Should All Letters in a Title Be Capitalized?
No. In a title, you capitalize the significant words and leave short articles, conjunctions and prepositions lowercase — unless one of them is the first or last word. The Lord of the Rings, not The Lord Of The Rings.
That is Title Case. The alternative is sentence case, which capitalizes only the first word and proper nouns. Which one you use depends on the style guide you follow, and the four major guides do not agree on the details. This page gives the rules for each, side by side.
Apply the rules automatically. The free case converter includes a Title Case option that follows Chicago Manual of Style rules, keeps acronyms intact, and handles hyphenated words. Twelve styles, one click.
The four capitalization styles for titles
| Style | Same title | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Title Case | How to Convert Text to Uppercase in Excel | Books, films, US newspaper headlines |
| Sentence case | How to convert text to uppercase in Excel | Web headlines, apps, scientific papers, UK newspapers |
| Capitalize Each Word | How To Convert Text To Uppercase In Excel | Nothing — it is a tool default, not a style |
| ALL CAPS | HOW TO CONVERT TEXT TO UPPERCASE IN EXCEL | Short labels only |
Row three is the one to watch. The Capitalize Each Word option in Microsoft Word is not Title Case: it capitalizes to and in, which no style guide does. If you use that menu item for a headline, you are not following any published standard.
Which words stay lowercase in Title Case
Three categories, and one overriding exception.
| Category | Words |
|---|---|
| Articles | a, an, the |
| Coordinating conjunctions | and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet |
| Short prepositions | at, by, in, of, on, to, up, as, off, out, per, via |
The exception: the first word and the last word of a title are always capitalized, whatever they are. What Are You Waiting For capitalizes For because it sits at the end. The full list, with the four-letter cutoff and the words that sit on the boundary, is in our guide to words that are not capitalized in titles.
The four style guides compared
| Rule | Chicago | AP | MLA | APA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prepositions capitalized | no, by function | 4 letters and up | no | 4 letters and up |
| Through in mid-title | Through | Through | through | Through |
| With in mid-title | With | With | with | With |
| Is, Are, Be | capitalized | capitalized | capitalized | capitalized |
| Article titles in references | Title Case | — | Title Case | Sentence case |
| Used by | Book publishers | Newsrooms | Humanities | Social sciences |
The practical difference is small. On a typical eight-word headline, Chicago and AP produce the same result most of the time. The disagreements cluster on prepositions of four and five letters: with, from, into, over, through. If nobody at your organization has chosen a guide, choose Chicago and stop thinking about it.
Worked examples
| Raw text | Title Case | Note |
|---|---|---|
| the lord of the rings | The Lord of the Rings | of and the second the stay lowercase |
| what are you waiting for | What Are You Waiting For | For is capitalized as the last word |
| a tale of two cities | A Tale of Two Cities | A is capitalized as the first word |
| the guide: a new beginning | The Guide: A New Beginning | the word after a colon is capitalized |
| how to use iPhone in the office | How to Use iPhone in the Office | brand capitalization preserved |
| a well-known secret | A Well-Known Secret | both halves of the hyphenated word |
| meet me at 3 p.m. in the park | Meet Me at 3 p.m. in the Park | the abbreviation stays lowercase |
| the best HTML editor | The Best HTML Editor | acronym untouched |
The last three are where automatic converters usually fail. A tool that capitalizes P.m. or turns HTML into Html is applying the rule without the exceptions.
Which style should you choose?
| You are writing | Use |
|---|---|
| A blog post or web page heading | Either, but be consistent. Sentence case is the modern default. |
| An email subject line | Sentence case. Title Case reads as marketing. |
| A button or menu label | Sentence case. Both Google and Apple specify it. |
| A book, film or album title | Title Case. |
| An academic paper | Whatever your journal specifies — usually APA sentence case or MLA Title Case. |
| A news headline for a US outlet | Title Case, AP rules. |
| A news headline for a UK outlet | Sentence case. |
The full comparison of the two dominant styles, with the exceptions that break converters, is in our guide to sentence case.
Does title capitalization affect SEO?
No, not directly. Google does not rank a page higher because its title is in Title Case rather than sentence case — capitalization is not a ranking factor, and search engines normalize case when matching a query.
It can affect the click-through rate of a result, which is a different thing. Title Case can read as more formal and authoritative; sentence case as more direct and human. Which performs better depends on the audience and the topic, and the only way to know is to test on your own pages.
What does matter is consistency across a site. Mixed conventions between one heading and the next look careless to a reader, which is a real cost regardless of what the algorithm does.
Never write a full title in ALL CAPS
A title in capitals is slower to read, because every letter is the same height and the word loses the distinctive outline the eye uses to recognize it. Online it also reads as shouting. Keep capitals to a short label of a few words at most — the reasoning is set out in uppercase vs lowercase, and the wider rules for capital letters are in capitalization rules in writing.
Get Title Case right automatically. The upper lower case converter applies Chicago Manual of Style rules, keeps p.m. lowercase, preserves NASA and iPhone, and handles hyphenated words. Also does Sentence case, UPPERCASE, lowercase and eight more styles.
Frequently asked questions
Should all letters in a title be capitalized?
No. Capitalize the significant words and leave articles, coordinating conjunctions and short prepositions lowercase, except when one of them is the first or last word of the title.
Should a title be in all caps?
No. A title in capital letters is slower to read and reads as shouting online. Reserve all caps for short labels of a few words.
Which words are not capitalized in a title?
Articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet), and short prepositions (at, by, in, of, on, to, up, as, via). The first and last word are always capitalized regardless.
Is it Title Case or sentence case for blog posts?
Either works. Sentence case is now the more common choice online and reads as more conversational. What matters is using one convention consistently across the site.
Do you capitalize the word after a colon in a title?
Yes. In every major style guide, the first word after a colon in a title takes a capital: The Guide: A New Beginning.
What is the difference between Title Case and Capitalize Each Word?
Title Case leaves short articles, conjunctions and prepositions lowercase. Capitalize Each Word, the option in Microsoft Word, capitalizes every word including to, of and the. It matches no published style guide.
How do I capitalize a hyphenated word in a title?
Capitalize both parts: A Well-Known Secret, Twenty-First Century. Chicago lowercases the second part only after prefixes such as anti- or re-.
Does capitalization affect search rankings?
No. Capitalization is not a ranking factor and search engines normalize case when matching queries. It can affect click-through rate, which is a separate matter.
The short version
Not every letter, and not every word. Capitalize the significant words; leave articles, coordinating conjunctions and prepositions of four letters or fewer in lowercase; always capitalize the first and last word, and the word after a colon. Choose Chicago or AP if you need a ruling on the borderline prepositions, and apply the same choice everywhere. If the title is a web headline, a button or an email subject, sentence case is the safer modern default.