Title Case Converter
Capitalise headlines and titles correctly using Chicago, AP, APA or MLA rules, keeping acronyms intact.
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Tool guide
What this tool does
Title Case Converter capitalises headings according to the major style guides. It keeps short articles, conjunctions and prepositions lowercase where each guide says so, always capitalises the first and last word and the word after a colon, and leaves acronyms such as NASA or brand names such as iPhone untouched.
Title case looks simple until you have to decide whether “with”, “from” or “Is” should be capitalised. The answer depends on the style guide. The Chicago Manual of Style lowercases every preposition regardless of length, the AP Stylebook capitalises any word of four letters or more, APA 7 capitalises all words of four or more letters, and MLA lowercases prepositions and coordinating conjunctions. Mixing these rules in one publication looks careless.
This converter applies the rules of the guide you choose to each line separately, so you can paste a whole list of headings. The first and last words are always capitalised, as is the first word after a colon or a full stop. Words that are already all capitals or have internal capitals are kept as written when “Keep acronyms” is on, unless the entire line is in capitals, in which case it is treated as a shouted headline and fixed.
How to use Title Case Converter
- Paste one or more titles into the input, one per line, or press Sample.
- Choose the Style guide your publication follows: Chicago, AP, APA, MLA or every word capitalised.
- Leave “Keep acronyms and brand casing” on so words such as PDF, UK and eBay are not changed.
- Choose how hyphenated compounds are treated: capitalise each part or only the first.
- Copy or download the converted titles, or use the output as input to try another style.
Tips for better results
- Chicago is the usual choice for books and many blogs, AP for news writing, and APA or MLA for academic papers and reference lists.
- APA uses title case for headings and the titles of works in running text, but sentence case for article titles in the reference list.
- A word used as an adverb or a particle in a phrasal verb, as in “Log In” or “Set Up”, is normally capitalised. Check these by hand because the tool cannot tell parts of speech apart.
- Keep subtitles after a colon capitalised; every major guide treats the subtitle as a new title.
Common use cases
- Standardising blog post headlines before publishing.
- Formatting chapter and section headings in a manuscript.
- Cleaning a spreadsheet of product or course names.
- Preparing titles of works for an APA or MLA paper.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Using a generic capitalise-every-word tool, which wrongly capitalises “of”, “and” and “the” in the middle of a title.
- Turning off acronym preservation and ending up with “Nasa” or “Iphone”.
- Assuming the same rules apply in every language. These conventions are for English; French and Spanish titles normally use sentence case.
Frequently asked questions
Which words stay lowercase in title case?
In Chicago style: articles (a, an, the), the conjunctions and, but, for, or and nor, and all prepositions. AP and APA lowercase only such words when they have three letters or fewer. Every guide capitalises the first and last word.
How are hyphenated words handled?
By default each part is capitalised, as in State-of-the-Art, while minor words inside the compound stay lowercase. You can switch to capitalising only the first part if your house style prefers it.
Can I convert many titles at once?
Yes. Each line is treated as a separate title, so the first and last word rules apply line by line. You can paste hundreds of lines.
What is the difference between title case and sentence case?
Title case capitalises the main words of a heading. Sentence case capitalises only the first word and proper nouns, like a normal sentence. Use the Case Converter for sentence case.
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