Turning Off Automatic Capitalization in Lists

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 13, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365


1

Jim notes that Word capitalizes the first letter of a word that follows a bullet or after automatic numbering. Often this is not correct; the first letter should not be capitalized if it is part of a sentence that could have been expressed using commas, but for clarity is put into a list. He understands that Ctrl+Z will undo the capitalizations on each occasion but wonders if there is a way to turn it off.

The answer is yes and no. Yes, you can turn off this feature in Word. All you need to do is to follow these steps:

  1. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 or a later version, 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.

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

That's it; the capitalization will not happen. However, this leads to my "no" answer—this action doesn't affect only the start of numbered lists or bulleted lists. It affects everywhere that Word thinks you are beginning a sentence, which includes the start of items in lists. (And, to boot, the change affects similar behavior in other Office applications.)

What this means is that you have a choice—is it a bigger bother to have to press Ctrl+Z at the beginning of list items that should not have an initial cap, or to not have Word capitalize beginning letters in all other sentences? There is no way to force Word to not capitalize only in lists.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13770) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Word in Microsoft 365.

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

Making All Lines in a Paragraph the Same Height

If the line spacing in a paragraph appears uneven it may result of the combination of a larger character or object pasted ...

Discover More

Printing to a Disk File

When printing a worksheet, there may be times when you want to send the printer output to a disk file instead of to the ...

Discover More

Counting the Number of Blank Cells

If you need to count the number of blank cells in a range, the function to use is COUNTBLANK. This tip discusses the ...

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)

Ctrl+V No Longer Works

One of the most commonly used keyboard shortcuts is CTRL+V, which is used to paste the contents of the Clipboard. If ...

Discover More

Moving Text without Affecting the Clipboard

Want a quick and easy way to move text (or other document elements) from one place to another in your document? Check out ...

Discover More

Lines Breaking between Double Spaces

Some people like to have one space between sentences, while others prefer two. For those in the latter camp, you may ...

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.

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}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) 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 + 3?

2020-06-13 15:39:04

Lou Jones

Jim has brought up an important point. I have a huge document, consisting almost entirely of numerous tables formatted alike. I have been trying unsuccessfully to turn off automatic capitalization in one specific cell in all of those tables. I can manually edit a cell to make the first letter lower case, but I will not do that for thousands of tables, especially when I think that the field will be changed back at some unknown time in the future.


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.

Videos
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.