PAGES: change all caps to lower case

I have been using WordService for so long that I overlooked an addition to Pages that can get this job done without installing additional software.

Select the text, then Format menu > Font > Capitalization > Start Case.

Tested: Pages v13 on macOS 13.3.1.

Sorry about that. Eyestrain made me see what I wanted to see apparently. Although WordService worked yesterday, the same cap text this morning did what Start Case did. Looking into alternatives and back to you yet this morning…

What Pages v13 lacks is Capitalization > Sentence Case which would do what you want.

Word 16.72 has this feature in Format > Change Case… > Sentence Case, and LibreOffice Writer 7.5.2 has it in Format > Text > Sentence Case too. You could export your all capitals document to Word, open it in Word (even if you need to borrow someone else's installation), apply sentence case to it, and then resave and reopen it in Pages.

The more I look at this problem, the more complicated it becomes. When Word or LibreOffice Writer convert all caps to Sentence case, they ignore proper nouns or acronyms that should either receive title case, or remain capitalized respectively. Everything is smashed to lower case except the first letter of the sentence.

Using Apple's Natural Language frameworks, one can parse a sentence and when it encounters ABRAHAM LINCOLN, Abraham Lincoln, or AMA, it determines the text to be an OrganizationName, PersonalName or PlaceName tag. Thus, one would have to process a sentence first with Natural Language and when a string tagged as PersonalName or OrganizationName is found, it would receive Title Case, and an acronym remains capitalized, while the rest of the sentence becomes lowercase except the first letter of the sentence.

And one cannot do this in Pages body text that is attributed text (color, bold, underline, etc) without losing the text attributes. Otherwise, it is VERY complicated to program. The AppleScript support for Pages only gives access to words and paragraphs, but not sentences.

I don't plan to deliver a programmatic solution to this issue here, as it would remain a science project over considerable spare time.

For a paragraph or two, I would select the paragraph text, make it lowercase, and then manually make it sentence case by capitalizing the first character of the first word in the sentence. This is followed by correcting proper nouns with title case, and acronyms with capital case. In jest, after a few remedial repairs like this, it will likely cure you of en masse capitalization. 😎

I would install the free WordService solution from the Mac App Store. It installs several services (during the installation) that work on selected text. Among them is Initial Caps of Sentences which takes all selected capitalized text and demotes to lower case except the first letter of each sentence. Like magic.

You will need to enable this particular service in System Preferences (aka Settings) > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services before using it from the Pages application menu > Services > WordService:Initial Caps of Sentences.

WordService can be used in any application where you can input text. The application icon in your /Applications folder launches Preview with an opened PDF describing each service available.

Tested: Pages v13 on macOS 13.3.1, but WordService has been around since the Pages '09 days and just works.