big-guy Loc: Peterborough Ontario Canada

You say you get to the end of the line (before finishing sentence) and you hit the enter key. Why? Just keep typing to the end of the sentence and Word will automatically switch to new line. The only time I have seen what you do is on a regular typewriter. When you hit enter you tell the program that you are starting a new paragraph hence the capital.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Up in the top menu bar under the Word tab there should be Word Preferences. Try exploring that for starters.

BobHartung Loc: Bettendorf, IA

You can try Shift+Return , but you can also keep typing and it should word wrap to the next line unless you have that turned off.

wallied

To turn off auto caps in ms word hit F7 or go to TOOLS.

chrissybabe Loc: New Zealand

Trouble with Microsoft is they have selected a number of defaults that I would not select myself. A default is something that, after research, they find 51% of users would select. I have found a number that only .01% would select. Capitalising the first character of a new line after a CR is something I turn off because there are a number of times I just don't want that to happen (mucks up some formatting I use). Try this - it works for Word 2016.

Microsoft Word by default has certain grammar and spelling corrections turned on, such as automatically capitalizing the first letter of every sentence. There are plenty of reasons to override Word's changes and keep the first letter of each new sentence lowercase, like for aesthetic reasons. To do this, you'll have to disable the AutoCorrect feature that's getting in the way.
1 Click the “File” tab.
2 Select “Options.”
3 Click “Proofing.”
4 Click “AutoCorrect Options.”
5 Click the box that says “Capitalize First Letter of Sentences” in the AutoCorrect tab to clear it and remove the default setting.
6 Click the box that says “Correct Two Initial Capitals” to clear it and remove the default setting.

edrobinsonjr Loc: Boise, Idaho

I use Libre Office Writer as a Word replacement. In Libre you key Shift and Enter to insert a line break.

I googled it for Word and found that Word uses the same key combo. Don't have Word so I can't try it.

Hope this helps.

Ed

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Yes, never hit return. Word automatically wraps to the next line. It's called Word Wrap.

There was a little book popular with desktop publishers back in the 1990s called, "The Mac is Not a Typewriter." It applies to Windows in most ways as well. It discusses all the ways computers are different from typewriters that most of us learned on in our youth (assuming we grew up and learned to type before about 1980).

DeanS Loc: Capital City area of North Carolina

Don’t hit rtn, just keep typing and let Word take care of formatting the sentence.

DukeTarHeel Loc: NC's "Research Triangle"

charles tabb Loc: Richmond VA.

Thanks to all of you who helped me solve my problem.
I know that I can always count on Hoggers to help me with a problem.

Problem solved.

Charles

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA