By default, macOS behaves very similarly to a smartphone keyboard: it automatically capitalises the first letter of a sentence after you type a full stop, and it forces proper nouns (like days of the week or country names) to begin with a capital letter.
While this auto-capitalisation is incredibly helpful for casual emailing, it can be an absolute nightmare for programmers typing code, developers writing terminal scripts, or writers who prefer a specific stylistic lack of capitalisation. Fortunately, you can disable this feature entirely across the whole operating system.
How to Disable Auto-Capitalisation
You can turn off this feature deep within the Mac System Settings.
- Click the Apple Logo in the top-left corner of your screen and select System Settings.
- Scroll down the left-hand sidebar and click on Keyboard.
- In the “Text Input” section on the right, click the Edit button next to “Input Sources”.
- A new window will appear. Look for the toggle switch labelled Capitalise words automatically.
- Click the toggle to turn it Off.
- Click Done.
Your Mac will immediately stop interfering with your typing. If you type a lowercase letter after a full stop, it will remain lowercase. You now have total manual control over the Shift key.
How to Disable the Double-Space Full Stop
While you are in the Input Sources menu, you may notice another smartphone-like feature that can interrupt fast typing: the Mac automatically inserts a full stop if you press the Space bar twice in rapid succession.
If you frequently use double spaces to align text or write code, this feature will constantly insert unwanted punctuation into your work.
- Return to the same Keyboard > Input Sources > Edit menu.
- Locate the toggle switch labelled Add full stop with double-space.
- Turn this toggle Off.
- Click Done.
Your Mac keyboard will now behave exactly like a traditional, manual computer keyboard, only outputting the exact characters you physically press.