Controlling Automatic Capitalization

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated March 29, 2016)

1

As you are typing away on a document, you may have noticed that periodically Word will second-guess what you are doing and capitalize words for you. In general, Word does this when it thinks you are starting a new sentence. If you find yourself undoing Word's decisions on this issue quite a bit, you can turn off the feature completely by following these steps:

  1. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 and Word 2013 display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
  2. Click Proofing at the left side of the dialog box.
  3. Click the AutoCorrect Options button. Word displays the AutoCorrect dialog box.
  4. Make sure the AutoCorrect tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)

    5. Figure 1. The AutoCorrect tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box.

  5. Clear the Capitalize First Letter of Sentences check box.
  6. Click on OK.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (6045) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, and 2013.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He  is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Problems Pasting Large Pictures

If you insert a large picture in your document and your text jumps all around and the picture seems to disappear, don't ...

Discover More

Entered Values are Divided by 100

Enter a value into a cell and "poof!" it is automatically divided by 100. What's going on, and how can you fix it so that ...

Discover More

Determining How Many Windows are Open

Does your macro need to know how many windows Excel has open? You can determine it by using the Count property of the Windows ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Shortcut for AutoCorrect Dialog Box

There is no built-in keyboard shortcut that will display the AutoCorrect dialog box. This doesn't mean that there aren't a ...

Discover More

Emoticons in Word

Like to add a smiley or two to your writing? Word makes it easy through creative use of the AutoCorrect feature.

Discover More

Make AutoCorrect Pay Attention to Character Case

If you rely on AutoCorrect (as most Word users do), you may have noticed that it doesn't always give the desired results with ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 9 - 2?

2016-05-28 22:04:10

Linda Takagi

I am a medical transcriptionist and recently installed Word 2010. Since then when my AutoCorrect entries come at the beginning of a sentence they will not capitalize. Yes, I hold the shift key down and yes my 'cap first letter of sentences' box is checked. Also, when I use an AC entry for a capitalized heading, the first letter remains in lower case: hISTORY: If I enter "The patient" (tp) at the start of a sentence it comes out "the patient" My IT dept is baffled. They have all checked my computer up an down with no success but all agree that it has to be a Word issue. Any tips? Obviously this pretty much negates the time-saving properties of AutoCorrect. Thanks.

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR AUTHORS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2017 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.