Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Correcting a Capital Mistake.

Correcting a Capital Mistake

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 24, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365


3

I can't tell you the number of times that I've been feverishly typing away, without glancing up at my worksheet. I get in a "groove," and I keep typing away, figuring I will check things out when I get to the end of a row or a column. When I finally look up, I notice that I had the Caps Lock key selected, so all my normal text is in uppercase, and everything I wanted in upper case is in lowercase. This happened because I hit the Caps Lock key by mistake, and didn't notice the mistake until I'd already entered quite a bit of data.

Fortunately, Excel can catch this type of mistake for me—if I tell it to catch it. Follow these steps:

  1. Display the Excel Options dialog box. (In Excel 2007 click the Office button and then click Excel Options. In Excel 2010 or a later version, display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
  2. Click Proofing at the left side of the screen. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Proofing options of the Excel Options dialog box.

  4. Click AutoCorrect Options. Excel displays the AutoCorrect dialog box.
  5. Display the AutoCorrect tab. (See Figure 2.)
  6. Figure 2. The AutoCorrect tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box.

  7. Make sure the Correct Accidental Use of cAPS LOCK Key check box is selected.
  8. Click on OK.

Now, if I type something in a cell and the first letter is lowercase and the rest of the letters are uppercase, Excel figures that I've got the Caps Lock key selected, and helpfully turns it off. It also corrects the capitalization of my text entry.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (10631) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Correcting a Capital Mistake.

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

Developing Reciprocal Conversion Formulas

When converting between measurement systems, you might want to use two cells for each type of measurement. Make a change ...

Discover More

Find and Replace in a Column or Row

Need to search for information in a table? Word allows you to easily limit your search to an entire column or row, as ...

Discover More

Changing the Default Vertical Alignment

By default, Excel vertically aligns cell contents to the bottom of cells. If you prefer a different default alignment, ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Using AutoCorrect

The AutoCorrect feature in Excel is a great tool for quickly entering information. Here's an explanation of the feature ...

Discover More

Turning Off Automatic Capitalization

Type some information into a worksheet, and you may notice that Excel automatically capitalizes some of your information. ...

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 six minus 4?

2021-07-29 16:24:46

Tomek

@Roy: Yes it can. The registry key I gave in my earlier comment just remaps the Caps Lock key scan code to 00, which is nothing. You can replace it by another scan code to effectively convert the Caps Lock Key to any other key on the keyboard. For additional details you can google remapping keyboard or disabling Caps Lock.

If you read this and would like me to give you more details, send me an e-mail (my address is un-hidden), and i will try to find documentation on this. I have it somewhere, but need to dig for it.

Just think twice before remapping; I still keep hitting the Caps Lock key by mistake instead of Tab or Shift, and wouldn't want to invoke another key when it happens.


2021-07-24 18:10:00

Roy

Wonder if that can be used to not simply deactivate a key, but to change its output to that of another key, or string of keys?

Not quite as useful as Gateway's Anykey keyboards, since it wouldn't be "on-the-fly", but of one had key macros one would like always loaded, one could use it. Or perhaps the old "I'm an author and like remapping the '-" key to be "-' instead." That kind of thing.


2021-07-24 11:13:10

Tomek

I had a frequent problem with Caps Lock key, and it was not limited to Excel. in my opinion this key is almost never needed, so I disabled it! It can be done by modifying registry. Here is .reg entry that will do that:
========
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,00,00,3a,00,00,00,00,00

========
You can type or copy/paste the text from between the markers above into Notepad and save it as "DisableCapsLock.reg" then double click to run it. It will disable the Caps Lock key permanently. You may need to reboot the computer for it to take effect. To re-enable you would need to reverse changes to your registry.

If you cannot run the .reg file, because you do not have enough privileges, you can just pry out the Caps Lock key. When it is removed you won't be able to press it by mistake, but you can still depress the internal part of it using a tip of a pencil or may be even with your little finger. This way you will still have Caps Lock functionality available to you, if you ever need it.


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu 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.