Stop Word from capitalizing new lines

[Todd Michaels]

The question:
- How do I stop Word from capitalizing the first letter of a new paragraph?
(XP, Office/Word 2003) Specifically, this happens on the very first line of a
new document and after hitting the Enter key and starting a new line (which I
understand Word interprets as a paragraph).

What I've tried:
- Tools > Autocorrect Options. That worked for a while, but something was
always causing my settings to revert to a default setting.
- writing macros with lines such as:
With AutoCorrect
.CorrectInitialCaps = False
.CorrectSentenceCaps = False
End With
These macros are set to run automatically when I start a new document and
when I edit an existing document. This worked for quite some time but
recently stopped working. The autocorrect behavior is back.

What I've already seen--several times--when searching for an answer:
- "Ctrl+z after the autocorrection will reverse the capitalization"
Undoing the autocorrection that shouldn't have been performed is really a
workaround for a bug, not a solution.
- "Stop hitting enter at the end of a line; let Word automatically wrap to
the next line."
- "Stop using Word like a typewriter."
I find comments like these to be EXTREMELY unhelpful, and more than a little
condescending. It's really not up to anyone else to tell me how Word is
"supposed" to be used. What I need is a way to tell Word that "this is how I
like to work; these are the settings I want to use--always; I want you to
stop trying to be so helpful and guessing--incorrectly--what you think I want
you to do. If I typed a word with a lowercase first letter when I meant to
start with an uppercase first letter, I will deal with the repercussions of
my actions on my own."

So. Are there any other suggestions for settings I might examine, or ways I
can poke Word to make it behave the way I've told it to?

 

[Jay Freedman]

Setting the AutoCorrect options should work, but there are sometimes
problems that prevent the options from being saved. Of course, it would be
best to find out what's interfering in your system and fix that. You may get
some help from
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/Customization/DataKeySettings.htm and the link
in that article to
http://www.word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/MissingMenusEtc.htm. Read the whole
of both articles before doing anything in the registry.

If the options settings don't hold, the AutoNew and AutoOpen macros really
are the primary "nail it to the wall" method. The only thing I can think of
that would interfere with them is having the macro security level set to
High or Very High. That would prevent the macros from running at all. To
check on this, modify the macros to include a MsgBox statement at the
beginning. If the message box doesn't show up, the macro isn't being
executed. If this is the problem, you can use the selfcert.exe program to
make a digital certificate and sign the macro code (read the Help topics
"Create your own digital certificate" and "Digitally sign a file or macro
project").

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Tony Jollans]

There are a couple of possible reasons I can think of::

1. Auto macros don't run against the blank document you get by default when
you just start Word.

2. AutCorrect is language-specific so setting the options will only affect
the language in effect at the time. Any change - perhaps by having
"automatically detect language" set - will change the set of AutoCorrect
settings in use.

 

[Tony Jollans]

Sorry - I wasn't thinking straight

While it is true that AutoCorrections are language-specific, that affects
the explicit list of corrections and not the other options.

 

[Todd Michaels]

I hadn't thought about Security, so I took a look at that a couple of days
ago. I reset my security to low and tried reopening Word. No joy.

I had MsgBox lines commented out from when I wrote the macros, so I
uncommented them. The macros were running, but not changing my settings back.

So today, a few days later, I tried looking at the issue again. The first
times I opened Word or a new document, the caps setting was still in effect.
Then for no apparent reason, the macros started sticking.

I have absolutely no idea why, but the macros are working again. I guess
we'll have to chalk this one up to "sometimes hitting your TV gets better
reception."

But thanks for your help, guys. I appreciate it.