The fastest way to change capitals to lowercase

Open your document in Microsoft Word and select the text you want to change. Highlight it by clicking at the start of the text, holding down your mouse button, and dragging to the end. If you want to change the entire document, press Ctrl+A (Windows) or Command+A (Mac) to select all text at once.

Once your text is selected, go to the Home tab at the top of the screen. Look for the button labeled Aa with a small arrow next to it — this is the text case button. Click the arrow to open a menu with five options. Select lowercase and Word will convert all selected capital letters to lowercase immediately.

If you cannot find the Aa button, your version of Word may have it in a different location. Try clicking Format in the menu bar, then look for Text or Change Case. The menu option works the same way as the button.

Key Takeaways

  • Select the text you want to change by clicking and dragging, or press Ctrl+A to select your entire document.
  • The text case button is the Aa icon with a dropdown arrow on the Home tab in the ribbon.
  • Click the arrow next to Aa and choose lowercase from the menu that appears.
  • Word changes the text instantly — you do not need to confirm or save separately.

What the other case options do

The case menu in Word gives you five choices, and knowing what each one does helps you pick the right one for your task. Uppercase converts all letters to capitals. Lowercase converts all letters to small letters. Capitalize Each Word makes the first letter of every word a capital and the rest lowercase — useful for titles.

Sentence case capitalizes only the first letter of the sentence and the first letter after a period, leaving everything else lowercase. Toggle Case flips whatever you have: capitals become lowercase and lowercase become capitals. This last option is rarely needed but can be useful if you accidentally typed something in all caps and want to reverse it without retyping.

Changing case in older versions of Word

If you are using Word 2007 or earlier, the case button may not appear on the Home tab. Instead, click the Format menu at the top, then select Text or Change Case. A dialog box will open with the same five options. Select lowercase and click OK.

On a Mac running an older version of Word, the process is similar: select your text, click Format in the menu bar, find Text, and then choose Change Case. The dialog that opens works the same way as on Windows.

Changing case in Word Online

If you are working in Word Online (the browser version), the case button is still on the Home tab, but it may look slightly different. Select your text first, then look for the Aa button. Click the arrow next to it and choose lowercase. The change happens right away, just as it does in the desktop version.

Word Online saves your changes automatically, so you do not need to manually save after changing the case. If you are working offline or in a shared document, check that your changes have synced before closing the browser tab.

When case changes do not work as expected

Sometimes you select text and the case button appears grayed out or does not respond. This usually means the text is in a special format that Word cannot modify — for example, text inside a table cell, a header, or a text box. Try clicking directly inside the text box or cell and selecting again. If the button still does not work, the text may be locked or protected by the document owner.

Another common issue is selecting text that includes line breaks or special characters. Word usually handles these fine, but if the case change seems incomplete, try selecting a smaller section and changing it in pieces. This also helps you spot which part of the text did not change.

Undoing a case change

If you change text to lowercase and then realize you made a mistake, press Ctrl+Z (Windows) or Command+Z (Mac) immediately to undo the change. Word keeps a history of your recent actions, so you can undo multiple times if needed. Once you save the document, you cannot undo changes from before the save, so undo right away if you need to reverse a case change.

If you have already saved and closed the document, you can still recover the previous version in some cases. On Windows, right-click the file, select Properties, click the Previous Versions tab, and look for an earlier version. On Mac, open the file and click File, then Revert to see saved versions. Not all computers keep previous versions, so this method does not always work.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I change case for just part of a word?

No — Word changes case for entire selected text, not individual letters. If you need to change only part of a word, select just that part before opening the case menu. For example, to change "HELLO" to "HEllo", select only "ELLO" and change it to lowercase.

Does changing case affect formatting like bold or italics?

No. If your text is bold, italic, underlined, or colored, those formats stay the same when you change the case. Only the letters themselves change from capitals to lowercase or vice versa.

What if I want to change case in a PDF instead of Word?

Word's case tool only works on Word documents. To change case in a PDF, you would need to copy the text into Word first, change the case there, and then paste it back into the PDF. Some PDF editors have their own text editing tools, but they vary by program.

Can I change case for text inside a table?

Yes, but you have to select the text inside the cell first. Click inside the cell, select the text you want to change, then use the case button as normal. If the case button is grayed out, try clicking directly on the text and selecting again.