Turning Off Capital Corrections

Word tries its level best to be a good guesser at what you are trying to do. For instance, as you are typing along, if you type a word where the first two letters are uppercase, and the next letter is lowercase, Word will figure you just have slow fingers and didn't release the Shift key in time to make the second letter lowercase. So, it dutifully changes the second letter to lowercase to help you out. For instance, the word PLace becomes Place.

There are some situations where this behavior can be bothersome, however. For instance, you may have a company or product name in which the first two letters are always capitalized, such as INtec or MYphone. In these cases, Word also tries to do its magic and change the capitalization, which can cause no end to proofreading passes and related problems.

One solution to this problem is to turn off the correction that Word does to your words. (At least for this particular capitalization issue.) The way you do that is as follows, provided you are using a version of Word prior to Word 2007:

1. Choose AutoCorrect from the Tools menu. (In Word 2003 choose AutoCorrect Options from the Tools menu.) Word displays the AutoCorrect dialog box.
2. Make sure the AutoCorrect tab is displayed. (Click here to see a related figure.)
3. Clear the Correct TWo INitial Capitals check box.
4. Click on OK.

If you are using Word 2007, then follow these steps:

1. Click the Office button, and then click Word Options. Word displays the Word Options dialog box.
2. Click Proofing at the left side of the dialog box, and then click AutoCorrect Options. Word displays the AutoCorrect dialog box.
3. Make sure the AutoCorrect tab is displayed.
4. Clear the Correct TWo INitial Capitals check box.
5. Click OK to dismiss the AutoCorrect dialog box.
6. Click on Cancel to dismiss the Word Options dialog box.