Smart Case
Change text case (UPPER / lower / Title / Sentence) for cell text — with full Vietnamese diacritics support (unlike Excel's built-in UPPER/LOWER which has bugs with some Vietnamese characters).
Open dialog
DVD Addin → group Text and Number → split-button Smart Case (Aa icon).
Direct click = applies the most recently selected case. Click the chevron to open the dropdown for other cases.
Modes
UPPER
Item name → ITEM NAME Đường Hà Nội → ĐƯỜNG HÀ NỘI
Note: handles Vietnamese diacritics correctly, unlike =UPPER(...) which sometimes loses accents.
lower
ITEM NAME → item name ĐƯỜNG HÀ NỘI → đường hà nội
Title Case
item name → Item Name đường hà nội → Đường Hà Nội
Suitable for: people names, place names, short titles.
Sentence case
item name. another sentence. → Item name. Another sentence.
Detects end-of-sentence by ., ?, !.
tOGGLE cASE
Item Name → iTEM nAME
Rarely used — mainly for caps-lock typos.
Smart Case (AI — license required)
Sends text to Gemini → AI identifies the text type (person name, place name, chemical formula, product code) → formats accordingly:
- "nguyễn văn a" → "Nguyễn Văn A" (person name).
- "h2so4" → "H₂SO₄" (chemical formula).
- "iso 9001" → "ISO 9001" (standard code).
- "tphcm" → "TP. HCM" (common abbreviation).
Smart Case requires license
Smart Case uses Gemini AI → needs an active license. Other modes (UPPER / lower / Title / Sentence / tOGGLE) are completely free.
How to use
- Select cells containing text to change.
- Click Smart Case button (most recent case) OR dropdown → pick a case.
- Text in cells is replaced in-place (no new column created).
Undo isn't always reliable
Excel cannot always undo after an add-in command. Save the workbook before changing case for 1000+ cells. Or copy to a helper column first.
Scope of operation
- Cells with text only → case changed.
- Cells with formulas → skipped (formula not modified).
- Cells with numbers / dates → skipped.
- Empty cells → skipped.
- Cells with rich text (mixed bold/italic/colors in one cell) → preserves formatting where possible, changes content case.
Comparison with built-in UPPER/LOWER
| Function | Vietnamese support | In-place | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
=UPPER(A1) | ⚠️ Some accents fail | No (needs helper col) | Excel built-in |
=LOWER(A1) | ⚠️ Some accents fail | No | Excel built-in |
=PROPER(A1) | ⚠️ Severely broken | No | Excel built-in |
| DVDAddin Smart Case | ✓ Accurate | ✓ Yes | DVDAddin |
=DvdUpper(A1) | ✓ Accurate | No | DVDAddin UDF |
=DvdLower(A1) | ✓ Accurate | No | DVDAddin UDF |
=DvdProper(A1) | ✓ Accurate | No | DVDAddin UDF |
In short: use DVDAddin Smart Case when you want in-place changes. Use DvdUpper/DvdLower UDFs when you need dynamic results via formulas.
Troubleshooting
Some cells aren't changed
- Cells contain formulas → intentionally skipped (avoid breaking formulas).
- Cells formatted as Date/Number → skipped.
- Sheet is protected → unprotect first.
Vietnamese accents broken after UPPER
- Make sure you used DVDAddin Smart Case, NOT
=UPPER()built-in. - Cell font must contain glyphs for accented uppercase (Calibri, Arial, Times New Roman all OK).
Related
- Encoding — convert between Unicode / TCVN3 / VNI.
- Remove Diacritics (DvdRemoveDiacritics) — UDF turning "Hà Nội" into "Ha Noi".
- Italic toggle — conditional italic toggle.