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

Turning Off Capital Corrections

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 20, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


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 is as follows:

  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. (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.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2753) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 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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