Overview
Title Capitalization trims `text` and replaces tabs and line breaks with spaces before converting, so multi-line input comes back on one line. `style` is lowercased and must be one of the documented values; anything else is rejected with a 400 error.
The headline styles `title-case`, `ap`, `apa`, `chicago`, `mla`, `nyt`, `ama`, `bb`, `wikipedia` and `email` all call the same function from the title-case library. It capitalizes the first letter of each word but leaves a fixed list of lowercase small words alone in mid-title, including a, an, and, as, at, but, by, for, if, in, nor, of, on, or, so, than, that, the, to, up, via, vs, with and yet. The first and last words, and a word after a colon, quotation mark or sentence-ending punctuation, are always capitalized. Small words are matched case-sensitively, so a capitalized "The" in mid-title stays capitalized. Words that already contain a capital after the first letter, as well as URLs and email addresses, are left as typed. The library does not lowercase existing capitals, so an all-caps input stays all caps; send lowercase text if you want a clean conversion.
`sentence-case` uses the change-case library, which splits the text into words (including at camelCase boundaries), lowercases them, capitalizes the first and joins them with spaces; punctuation between words is dropped in the process. `uppercase` and `lowercase` are plain conversions. `first-letter` uppercases the first character and lowercases the rest. `alt-case` alternates lower and upper case by character position, counting spaces and punctuation, and `toggle-case` swaps the case of every character.
`style` echoes the normalized style name and `text` holds the result. The response is identical on every plan.
Live Test Convert Titles to Title Case Source →
Formula
One function covers the whole catalog: the first argument names the source, the next are its inputs, and the field after them says which single value lands in the cell. Formulas covers the grammar that applies to all of them.
=VERVE("titlecapitalization", A2, B2, "text")=VERVE.CALL("titlecapitalization", A2, B2, "text")A2 holds text, B2 holds style. Arguments go in that order — the same order as the table below.
With literal values
Nothing has to come from a cell — typed values work the same way.
=VERVE("titlecapitalization", "hello world", "title-case", "text")=VERVE.CALL("titlecapitalization", "hello world", "title-case", "text")Inputs
Required inputs are positional, in the order below, followed by the field. Everything else is passed as a "name", value pair after that — the same shape as SUMIFS. Premium inputs are accepted on every plan but only take effect on plans that include them.
| Input | Type | Where it goes | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
textRequired | string | argument 2 (A2) | The text to convert to title case |
styleRequired | string | argument 3 (B2) | The case to convert the text toapachicagoapmlanytamabbwikipedia+8 |
What lands in your sheet
The field — the argument after the inputs — is what makes the formula resolve to one cell. Its value is a dot-path from the table below, so swapping it is how you pull a different value — one formula per column.
Seeing everything at once
Leave the field out and the formula returns the whole response instead: two columns, field name on the left and value on the right, spilling from the cell you typed in.
=VERVE("titlecapitalization", A2, B2)=VERVE.CALL("titlecapitalization", A2, B2)The second row's table would land on top of the first's, and every cell after the first reads #REF! (#SPILL! in Excel). Keep one per sheet, or name a field, and leave the cells below and to the right empty.
Response fields
Paths are relative to data. Each one is exactly what the field argument accepts, so swapping it is how you pull a different value into a cell. On a plan without a Premium field the cell reads #PREMIUM(field) rather than a value, so a locked field never looks like a real answer.
| Use as the field | Type | Example cell value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
style | string | title-case | The selected case style applied to the text |
text | string | Comprehensive Analysis of Quarterly Financial Performance and Strategic Initiatives for Sustainable… | The converted text in the requested case style |
Filling a whole column
Both platforms make one batched call for a column rather than one request per cell, and both cost the same — 1 credit per row looked up. How you write it differs, because the two runtimes batch at different points.
=VERVE("titlecapitalization", A2:A100, B2:B100, "text")In Google Sheets, give the arguments ranges and the answers spill down from the cell you typed in. Custom functions there run synchronously and in isolation, so dragged cells cannot be coalesced — the range form is how a column becomes one call. The field is required here: a per-row two-column table has nowhere to spill. Use a full column per input (A2:A100, not A2) — a single-cell reference is read as row 1 only and the rest of the column comes back blank.
In Excel, type the formula once and fill down — no range form and none needed, because its runtime is asynchronous and the add-in coalesces the calls a fill produces into a single batched request. Do not hand VERVE.CALL a range: Excel flattens it into positional arguments, so A2:A100 arrives as a hundred separate arguments and the cell reads #ERR rather than filling.
Either way, column A holds your text values and the answers land beside them, one row each, blank rows skipped.
When a cell doesn't fill
A failed lookup returns readable text starting with #ERR rather than a spreadsheet error, because Excel cannot show a custom message on a real error — you would get a bare #VALUE! with no reason. The trade-off is that IFERROR() will not catch it; test with LEFT(cell, 4) = "#ERR" instead. Error handling covers the rest.
| Cell reads | What happened |
|---|---|
#ERR Not connected | No API key saved. Open the side panel and connect your account. |
#ERR Replace <name> with a cell or value | A preview formula was copied as-is. Swap the placeholder for a cell reference. |
#ERR No "x" in titlecapitalization | An option name this source does not take. The message lists the ones it does. |
#ERR No data point "…" | The field path is not in the response. Check it against the table above. |
#PREMIUM(field) | The field exists but your plan does not include it. |
#ERR Out of credits | The cycle's credits are spent. Usage resets on your billing date. |
Before the formula works
The add-in reads the API key you saved once in the side panel — the key never goes in the formula, so a shared sheet does not leak it and a collaborator without access simply sees the last calculated values.
- Install the add-in for Google Sheets or Excel.
- Open the side panel and sign in, or paste a key from your dashboard.
- Type the formula above into any cell.
Use cases
- Editorial Style Enforcement
- Editorial desks format draft article headlines to Chicago or AP rules automatically before publishing to the live site.
- Citation Bibliography Formatting
- Reference management software converts uploaded paper titles to APA or MLA casing before building bibliography export files.
- Campaign Subject Normalization
- When scheduling outbound broadcasts, email tools pass draft subject lines through the API to enforce uniform sentence-case styling.
- Technical Documentation Linting
- To maintain uniform guides, build pipelines convert markdown section headings into matching APA or sentence case styles during deployment.
Other ways to use Convert Titles to Title Case
Set up Convert Titles to Title Case on VerveSheets, or reach the same source a different way. Your VerveSheets account and credits work on all of them — one key, one balance.
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