PROPER function Capitalizes the first letter in a text string and Converts all other letters to lowercase letters.
The PROPER function in excel will not affect numbers, special characters and punctuation in the given text or string. It will only convert the first character to upper case and all the other letters to lowercase.
The Proper function is a built-in function in Excel that is categorized as a Text Function.

Purpose

Capitalize the first letter in each word.

Return value

Text in proper case.

What Does It Do ?

This function converts the first letter of each word to uppercase, and all subsequent letters are converted to lower case.

Syntax

Proper function has one syntax and hence they can be written in Two different ways:

=PROPER(text) or
=PROPER(cell reference)

Parameters or Arguments

Text: A Text which you want converts to proper case.
Cell reference: Reference to cells containing text.

Formatting

No special formatting is needed.

Usage notes

• It will only convert the first letters in text string to uppercase and all the other letters to lowercase in each word.
• Numbers, special characters and punctuation characters are not affected by the use of PROPER function in the string.
• Proper function converts the 's in the text (tammy's) to uppercase (i.e. Tammy'S).
• If you use a null character or a reference to an empty cell, it will return a null character.
• If the referred text is an error it will return an error in the result.
• You can also insert text string directly into the function by using double quotation marks.

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