Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365. If you are using an earlier version (Word 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Word, click here: Using Find and Replace to Change Text Case.

Using Find and Replace to Change Text Case

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated March 2, 2019)

David wanted to find words with an initial capital letter and change the initial capital letter to lowercase. Using wildcards, he wrote a Find string that correctly found capitalized words. However, David was unable to figure out how to change the initial capital to lowercase. He thought of using a Replace string but didn't know how to create one that would do that.

There is no way to do this in Word, at least not using Find and Replace by itself. The closest you can achieve is to create a macro that will use Find and Replace to step through all instances of your capitalized words and individually change the case of them.

You can, however, easily change the case of those letters by following these general steps:

  1. Display the Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. (In Word 2007 press Ctrl+F. In later versions of Word press Ctrl+F to display the Navigation task pane, click the down-arrow at the right of the Search box, and choose Advanced Find.)
  2. Click the More button, if it is available. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The Find tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

  3. Set up your wildcard search as you normally would to locate all the words that have the initial caps letter.
  4. Use the Find In drop-down list to choose Main Document. Word immediately selects all of the words that match the pattern you specified in step 2.
  5. Press Esc to get rid of the Find and Replace dialog box. Your words should all still be selected.
  6. Press Shift+F3 as many times as necessary to get the capitalization the way you want it for the selected words.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (12517) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Office 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Word here: Using Find and Replace to Change Text Case.

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

Placing Formula Results in a Comment

Excel won't allow you to directly or automatically insert the results of a formula into a cell's comment. You can, ...

Discover More

Using Check Boxes

Check boxes, just like those used in Windows dialog boxes, can be a great addition to a worksheet. Here's how to add them ...

Discover More

Selecting a Field

Do you need to select a field? It is as simple as selecting a single character, as this tip explains.

Discover More

Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Removing HTML Tags from Text

HTML tags are great when you want to display information on a web page. They are not so great when you have them in a ...

Discover More

Finding and Replacing Text Boxes

The Find and Replace capabilities of Word are very powerful, but they still come up a bit short when searching for some ...

Discover More

Easily Spotting Found Text

The color used by Word to draw your attention to "found text" when using Find and Replace can vary, based on a number of ...

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 eight minus 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

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 © 2019 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.