Turning Off Capital Corrections

Excel often tries to compensate for your shortcomings as a typist. 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, Excel figures 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.

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, Excel also tries to do its magic and change the capitalization.

One solution to this problem is to turn off the correction that Excel does to your words. (At least for this particular capitalization issue.) The way you do that in Excel 2007 is as follows:

1. Click the Office button and then click Excel Options. Excel displays the Excel Options dialog box.
2. At the left side of the dialog box click Proofing.
3. Click AutoCorrect Options. Excel displays the AutoCorrect dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)
4. Clear the Correct TWo INitial CApitals check box.
5. Click on OK.

If you are using an older version of Excel, follow these steps instead:

1. Choose AutoCorrect from the Tools menu (Excel 97 and Excel 2000) or AutoCorrect Options from the Tools menu (Excel 2002 and Excel 2003). Excel displays the AutoCorrect dialog box.
2. Make sure the AutoCorrect tab is selected.
3. Clear the Correct TWo INitial CApitals check box.
4. Click on OK.