How to Stop Google Docs from Automatically Changing Text to Capital Letters

The Auto-Capitalization Frustration

Google Docs includes a robust auto-correction engine designed to fix common typing mistakes on the fly. One of its most active features is the automatic capitalization of the first letter of a sentence. Whenever you type a period, press the spacebar, and begin typing a new word, Docs assumes you are starting a new sentence and automatically capitalizes the first letter, even if you typed it in lowercase.

While this is generally helpful for drafting standard prose or essays, it is incredibly frustrating for technical writing. If you are typing code snippets, writing out terminal commands (which are almost always lowercase and often include periods), or formatting specific lists where every item must begin with a lowercase letter, this auto-capitalization ruins your formatting. You are forced to constantly backspace and manually retype the letter in lowercase. To regain absolute control over the case of your text, you must disable this automatic feature.

How to Stop Automatic Capitalization

You can turn off automatic sentence capitalization via the Preferences menu.

1. Open a document in Google Docs.
2. Look at the top toolbar and click on Tools.
3. Select Preferences from the dropdown menu.
4. In the Preferences window, make sure you are on the General tab.
5. Look for the checkbox labelled Automatically capitalize words.
6. Click the checkbox to remove the checkmark.
7. Click the blue OK button to save your changes.

From now on, Google Docs will only capitalize letters when you explicitly hold down the Shift key or use Caps Lock. Your lowercase technical terms and code snippets will remain exactly as you type them, regardless of punctuation.