Title Case Converter
Convert headlines to APA, Chicago, AP or MLA title case.
Overview
Apply title case to a headline or sentence following the rules of a specific style guide — APA, Chicago, AP, or MLA. Each guide treats short articles, prepositions, and conjunctions slightly differently, and this tool gives you the conventional result for the one you need.
Writers preparing manuscripts for journals, bloggers formatting post titles, copyeditors enforcing house style, and students following an assignment-specified style guide all reach for it. For simple "capitalize every word" formatting, the basic Text Case Converter is faster; this tool exists because the real style-guide rules are fiddly.
How it works
All four style guides agree on capitalizing nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns. They differ on what stays lowercase: short prepositions and conjunctions usually do, but the threshold (under 4 letters, under 5, under 3) varies by guide. They also disagree on whether to capitalize the second part of a hyphenated compound, and on what to do with the first and last word of the title (always capitalized in every style).
The converter has each style's rule set built in. Choose the style and the tool applies the matching conventions.
Examples
Input: the lord of the rings: the two towers
APA: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Chicago: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
AP: The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (AP capitalizes "Of")
MLA: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Input: a tale of two cities
APA: A Tale of Two Cities
FAQ
Which style should I use?
Match whatever the destination requires. Most academic journals use APA. Most books and long-form non-fiction follow Chicago. Most US newspapers follow AP. MLA is common in humanities papers.
Why doesn't AP lowercase "Of"?
AP traditionally capitalizes all prepositions of four or more letters and lowercases the rest. Some guides further restrict by part of speech; AP's rule is simpler and produces slightly different output.
What about proper nouns I've already capitalized?
The tool preserves capitalization on words that contain interior capitals (like "iPhone" or "McDonald's"). Words written entirely lowercase get the style rule applied.