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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Using a Single-Column Heading in a Multi-Column Layout

Want different numbers of columns all on the same page? Word makes it easy to use, for instance, a heading that uses a ...

Discover More

Moving Building Blocks

Building blocks are a sort of "extended" AutoText introduced in Word 2007. As you work with building blocks, you may ...

Discover More

Intelligently Starting a New Paragraph

When using styles in a document, you can increase your productivity by letting Word know what paragraph style you expect ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Increasing the Capacity of AutoCorrect

AutoCorrect can be a great tool to, well, "correct" information that you type. If you get a little creative, you can even ...

Discover More

Automatically Capitalizing Day Names

When you enter a day name into a cell, Excel automatically capitalizes it. If you want to modify this behavior, follow ...

Discover More

Unwanted Data Changes

The AutoCorrect feature in Excel can change some of your data in ways you don't like. If you discover this is happening, ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, 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 two more than 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, 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.