Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Turning Off Capital Corrections.

Turning Off Capital Corrections

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 18, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


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.) Here's how you do it:

  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. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The AutoCorrect tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box.

  4. Clear the Correct TWo INitial Capitals check box.
  5. 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 (481) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Turning Off Capital Corrections.

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. ...

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