Changing Text Case

You've probably had it happen to you: You get a document from the new temp down the hall (or the technically illiterate mid-level manager), and you need to get it ready for a presentation in ten minutes. When you open the document you see that EVERYTHING IN THE DOCUMENT IS SCREAMING AT YOU. All the text is in capital letters. Aaagghhh! You can't distribute the document in this format. Quick—what do you do?

Fortunately, Word allows you to quickly and easily change the capitalization (case) of text. All you need to do is follow these steps:

1. Select the text you want to alter.
2. Press Shift+F3. Word changes the case of the selected text.
3. Continue pressing Shift+F3 until the case is the way you want it.

Using the Shift+F3 method allows you to cycle through three different case scenarios: ALL CAPS, all lowercase, and All Title Case. If you need greater control, then you need to use the menus. If you are using a version of Word prior to Word 2007, simply select your text and then choose Change Case from the Format menu. Word displays the Change Case dialog box. (Click here to see a related figure.)

Note that the dialog box provides five different ways you can change the capitalization of your text. You can select the one that reflects what you want to do, and then click OK to have Word make the change. These are the choices in the dialog box:

• Sentence Case. This option capitalizes the first letter of each sentence in the selection.
• Lowercase. This option makes all the selected text lowercase.
• Uppercase. This option capitalizes each letter in the selection.
• Title Case. This option capitalizes the first letter of each word in the selection.
• Toggle Case. This option switches the case of each letter in the selection: lowercase becomes uppercase and vice-versa.

If you are using Word 2007, then you should select the text you want to affect and make sure the Home tab of the ruler is displayed. In the Font group, click the Change Case tool. Word displays a drop-down list from which you can select the same five options that used to be displayed in the Change Case dialog box. Make your selection, and Word cheerfully makes the change to your text.