How to Stop Microsoft Word From Capitalizing the First Letter of a New Sentence

Microsoft Word by default has certain grammar and spelling corrections turned on, such as automatically capitalizing the first letter of every sentence. There are plenty of reasons to override Word's changes and keep the first letter of each new sentence lowercase, like for aesthetic reasons. To do this, you'll have to disable the AutoCorrect feature that's getting in the way.

1. Click the "File" tab.
2. Select "Options."
3. Click "Proofing."
4. Click "AutoCorrect Options."
5. Click the box that says "Capitalize First Letter of Sentences" in the AutoCorrect tab to clear it and remove the default setting.
6. Click the box that says "Correct Two Initial Capitals" to clear it and remove the default setting.

References

• Microsoft Office: Automatically Correct Capitalization

Tips

• If you want Word to go back to its default setting of capitalizing the first word of each new sentence, repeat the steps and select the "Capitalize First Letter of Sentences" box to enable the feature again.
• If you want to change only a few letters in a document and don't want to remove the AutoCorrect default that instructs Word to capitalize the first letter of a sentence, regardless of what you type, highlight the letter in question and click the "Change Case" button from the Font group on the Home toolbar.

Warnings

• If you change the setting in Word to ignore capitalizing the first letter in each new sentence, the rule will apply to the Office programs like Powerpoint, Publisher or Access until you change it back to the default.