The fastest way: Format menu and Change Case

Open your document and select the text you want to change. Highlight it by clicking and dragging across the words, or triple-click to select an entire paragraph. Then go to the Home tab at the top of the window, find the Change Case button (it looks like "Aa" with a dropdown arrow), and click it.

A menu will appear with five options. Click UPPERCASE to convert all selected text to capital letters. The change happens when ready. If you change your mind, press Ctrl+Z (or Cmd+Z on Mac) to undo.

This method works in Word 2016, Word 2019, Word for Microsoft 365, and Word Online. The button location is the same across all versions.

Key Takeaways

  • Select the text you want to change by clicking and dragging, then click the Change Case button on the Home tab and choose UPPERCASE.
  • Word offers five case options: UPPERCASE, lowercase, Capitalize Each Word, tOGGLE cASE, and Sentence case.
  • You can change case before or after you type — select existing text or place your cursor and type normally, then convert it later.
  • If you need to change case in a large document, use Find & Replace (Ctrl+H) with regular expressions enabled for more control over which text changes.

Other case options Word provides

The Change Case menu gives you more than just UPPERCASE. The lowercase option converts everything to small letters. Capitalize Each Word puts a capital letter at the start of every word — useful for titles. tOGGLE cASE flips whatever case each letter already has, so uppercase becomes lowercase and vice versa. Sentence case capitalizes only the first letter of the first word in each sentence.

Try each one on a test sentence to see which matches what you need. You can always undo and try a different option.

Changing case in Word Online

If you are using Word Online (the free version you access through your browser), the Change Case button is in the same place: the Home tab. Click it and select UPPERCASE the same way. Word Online has all five case options available.

The only difference is that Word Online saves your changes automatically as you work, so there is no separate Save button to click. Undo still works the same way — press Ctrl+Z if you need to reverse a change.

Using Find & Replace for selective changes

If you want to change case for only certain words in a large document — for example, only product names or only words at the start of sentences — the Change Case button will change everything you select, which may not be what you need.

Open Find & Replace by pressing Ctrl+H. Type the text you want to find in the Find what field. In the Replace with field, type the same text but in the case you want. Click Replace All to change every instance at once, or click Replace one at a time to review each change before it happens.

This method is slower than selecting and clicking Change Case, but it gives you control over which parts of your document change. It works best when you are looking for specific words or phrases rather than all text in a section.

What happens to special characters and numbers

When you convert text to UPPERCASE, numbers and punctuation stay exactly as they are. A sentence like "the meeting is at 2:30 p.m." becomes "THE MEETING IS AT 2:30 P.M." — the numbers and colon do not change, only the letters do.

Accented letters (like é, ñ, or ü) convert to their uppercase versions correctly in Word. If you are working with text in another language, Word respects the case rules for that language.

Changing case as you type

You do not have to convert text after you write it. If you realize you are typing in the wrong case, select what you just typed and use Change Case to fix it. This is faster than deleting and retyping.

Some people type in all lowercase while drafting because it is faster, then convert to the proper case when they are done editing. This works well if you find yourself constantly fixing capitalization as you write.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does changing case affect the original formatting of my text?

No. If your text was bold, italic, underlined, or colored before you changed the case, it stays that way. Only the letters themselves change from lowercase to uppercase or vice versa. All other formatting is preserved.

Can I change case for text inside a table?

Yes. Select the text inside the table cells the same way you would select text anywhere else in the document, then use the Change Case button. Word treats table text the same as regular text.

What if the Change Case button is not visible on my Home tab?

Your window may be too narrow and Word has hidden the button to save space. Make your Word window wider, or look for a small arrow or "..." button on the Home tab that reveals hidden tools. The button may also be under a group labeled "Text" or "Font".

Can I change case in headers or footers?

Yes. Click inside the header or footer area to edit it, select your text, and use Change Case the same way. When you click back in the main document, the header or footer closes and your changes are saved.

Does this work the same way in Word for Mac?

Yes. The Home tab and Change Case button are in the same location. The keyboard shortcut to undo is Cmd+Z instead of Ctrl+Z, but the Change Case feature itself works identically.