WD2000: Table of Contents Entries Appear in All Caps (211211)



The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Word 2000

This article was previously published under Q211211

SYMPTOMS

Entries in your table of contents may appear in all caps, even though your TOC styles do not include this format.

CAUSE

This problem occurs if you applied All caps formatting to the text that is used for the TOC entry. This problem occurs regardless of whether you formatted the text in all caps manually with the CAPS LOCK key or by selecting the All caps check box (on the Format menu, click Font, and then click the Font tab).

Unlike other font formats, the all caps character format actually changes the internal representation of the characters to capital letters. Thus, the table of contents considers the text to have been typed in capital letters and shows it as such.

This behavior also occurs if you change the case of your text using the Change Case command on the Format menu or press SHIFT+F3 to convert the case to uppercase.

WORKAROUND

To avoid this problem, use any of the following methods.

Method 1: Do Not Use All Caps Settings or Uppercase Formats

Do not apply the All caps format, and do not use your CAPS LOCK key for text that will be included in the table of contents. Also, do not apply uppercase formatting by pressing SHIFT+F3 or by using the Change Case command on the Format menu.

Method 2: Redefine Your Heading Styles

Redefining your Heading Styles to include all caps allows the text in your document to be all caps but uses normal sentence case for the TOC entries. To do this, follow these steps:
  1. On the Format menu, click Style.
  2. In the Styles list, click Heading 1.
  3. Click Modify, click Format, and then click Font.
  4. Under Effects, click to select the All caps check box and then click OK.
  5. If you want this to be a permanent change, in the Modify Style dialog box, select the Add to template check box and then click OK. Or, if you do not want this to be permanent, just click OK.
  6. Click Apply.
  7. To update your table of contents, select the table of contents and press F9.

Method 3: Convert the Table of Contents Field to Text

When you finish the table of contents, select the table of contents and press CTRL+SHIFT+F9 to unlink the TOC field and cause the TOC results to become normal text. (NOTE: After the TOC field is unlinked, it becomes normal text instead of a field, and you cannot update it.) Select the table of contents text and remove the all caps formatting. Note that this changes all the selected text to lowercase.

Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:12/6/2000
Keywords:kbfield kbprb KB211211