If you don’t like the automatic capitalization where Microsoft Word corrects what it thinks to be errors with capital letters, you can completely disable that feature or just customize it to meet your needs.

To disable the capitalization autocorrect, click the “File” tab.

On the backstage screen, click “Options” in the list of items on the left.

Click “Proofing” in the list of items on the left side of the Word Options dialog box.

In the AutoCorrect opitons section, click the “AutoCorrect Options” button.

The AutoCorrect dialog box displays with the AutoCorrect tab active. At the top of the tab uncheck the boxes for the options you don’t want Word to correct (shown in the red box below). If you’re done making changes to these options, click “OK”. However, there’s more you can do with these options, if you would rather not completely turn them off. To find out about exceptions you an apply, leave the AutoCorrect dialog box open and read on.

If you’d rather leave these options on, you can use the Exceptions button to add specific items that you want to be exempt from the rules and not be automatically corrected.

On the AutoCorrect Exceptions dialog box, you can add words that you don’t want Word to correct. The First Letter tab is for words that would normally be corrected for the first letter of sentences and table cells. The INitial CAps tab allows you to add exceptions for words, like “IDs”, with two the first two letters capitalized, but not the rest. Add any other exceptions to the Other Corrections tab. Click “OK” when you’re done.

Click “OK” on the AutoCorrect dialog box and then again on the Word Options dialog box to close both dialog boxes.

If you disable the capitalization AutoCorrect options, you may want to turn on the feature that checks spelling as you type, so you don’t miss capitalization errors.

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Lowell is the founder and CEO of How-To Geek. He’s been running the show since creating the site back in 2006. Over the last decade, Lowell has personally written more than 1000 articles which have been viewed by over 250 million people. Prior to starting How-To Geek, Lowell spent 15 years working in IT doing consulting, cybersecurity, database management, and programming work.
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