Changing Text Case

You've probably had it happen to you: You get a document from the new temp down the hall (or the technically illiterate mid-level manager), and you need to get it ready for a presentation in ten minutes. When you open the document you see that EVERYTHING IN THE DOCUMENT IS SCREAMING AT YOU. All the text is in capital letters. Aaagghhh! You can't distribute the document in this format. Quick—what do you do?

Fortunately, Word allows you to quickly and easily change the capitalization (case) of text. All you need to do is follow these steps:

1. Select the text you want to alter.
2. Press Shift+F3. Word changes the case of the selected text.
3. Continue pressing Shift+F3 until the case is the way you want it.

Using the Shift+F3 method allows you to cycle through three different case scenarios: ALL CAPS, all lowercase, and All Title Case. If you need greater control, then you need to use the tools on the ribbon. Start by selecting your text and then displaying the Home tab of the ribbon. Click the Change Case tool in the Font group and Word displays a drop-down list from which you can select how you want the case of the selected text affected:

• Sentence Case. This option capitalizes the first letter of each sentence in the selection.
• Lowercase. This option makes all the selected text lowercase.
• Uppercase. This option capitalizes each letter in the selection.
• Title Case. This option capitalizes the first letter of each word in the selection.
• Toggle Case. This option switches the case of each letter in the selection: lowercase becomes uppercase and vice-versa.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11239) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Changing Text Case.