Guides / Title Case rules
Title Case rules (practical version)
Title Case makes every major word start with a capital letter. It is common for headlines, slide titles, and UI labels. Style guides disagree on the small words. This page explains what our converter does and what you should still edit.
What this converter does
Our Title Case button lowercases the selection first, then capitalizes the first letter of each word. Letters after an apostrophe are treated as a new word start, so o'neil becomes O'Neil. Numbers, punctuation, and emoji stay put.
That is a fast first pass, not a full copy desk. AP Style, Chicago Manual of Style, and MLA each have lists of short words that often stay lowercase in the middle of a title (a, an, the, and, but, or, for, nor, on, at, to, from, by, and similar). If your publisher requires one of those guides, lower those joining words after you convert.
A short checklist after you convert
- Lowercase short joining words in the middle of the title if your guide says so.
- Keep the first and last words capitalized even if they are short.
- Fix brand spelling (iPhone, eBay, NASA) by hand.
- Check hyphenated compounds. Many guides capitalize both parts in a title (
Self-Driving); some only capitalize the first. - Read the title aloud. If it looks like a random bag of capitals, switch to Sentence case instead.
Examples
Input: how to fix a leaky faucet
Tool: How To Fix A Leaky Faucet
Edited (AP-ish): How to Fix a Leaky Faucet
Input: navigating o'hare airport tips
Tool: Navigating O'Hare Airport Tips
When Title Case is the wrong choice
Long paragraphs, product descriptions, and chat messages usually read better in Sentence case. Title Case on every sentence looks busy and slows scanning. If you are writing body copy, convert with Sentence case, then capitalize proper nouns.
Try it on the converter, or compare styles in Sentence case vs Title Case.