How to Get Rid of All Caps Tab Titles in Microsoft Office 2013 Ribbon?

The new Microsoft Office 2013 version comes with many new features along with a new minimal and clean UI inspired from Windows 8 Metro UI. Similar to previous Office versions, this new version also comes with Ribbon UI which has also been used in Windows 8 Explorer.

But there is one small thing which bothers a lot of Office 2013 users and mainly to those users who are using Office 2013 in Windows 8. This small thing is the use of ALL CAPS in tab titles of Office 2013 Ribbon UI. Microsoft has set the tab titles of Office 2013 Ribbon in uppercase which looks a little bit strange on first sight. Also if you use Office 2013 in Windows 8, you find it inconsistent because Windows 8 Explorer Ribbon shows the tab titles in title case (proper case).

I have received so many emails from several AskVG readers complaining about this annoying thing in Office 2013 but I couldn’t help them because I didn’t know any way to convert these all caps tab titles into proper case.

I know about a built-in Registry tweak for Visual Studio 2012 which can convert all caps tab titles into normal titles but unfortunately that trick didn’t work in Office 2013 version. Interesting Visual Studio users can create a DWORD SuppressUppercaseConversion in right-side pane of HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\11.0\General Registry key and set DWORD value to 1 to convert all caps tab titles in proper case in Visual Studio 2012.

Back to the topic! Thanks to an AskVG reader “Richard“, now I know a way to rename all caps tab titles into normal case in Office 2013 Ribbon. Since this trick was found and shared by AskVG reader “Richard“, all credit goes to him. I’m just sharing it here.

Actually Microsoft Office comes with a built-in feature to rename tab titles in Ribbon and you can use that option to get rid of all caps tab titles in Office 2013.

So if you are using Office 2013 version and want to get rid of the annoying all caps tab titles in Ribbon, following steps will definitely help you:

1. Open any Office 2013 application to start with. For example, open Microsoft Word 2013.

2. Now right-click on any tab title and select “Customize the Ribbon” option as shown in following screenshot:

Alternatively you can also access the same option by going to “File -> Options -> Customize Ribbon“.

3. It’ll open a new window where you can customize Office 2013 Ribbon UI. You can create new tabs, groups and you can rename existing tabs.

4. Right-click on a desired tab and select “Rename” option or click on the desired tab and click on “Rename” button given at the bottom of the window.

5. It’ll open a new dialog box where you can change the name of the tab. Now the tricky part comes. Since the tab name is already in proper case, you can’t set the same name again. Its by design that Office 2013 shows tab titles in all caps although the tab names are not set in all caps.

Now you have 2 options. Either you can change tab names to any of your desired names or you can put a blank space after tab names. By putting extra blank space after tab name, you are actually changing the tab name and Office 2013 will show the tab title in proper case. Since you added blank space in name, it’ll not affect the tab title and will not show anything weird in tabs.

6. Repeat the same step for all tab titles. Just put a blank space at the end of each tab name to rename the tabs in proper case. Once you complete the process, click on OK button and you’ll get the tab titles in proper case.

7. If you want to restore default all caps tab titles in future, you can click on “Reset all customizations” option given in customize ribbon window. It’ll restore all default tab names.

NOTE: You’ll need to follow this procedure separately in all Office 2013 applications.

PS: The customize ribbon window also allows you to take a backup of all your ribbon customizations. Just click on “Import/Export” drop-down menu given at the bottom of window and then you can export your customized settings. It’ll store them in a .exportedUI file which can be used to quickly restore all the customized settings in future or in other computers having Office 2013 version.

A big thanks goes to “Richard” again for sharing this tip…