Can't Get Small Caps to Work
Thread poster: Arabic & More
Arabic & More
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Jordan
Arabic to English
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Jul 23, 2018

I have a text in which I'm trying to place all instances of AD and BC in small caps, but the function doesn't seem to be working for me.

This is what I have been doing:

I highlight the relevant text (either BC or AD).
I right click and choose Font.
I then select Small Caps and OK.

But this has no effect on the size of these letters.

Am I missing anything?

I am using Word 2010.


 
Roisin Ni Cheallaigh (X)
Roisin Ni Cheallaigh (X)
Ireland
English to Irish
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Can't get Small Caps to work Jul 23, 2018

Did you press Caps lock by accident?

 
Arabic & More
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Jordan
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TOPIC STARTER
No... Jul 23, 2018

Roisin Ni Cheallaigh wrote:

Did you press Caps lock by accident?


No, but thank you for your suggestion.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 10:48
Member (2008)
Italian to English
A suggestion Jul 23, 2018

Highlight the relevant text
Go to Format--> change case
Select "lower case".

[Edited at 2018-07-23 14:34 GMT]


Arabic & More
Elif Baykara Narbay
 
Arabic & More
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Thank you, Tom! Jul 23, 2018

Tom in London wrote:

Highlight the relevant text
Go to Format--> change case
Select "lower case".

[Edited at 2018-07-23 14:02 GMT]


Thank you, Tom. This worked for me. The only thing I am unsure about is the new size. The new caps look pretty small compared to the surrounding text, and I am not sure if they are "too" small. Is there any way to determine this?


 
Elif Baykara Narbay
Elif Baykara Narbay  Identity Verified
Türkiye
Local time: 13:48
German to Turkish
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check the relevant font sizes Jul 23, 2018

Amel Abdullah wrote:

Tom in London wrote:

Highlight the relevant text
Go to Format--> change case
Select "lower case".

[Edited at 2018-07-23 14:02 GMT]


Thank you, Tom. This worked for me. The only thing I am unsure about is the new size. The new caps look pretty small compared to the surrounding text, and I am not sure if they are "too" small. Is there any way to determine this?


Tom in London
 
Tony M
Tony M
France
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French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER
Size of small caps Jul 23, 2018

I think you will find that the Word preset size for small caps is pretty much standard, as used by everyone across the industry, following traditional typographic conventions. I have a feeling there is a parameter somewhere to adjust that size, but it's buried pretty depply if it does exist.

Alternatively, as a fudge, simply use search-&-replace to replace them with normal caps in a smaller font size, or else keep the small caps but increase the base font size; however, the latter s
... See more
I think you will find that the Word preset size for small caps is pretty much standard, as used by everyone across the industry, following traditional typographic conventions. I have a feeling there is a parameter somewhere to adjust that size, but it's buried pretty depply if it does exist.

Alternatively, as a fudge, simply use search-&-replace to replace them with normal caps in a smaller font size, or else keep the small caps but increase the base font size; however, the latter solution is likely to mess up your line spacing, whcih the first one won't!

I've just run a check, but can't seem to find a parameter for it. However, the standard 'small caps' size seems to be approximately 75% of the base font size, which seems to me highly acceptable in almost all cases.

[Edited at 2018-07-23 14:30 GMT]
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Rolf Keller
Rolf Keller
Germany
Local time: 11:48
English to German
Google for "small caps" "word" "size" Jul 23, 2018

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/how-can-i-get-word-to-use-proper-small-caps-and/ca45d971-903b-491c-b280-51958f8ded9a?db=5

 
Arabic & More
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A couple of things... Jul 24, 2018

If anyone else experiences the same difficulty, note that you will have to change the relevant text to "small caps" before Tom's solution will work. I tried his solution without implementing this step, and it did not work. So, basically:

Highlight the relevant text.
Right click and choose Font.
Select Small Caps and OK.

THEN (as suggested by Tom):

Highlight the relevant text
Go to Format--> change case
Select "lower case".

... See more
If anyone else experiences the same difficulty, note that you will have to change the relevant text to "small caps" before Tom's solution will work. I tried his solution without implementing this step, and it did not work. So, basically:

Highlight the relevant text.
Right click and choose Font.
Select Small Caps and OK.

THEN (as suggested by Tom):

Highlight the relevant text
Go to Format--> change case
Select "lower case".

Of course, you will then be able to copy and paste (or "search and replace") as needed afterwards so that you do not continuously need to repeat the above steps.

Elif, thank you for your suggestion, but the "small caps" have the same font size as the surrounding text (in this case, 12 for both).

I looked at a book I have in my possession for comparison, however, and saw that the small caps used in the book were the same size as the small letters of the "regular" text. This is also the case for the small caps I ended up with in the Word document, so I guess that things are okay.

Thank you for your comments, Tony.

Rolf, I also found your link useful. Many thanks for your help.
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Arabic & More
Arabic & More  Identity Verified
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Another Question Jul 24, 2018

My next concern is regarding a formatting issue that is only somewhat related to my initial problem, but I'd be interested in knowing what you think.

In the text I am working on, the year of someone's death is often place in parentheses as follows:

Name of Person (d. 1828)

Since the text often includes Islamic "Hijri" (AH) dates and their AD equivalents, I have some dates that are written as follows:

Name of Person (d. A.H. 218 / A.D. 833)... See more
My next concern is regarding a formatting issue that is only somewhat related to my initial problem, but I'd be interested in knowing what you think.

In the text I am working on, the year of someone's death is often place in parentheses as follows:

Name of Person (d. 1828)

Since the text often includes Islamic "Hijri" (AH) dates and their AD equivalents, I have some dates that are written as follows:

Name of Person (d. A.H. 218 / A.D. 833)

Following the procedures above, I have placed AH and AD in small caps, but it looks kind of weird. Can anyone assure me that this "weirdness" is normal, or should I find some other solution to make this more pleasing to the eye? Note that this is for a book (rather than for an article). Regrettably, I don't think I have any examples of this at home to compare.
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Tony M
Tony M
France
Local time: 11:48
Member
French to English
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SITE LOCALIZER
A couple of points... Jul 24, 2018

It's important to appreciate that 'small caps' only works if the text is in lower case to start with; so when typing your text in, that's the way to do it. It's then easy to do a global search-&-replace at the end search: 'ad' "whole words only" replace: 'ad' [small caps attribute]; ditto for 'bc', 'ah', or whatever else you may have.
It is normal in the West to expresse it as 1828 AD, with the 'AD' after the figures — I don't know about your 'AH', but this might help to make it
... See more
It's important to appreciate that 'small caps' only works if the text is in lower case to start with; so when typing your text in, that's the way to do it. It's then easy to do a global search-&-replace at the end search: 'ad' "whole words only" replace: 'ad' [small caps attribute]; ditto for 'bc', 'ah', or whatever else you may have.
It is normal in the West to expresse it as 1828 AD, with the 'AD' after the figures — I don't know about your 'AH', but this might help to make it look less weird! I know that the abbreviation is replacing 'anno domini 1828', which would be read as 'in the year of the Lord 1828', but in all modern usages I've ever seen, it is customary to put the 'AD' after the figures.

And I would definitely leave out the full-stops, which are making it horribly and unnecessarily clumsy!
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Tina Vonhof (X)
Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 04:48
Dutch to English
+ ...
Enlarge small caps Jul 24, 2018

I agree, I often find the small caps too small and the regular caps too large. You can block them and increase or decrease the font size as needed, just as you would with any other text.

 


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Can't Get Small Caps to Work






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