How to Reverse ALL CAPS Error in Microsoft Word Without Retyping

How to Reverse ALL CAPS Error in Microsoft Word Without Retyping

Key Points:

• Nearly everyone has once tapped the Caps Lock key accidentally when typing.
• If you’re multitasking when typing, you might have typed several sentences or a paragraph in ALL CAPS.
• Alternatively, when you’re so good at typing that you don’t even have to look at the screen often, you might find yourself with several paragraphs in ALL CAPS.
• Rather than retyping the ALL-CAPS text, Microsoft Word has an inbuilt feature that allows you to fix the problem.
• The feature simplifies the process of changing cases in MS Word.

There’s nothing more frustrating than accidentally hitting the CAPS LOCK key without realizing it. When multitasking, or if you’re so good at typing that you don’t need to look at the screen a lot, it’s easier to type a whole sentence or paragraph in ALL CAPS.

Texts in ALL CAPS are difficult to read because letters are difficult to recognize.

When you mistake typing a paragraph or sentence in ALL CAPS, you don’t need to retype to correct the error in Microsoft Outlook or Word. The tools have built-in utilities that can help you correct ALL CAPS errors. There are multiple ways to utilize the inbuilt tool to correct ALL CAPS mistakes. Let’s start with the easiest one.

The Shift + F3 Shortcut

You can use some hotkeys functions to remove ALL CAPS on a sentence or paragraph. Here’s how to proceed:

1. Head over to your Word document.
2. Highlight the text you want to change. If you want to convert the case of the entire document, use the CLT + A button to highlight the entire document.
3. Press the Shift + F3 keys simultaneously to change the text into lower case.
4. Now that the text is in lower case, press Shift + F3 again to change the text into sentence case — the first letter uppercase and the rest lower case.

If you continue to press the Shift + F3 when highlighting text in Microsoft Word, the text you highlight will switch from uppercase to lowercase and then sentence case. Try the following option if you’re having trouble using the Shift + F3 shortcut.

Fixing All CAPS in a Sentence or Paragraph from the Edit Tab

Sometimes, the Shift + F3 will fail to work on your computer for several reasons. If you’re using an Apple Mac or Laptop, the shortcuts may not work without using the Fn Key. You might need to use the Fn + Shift + F3 to access the shortcut. If you can’t access the shortcut for other reasons, you can go the long way to remove CAPS LOCKS from a sentence or paragraph.

Proceed as follows:

1. Highlight the text in the Microsoft Word document you typed in ALL CAPS. When you want to change the case for the whole document, use the CTRL + A keys to select everything.

2. Head to the “Home” tab at the top of the MS Word page and find the Change Case. The option has the Aa symbol.

3. Select  “Change case.” A drop-down menu will appear with several options. You can choose the following options:

• To capitalize the first letter of the sentence and leave all other letters and words in lowercase, select Sentence case to execute this function
• To change all the words you highlight to lowercase, choose the lowercase option from the menu
• To capitalize the first letter while leaving the rest of the letters in lowercase for the text you’ve highlighted, select the Capitalize Each Word option
• To switch between two case views — such as shifting between Capitalize Each Word and its opposite cAPITALIZE eACH wORD, select the tOGGLE cASE option.

4. After selecting the case option you want, hit “OK” to change all your texts to lowercase letters.

5. Select the “Save” button when you’re done.

Why Reversing ALL-CAPS Text is Critical In Word

Plenty of reasons make it necessary to reverse ALL CAPS text. One main reason you want to reverse an ALL-CAP text is that people consider it unprofessional and inappropriate.

Sending a message or email to co-workers or clients typed in capital letters is like shouting. ALL CAPS is aggressive; people might interpret it as rude because it’s difficult to read. Whether writing an email or a Word document, you should always consider using sentence cases.

Another problem with ALL CAPS is that by default, Microsoft and most programs always ignore messages you type in capital letters during spell check. Even when you adjust Word’s settings to spell check texts in upper case, you’ll have problems with acronyms and initials.

MS Word ignores uppercase words during spelling check to avoid spotting acronyms and initials as spelling errors. When you change the settings to check uppercase texts, Word will start to mark many acceptable terms as mistakes.

If your work involves writing out many acronyms, you might have many erroneous red lines in your document.

When Can You Write in ALL CAPS

Many people consider ALL CAPS texts as shouting, and it’s best not to use it unless you want to shout to someone. You should consider an in-person meeting, not that it’ll get you anywhere. Such situations include when you’re upset and want to express it. You can also use ALL CAPS to call attention to specific words or phrases.

When you’re using capital letters to call for attention, you should use them in short strings of words instead of full sentences. Otherwise, you can use bold or italics to set off emphasis in a text.

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