How to Convert Text into a URL Slug Form
Text to Slug produces a URL-oriented text form with an optional separator and lowercase setting. It converts each non-empty line separately when the input contains literal line-feed characters.
Understand the conversion
Text to Slug turns text into a URL-oriented slug form for situations where a title or label needs a simpler text representation. You can adjust the separator and decide whether the converted letters should be lowercase. The tool also handles several text segments in one input when those segments are separated by literal line-feed characters. Its result is slug-oriented text, not a complete URL, so use it as a prepared text value rather than as an address ready to visit.
Convert the text
- Enter the title, phrase, or other text that you want to convert. Text may be omitted, entered as one segment, or supplied as multiple segments separated by literal line-feed characters.
- Choose the separator for the converted text. The default is a hyphen. If the supplied separator is empty or otherwise false-like, the hyphen remains in effect; if you provide a value, only its first character is used.
- Decide whether lowercase conversion should remain enabled. Lowercase is enabled by default, while disabling that setting lets the converted letter case remain available after the other text changes are applied.
- Start the conversion and inspect the returned text. With multiline input, each segment is converted independently and the resulting segments stay separated by line-feed characters.
The conversion first decomposes Unicode text and removes characters that cannot be represented as ASCII. It then removes characters other than ASCII letters, digits, whitespace, hyphens, and underscores. Surrounding whitespace is trimmed, and consecutive runs made from whitespace, hyphens, or underscores are replaced by the selected separator. Finally, separator characters are removed from the beginning and end of each converted segment.
For a single phrase, review the chosen separator before converting if the destination format has a specific convention. For a batch of lines, put each intended segment on its own line rather than relying on punctuation to divide entries. If preserving capitalization matters, turn off lowercase conversion before starting the operation. If a separator value contains several characters, decide which first character should represent the whole separator run.
Interpret the returned text
Read the result as one converted segment for single-line input or as a line-preserving collection for multiline input. A successful result contains converted text, and an empty or omitted input produces empty converted output with no per-line entries. This empty-input behavior is useful when a form needs to distinguish a successful empty conversion from a converted phrase.
Inspect the boundaries of every returned line because surrounding separator characters are removed after conversion. Several adjacent spaces, hyphens, or underscores become one selected separator, so the output does not preserve those original runs. Accented characters or other characters that cannot be represented as ASCII may be removed, and punctuation outside the supported character set is removed as well.
The conversion does not establish that a text value is suitable for a particular site or address. Compare the returned form with the naming rules of the place where you plan to use it, especially when the original wording contains symbols, accented characters, or capitalization that carries meaning. For multiline input, assess each line separately because line boundaries are retained while the content of each segment is normalized.
Worked example
A content editor wants a readable slug-oriented form for a campaign title while retaining capital letters and placing underscores between word groups.
Enter “Café Orders / Summer Sale”, select an underscore as the separator, disable lowercase conversion, and start the conversion.
The result has one converted line with ASCII letters and underscores between word groups, specifically Cafe_Orders_Summer_Sale, while capitalization remains available because lowercase conversion was disabled.
Limitations
- Normalization may remove non-ASCII characters and unsupported punctuation, and the result is slug-oriented text rather than a complete URL.
Common errors
- A multi-character separator is reduced to its first character; enter one intended separator character when the output needs a predictable delimiter.
FAQ
What happens when I leave the text field empty?
The operation succeeds with empty converted output and no per-line entries when text is empty or omitted.
Can I use a multi-character separator?
Only the first character of a supplied separator is used, whereas an empty or otherwise false-like value causes the default hyphen to be used.
Can I convert multiple lines at once?
Non-empty input is divided only at literal line-feed characters, with each resulting segment converted independently and the converted segments rejoined using those line boundaries.