No matter where I am, on my office computer or at home, both my old 2003 version of Word and the newer one at work have increasingly stopped capitalizing the first word of a sentence. It's not every time, and the auto correct is set to capitalize them. These sentence openings are not following anything but average sentences previously, either.
With a neurotic tendency to fix this as soon as it comes up, usually before beginning the next sentence - which is capitalized almost 100% of the time - I really don't want to be dealing with this problem during NaNoWriMo. I'm nearly ready to pull my hair out. The only time in the past few years that this didn't plague me is when I first got my laptop. Then, once the problem settled in it has become more insidious every day.
I'm about ready to try different software. The only reason I haven't is because sometimes the problem is less intrusive. Well, that and I'm just used to MSWord. At this point, though, I'll gladly learn new word processing software just to make this stop.
Nothing online has given me any help. My partner, a computer guru, thinks I'm crazy and doesn't know how to make it go away. Does anyone have any suggestions?
~~~~~~~~~
PS Dilo Keith found a resource that may have solved the problem. The excluded words option under AutoCorrect was stopping a huge list of items from allowing the capitalization of the following sentence! I hope that turning off this automatic function and deleting items off the list will work.
~~~~~~~~~
I'm sorry you have this problem. On my word program it usually caps the first word on a sentence.
ReplyDeleteGo into the options on word and click on customize, so you can change your word program to suit your needs.
Janice~
Thanks, Janice! I think I got it. Yay!
ReplyDeleteI hope that fix worked for you. If it's still driving you crazy, I can suggest a neat writing exercise that might help train you out of being so focused on it. (I had to train myself to not edit while I was writing, but wait until after I wrote to go back and fix things.)
ReplyDeleteThe exercise is this:
Open the file you want to work on (or a new file) in your word processor. Then turn off your monitor. It forces you to not reread what you just wrote, but keep writing. It usually works best with a set time limit for how long you need to write. (I tend to use freewriting for this, which basically is just writing about whatever comes up and NOT STOPPING until your time is up, even if you start typing stuff like "can't think of anything else" over and over. It helped me at any rate.
Oh, Reka, that's great advice! Since I use a laptop, maybe I can put a picture of a sexy guy in front of the screen. :)
ReplyDeleteStuff like this is why I never let myself get out of the habit of manually putting in the caps to begin with.
ReplyDelete