Change case in Word in a flash

When you press [Shift][F3] to toggle through capitalization options, the options actually change based on the characteristics of your selection. If there's a period (or other end-of-sentence punctuation) in your selected text, Word offers different capitalization styles than it would offer if your selection contained no periods. We'll show you how to use Change Case for both situations.


When you select a portion of text that includes a period, question mark, or exclamation point, Word classifies the selection as a sentence. Therefore, the Change Case command offers sentence case rather than title case. Here's how to use Change Case with a sentence:

Change text case that includes the end of a sentence

1. Select the text that needs its capitalization style adjusted. Make sure this includes at least one period.
2. Press [Shift][F3].
3. Repeat step 2 until you've seen the capitalization style change from sentence case to lowercase to uppercase.

Change text case that doesn't include end-of-sentence punctuation

If your selection doesn't include a period, question mark, or exclamation point, the Change Case command substitutes title case for sentence case. Here's how:

1. Select the text that needs a capitalization style change. Make sure that there's no end-of-sentence punctuation in the selection.
2. Press [Shift][F3].
3. Repeat step 2 until you've seen the capitalization style change from title case to lowercase to uppercase.