All Uppercase, or how I learned to stop worrying about CAPS LOCK in SOLIDWORKS

There was a dark time when one had to remember to turn on CAPS LOCK keyboard toggle while they created engineering drawing notes. This was problematic because if you forgot, you’d have to retype everything. If you were creating your general notes, that was a lot of retyping. Even if you remembered to use CAPS LOCK, you’d still have to find workarounds for file properties and certain custom properties that displayed the raw system value, where capitalization wasn’t possible. A light shined upon the world in 2013. That year, SOLIDWORKS 2014 introduced the All Uppercase option for Note Annotations.

However, unlike word processor applications, SOLIDWORKS is smart about how it capitalizes text.

• Original text is preserved, so if you turn the setting off, your text returns to its original state.
• The setting recognizes the value of file and custom properties and capitalizes these as well.
• Where you would want the “mm” in the word “dimmer” to capitalize as “DIMMER”, you wouldn’t want the “mm” in “10 mm” to capitalize. So, along with the new functionality, SOLIDWORKS is smart enough to know the difference by using its Exclusion list.

There is the ability to use the capitalization setting as a Document Property, meaning that any note you create will automatically use the All Uppercase setting. You still have local control for each note, of course.

SOLIDWORKS 2018 introduced this functionality for Tables in SOLIDWORKS. You can change the setting for an entire table, a range of cells or individual cells.

Finally, SOLIDWORKS 2020 introduced this functionality for Dimensions (including Hole Callouts).

You have the ability to set All Uppercase document defaults differently for Notes, Tables and Dimensions, so if you want to automatically capitalize your notes, but not your dimensions or tables, you have that choice.

One more point; a tip:

1. Select a note.
2. Hold down SHIFT and press F3.
3. While holding SHIFT, each time you press F3, you will toggle All Uppercase on and off for the selected note.
4. This is the same keystroke as MS Word for switching between casing options.