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Shift+F3: Change Case in Word and PowerPoint
Select some text in Word or PowerPoint, then press Shift+F3. It’ll toggle between three possibilities for text capitalization:
- Initial Letter Case
- ALL CAPS CASE
- lower case
So, if you have selected some text like “siX MILlion Dollar mAn” each time you press Shift+F3 you’ll see it switch between “SIX MILLION DOLLAR MAN” and “six million dollar man” and “Six Million Dollar Man”.
However! If you add some punctuation (like a period) at the end of what’s selected, instead of using Initial Letter Case, it’ll only capitalize the first letter of the sentence. So “I wiN!” will toggle between “I WIN!” and “i win!” and “I win!” (and not ever show “I Win!”).
on August 28th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Doesn’t work for me. Is there a setting I should “enable” so that it does work?
on August 28th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I tried this and it worked like a charm for me. Did you remember to highlight the section of text that you wanted this to impact?
on August 28th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Twodeadpoets (which two, I wonder?), what version of Microsoft Word are you using?
on August 28th, 2007 at 5:02 pm
The auto capitalization plagues me!
My company’s name is spelled in all lowercase letters.
Any idea on how to change the one word so that it never auto capitalizes at the beginning of a sentence?
on August 28th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Nice shortcut - works fine for me in Word 03
Another handy shortcut is “Ctrl+Shift+K” which makes the text small caps - great for titles/headings.
on August 28th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Twodeadpoets,
if you’re on a laptop, hold down the fn key as well (fn+shift+F3)
on August 29th, 2007 at 1:01 am
Finally got it to work… thanks for all the suggestion. My keyboard is newish and has a “Fn” lock key. I realized it needed to be active before the shortcut worked.
Cheers to all!
TDP
PS: estephen, the two dead ones (jk & dc)
on August 29th, 2007 at 8:33 am
Intersting shortcut. i am a big fan of shortcuts and actually created a site dedicated to keyboard shortcuts at http://www.kbshortcuts.com
Thanks
on August 29th, 2007 at 10:55 pm
[…] Source […]
on August 30th, 2007 at 9:24 am
JoeyD, I’d suggest you look into Word’s “AutoCorrect” feature (under the Tools menu), then disable the feature that capitalizes at the beginning of the sentence.
on January 4th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Shift F3 is great, but in the old MS version you were able to Title Case a sentence. Like I’m Writing This Sentance, Every Word First Letter Is Caps. Can anyone help with this? It was called Title Case!! I NEED HELP! It’s driving me batty.
on January 10th, 2008 at 12:58 am
Linda, that’s the same as what I call “Initial Letter Case” — you can do that with Shift+F3 but only if there is no punctuation at the end of what you have selected.
on February 18th, 2008 at 1:48 pm
My wife uses MS Works and had a story typed in all caps. When I copied it to Word and went through the Toggle F-3 sequence to arrive at “capitalize initial letter of sentence” it capitalized only the initial letter of the sentence(s) inside the paragraph, not the opening sentence of the paragraph.. By trying out some text from other sources, it was no problem. Is there some idiosyncrasy of Works that causes this to happen?
on March 20th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Shouldn’t it read ‘…you’ll see it switch between … and “Six Million Dollar Man”.’ because there is no punctuation in it? (The Original only has the first “S” a capital).
on May 27th, 2008 at 11:44 am
I’ve been using the Shift F3 shortcut for years and find it extremely useful, especially because some people still use all caps, as if they were still programming on a 1980’s-era DOS machine, and when you copy that text, Shift F3 allows you to convert it quickly into something less primitive.
However, this feature quit working for me in Word 2007. As one of the previous posters indicated, the F-Lock key will disable the feature. I know that from past experience and it was one of the first things I investigated, but that is not what is causing the problem in my case. I suspect that I disabled it accidentally by changing the configuration of the AutoCorrect settings, or by some similar goof up, but so far I have not been able to figure out what I did to turn it off.
on May 27th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Postscript. Banging on the various flavors and colors of “Normal” style finally restored this functionality. I suspect there is a Word bug in here somewhere, but I would not know how to repro it.
on June 9th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Using OS 10.4 on an iMac this toggle works through fn+SHIFT+F3
on June 19th, 2008 at 12:27 am
humbug, you’re right — I’ve corrected the article. Thanks!
on June 19th, 2008 at 12:28 am
John, thanks for the update, and sorry you had trouble. Word definitely has its quirks.
on June 19th, 2008 at 12:28 am
Anne-Marie, thanks for letting me know! I need to spend some time on a Mac, it’s been too long.
on October 16th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
this feature used to work great and I loved it - BUT with my new macbook - F3 makes all open applications visible and no longer works in MS word… lame!
on November 4th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
[…] http://www.zeigen.com/shortcuts/2007/08/27/change-case/ This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 2:16 am and is filed under Office . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. […]
on November 6th, 2008 at 3:02 am
[…] each time you press Shift+F3 you’ll see it switch between “I LOVES ME SOME ASKTHEADMIN” and “i loves me some asktheadmin” and “I loves me some asktheadmin”. However! If you add some punctuation (like a period) at the end of what’s selected, instead of using Initial Letter Case, it’ll only capitalize the first letter of the sentence. So “I wiN!” will toggle between “I WIN!” and “i win!” and “I win!” (and not ever show “I Win!”). [Via Zeigen] _TheHatesCapsAdmiN_ Related Posts […]
on January 12th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Anyone know what the shortcut would be on a Mac running Leopard and I guess Word 2008? I used to be a PC user and love this shortcut but cannot find the toggle case for Word on this new computer. HELP!?!?
on February 27th, 2009 at 2:11 am
Anne-Marie, thank you so much for the tip!!! I’ve been searching for this combination, even trying my untalented hands on installing macros and such. You’ve made my day! Week! Month! Yippieh!
on April 21st, 2009 at 7:00 am
If you would like to do title case, where Every First Letter Will Be Capitalized, go to Format > Change Case… and selet Title Case.
on August 4th, 2009 at 2:09 am
Can someone please tell me if there is any way of Initial Capitalising or Capitalising a sentence in Mail on MacBook? The solutions above work in Word but not Mail. Please help