Few writing decisions look as small as capitalization and cause as many debates. Should a heading read How to Write a Great Headline or How to write a great headline? Both are correct. The difference is style, and the best choice depends on where the text will appear.
This guide explains what title case and sentence case mean, lays out the rules for each, summarizes what Google's and Microsoft's style guides recommend, and gives you a simple way to pick one and apply it consistently across a website, a document, or a team.
In short: sentence case reads more naturally and is the choice of major digital style guides for headings, while title case is traditional for the titles of books, films, and many publications. Whichever you choose, apply it consistently.
What is sentence case?
Sentence case capitalizes the way you would in an ordinary sentence: the first word, plus proper nouns and anything that is always capitalized a certain way, such as names, places, brands, and acronyms. Everything else is lowercase. How to write a clear headline is sentence case, and How to write a clear headline for Google Search keeps Google Search capitalized because it is a proper noun.
Google's developer documentation style guide states the rule directly: in document titles and headings, capitalize only the first word, the first word in a subheading after a colon, and any proper nouns or other terms that are always capitalized a certain way. It adds that you should not put a period at the end of a title or heading.
What is title case?
Title case capitalizes most words in a title, while small connecting words stay lowercase unless they come first or last. How to Write a Clear Headline is title case. It is traditional for the titles of books, films, and songs and for many magazine and newspaper headlines, and it can give a title a more formal, display-title look.
The rules for exactly which words stay lowercase differ between style guides, and that is where most of the confusion starts.
Title case rules
Microsoft's Writing Style Guide uses sentence case for most headings but spells out title-style capitalization for the occasions when it is needed. It is one clear, widely used set of rules, so it makes a good reference.
Other style guides draw the lines differently. Some capitalize any word of four or more letters, and some lowercase every preposition regardless of length. If a publisher, school, or client specifies a guide, follow theirs.
- Always capitalize the first and last words.
- Do not capitalize a, an, or the unless it is the first word.
- Do not capitalize prepositions of four or fewer letters, such as on, to, in, up, down, of, and for, unless the preposition is the first or last word.
- Do not capitalize and, but, or, nor, yet, or so unless it is the first or last word.
- Capitalize everything else, including nouns, verbs (including forms of be such as is), adverbs such as very and too, adjectives, and pronouns such as this, that, and its.
- Capitalize the word after a hyphen if it would be capitalized without the hyphen or if it is the last word.
Title case vs sentence case: examples side by side
Seeing the same heading in both styles makes the difference concrete. The title case versions below follow the Microsoft rules above.
- Title case: The Beginner's Guide to Writing for the Web. Sentence case: The beginner's guide to writing for the web.
- Title case: Why Is My Website Loading Slowly? Sentence case: Why is my website loading slowly?
- Title case: A Beginner's Guide to Google Analytics. Sentence case: A beginner's guide to Google Analytics.
- Title case: Self-Paced Courses for Front-End Developers. Sentence case: Self-paced courses for front-end developers.
Which should you use? What the style guides say
Google's style guide and Microsoft's both choose sentence case for titles and headings. Microsoft's guide goes further, noting that titles of blog posts, documentation articles, and press releases use sentence-style capitalization, and it reserves title style for occasions such as product and service names, blog names, book and song titles, article titles in citations, and white paper titles.
Many newspapers and magazines have historically used headline-style title case, and academic styles prescribe their own rules for paper titles and reference lists. So the answer depends on context rather than on one universally correct style.
For search, capitalization is not a lever. Google's guidance on title elements asks for descriptive, concise, unique titles for each page and warns against keyword stuffing; it gives no capitalization rule. Google also notes that it may generate a different title link when it considers the original poor, so clarity matters more than casing. Choose the style that suits your readers and your brand, and keep it consistent.
- Web page headings, blog posts, interface labels, buttons, and documentation: sentence case is the common choice of major digital style guides.
- Book, film, album, and article titles when you cite them: follow the capitalization of the source or the citation style you are using.
- Brand, product, and publication names: use the official capitalization.
- Anything governed by a publisher or client style guide: follow it exactly.
Tricky cases to watch for
Most real-world capitalization mistakes come from a handful of special cases rather than from the main rules.
- Proper nouns and brands: keep their official capitalization in both styles, as in JavaScript, iPhone, or LinkedIn.
- Acronyms: keep them in capitals, such as PDF, CSV, or API, even in sentence case.
- After a colon: both Google's and Microsoft's guides capitalize the first word after a colon in a heading.
- Hyphenated words: in title case, Microsoft capitalizes the word after a hyphen when it would be capitalized without the hyphen or is the last word. In sentence case, leave it lowercase unless it is a proper noun.
- Multiple sentences: capitalize the first word of each sentence in a heading, such as after a question mark.
- All caps: avoid them for headings and emphasis. Microsoft's guide says not to use all uppercase for emphasis.
Capitalization beyond headings: buttons, labels, and menus
Capitalization decisions do not stop at article headings. Microsoft's style guide says to capitalize the first word of a sentence, heading, title, or interface label, such as the name of a button or checkbox, and to use lowercase for everything else except proper nouns. Under that rule a button reads Save changes rather than Save Changes.
Navigation menus, email subject lines, and social posts are less formal, so pick whichever style matches the rest of your site and keep it uniform. A menu that mixes About us, Our Services, and contact is the kind of inconsistency visitors notice even when they cannot say why.
A simple workflow for capitalizing any headline
If you are ever unsure, work through the same steps every time. Starting from sentence case is easiest because it has the fewest judgment calls.
- Write the headline in sentence case first, capitalizing only the first word.
- Mark every proper noun, brand, and acronym, and capitalize them exactly as their owners do.
- If title case is required, apply your named style guide's list of small words that stay lowercase.
- Re-check the first and last words, which most title case rules always capitalize.
- Compare the result with the other headings on the page and fix any that break the pattern.
Common questions about title case and sentence case
Is sentence case less professional than title case? No. Google and Microsoft both use sentence case for headings in their own documentation, and it is easier to apply consistently because it needs fewer judgment calls.
Can I use title case for the main title and sentence case for subheadings? Some teams do, and it can work as long as the rule is written down and applied the same way on every page. The problem is not the mix itself but unplanned inconsistency.
Which words count as proper nouns? Names of people, places, organizations, brands, and products, plus terms that are always capitalized a certain way. When you are unsure, check how the owner spells the name on its own website.
How to apply a capitalization style consistently
The most common problem is not choosing the wrong style but mixing styles: one heading in title case, the next in sentence case, a third in all lowercase. Consistency signals care and makes a site feel professional.
Automatic case converters can speed up bulk edits, but they cannot know which words are proper nouns, brands, or acronyms, and they apply a single set of rules that may not match your style guide. Always review the output, particularly words such as iPhone, JavaScript, or WordPress, and small words such as up or off that can be prepositions or particles depending on the sentence.
- Pick one style for each content type, for example sentence case for headings and title case for product names.
- Write the rule down with three or four example headings so everyone on the team can copy it.
- Keep a short list of brand names, acronyms, and terms with special capitalization.
- Check headings as a group, in the page outline or navigation, rather than one at a time.
Practical checklist
- Choose sentence case or title case for each content type and write the rule down.
- In sentence case, capitalize the first word, proper nouns, brands, and acronyms only.
- In title case, follow one named style guide for small words and hyphenated terms.
- Keep the official capitalization of product and brand names in every style.
- Review automatic case conversions by hand.
- Check all headings on a page together for consistency.
- Do not rely on capitalization for SEO; write clear, descriptive titles.
Research and references
This guide was prepared from the authoritative references below.
