Why is my Button text forced to ALL CAPS on Lollipop?

Question

In my app "Tide Now WA" which I recently tested for compatibility using the new Nexus 9 tablet (Lollipop - API 21).

It writes some button text. This app writes the text correctly using Android 2.3 and Android 4.0. I.e. mixed capital and lower case letters.

When same app is run on my Nexus 9 all the letters in the text are capitalized.

FWIW my manifest contains the following statement:

uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="10" android:targetSdkVersion="14"

Can I fix this in my code or is it a bug in the O.S. thanks

Can you share a code how did you mix capital and lower case letters — N Sharma, Nov 16 '14 at 16:02
Button text is all-caps by default when using the Material (or DeviceDefault with API 21+) theme. This is working as intended. — alanv, Nov 16 '14 at 19:43

score 666 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 19 '19 at 14:58

666

I don't have idea why it is happening but there 3 trivial attempts to make:

Use android:textAllCaps="false" in your layout-v21
Programmatically change the transformation method of the button. mButton.setTransformationMethod(null);
Check your style for Allcaps

Note: public void setAllCaps(boolean allCaps), android:textAllCaps are available from API version 14.

edited Jun 19 '19 at 14:58

Vadim Kotov

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answered Nov 16 '14 at 17:07

Nikola Despotoski

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#1 made no difference. Not sure how to do #3, have no styles? Now trying #2. – user1644002 Nov 16 '14 at 19:31
2

yes, adding this: btn[i].setTransformationMethod(null); makes it work thanks – user1644002 Nov 16 '14 at 19:54
2

I am accepting Nikola's answer as the solution, but want to point out the other part of the questions is that as provided by alanv, who explained the why in the comments above. – user1644002 Nov 17 '14 at 14:55
1

Worked for me too, used the programmatical method since textAllCaps XML attr is only supported API > 14. thanks! – patrickjason91 Mar 06 '15 at 23:21
3

I used `false` in my style definition – Someone Somewhere Sep 28 '15 at 11:22
Very reluctantly i tried #2, And it was a mind boggling SUCCESS!! – user3833732 Jul 27 '17 at 22:29
1. Works perfectly when adding it to the button's xml directly – Bimde Aug 11 '17 at 19:54
Today I faced this and I also confirm that this solution works. – Nagaraj Alagusundaram Nov 17 '20 at 23:51

miguel · Answer 2 · 2017-12-26T21:08:47.653

172

Here's what I did in my values/themes.xml

    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
        <item name="buttonStyle">@style/MyButton</item>
    </style>

    <style name="MyButton" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Button">
        <item name="android:textAllCaps">false</item>
    </style>

edited Dec 26 '17 at 21:08

answered Jun 02 '15 at 22:20

miguel

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For pre-API Level 14 support, you can use `false`. – CommonsWare Nov 25 '16 at 22:10
This applies only to Widget.AppCompat.Button. The more general answer is given by Ashish Chaugule below, i.e. adding directly false to the theme-style. (Although the questions was originally asked especially for buttons, I think if allCaps is not wanted for buttons, it is also not wanted for menu-items, actions, etc.) – user2808624 Jan 07 '18 at 11:35
1

Didn't work for me. Became to work when I changed `buttonStyle` to `android:buttonStyle` – Vasily Kabunov Jan 21 '18 at 15:09
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In XML `android:textAllCaps="false"` (I'm Using android studio 3.0) – meyasir Jul 31 '18 at 10:45

score 110 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 26 '15 at 04:57

110

This is fixable in the application code by setting the button's TransformationMethod, e.g.

mButton.setTransformationMethod(null);

edited Aug 26 '15 at 04:57

rAinmAker

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answered Mar 15 '15 at 12:40

user1644002

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For Kotlin, the syntax is: mButton.transformationMethod = null – Native_Mobile_Arch_Dev Nov 23 '19 at 18:06

score 68 · Answer 4 · answered Mar 19 '15 at 16:16

68

Set android:textAllCaps="false". If you are using an appcompat style, make sure textAllCaps comes before the style. Otherwise the style will override it. For example:

android:textAllCaps="false"
style="@style/Base.TextAppearance.AppCompat"

answered Mar 19 '15 at 16:16

Bob bobbington

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Worked like a charm but on my case I had to do like: – Vfleitao Oct 14 '15 at 14:48

Ashish Chaugule · Answer 5 · 2016-02-16T06:34:01.867

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add this line in style

    <item name="android:textAllCaps">false</item>

edited Feb 16 '16 at 06:34

answered Feb 16 '16 at 06:27

Ashish Chaugule

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I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY'D MAKE THIS THE DEFAULT – Glenn Maynard Mar 09 '16 at 00:39
5

This is default in material theme, as it suits nature of material design – QAMAR Mar 19 '16 at 08:32
poor people stuck in the square box of material design – eric Jul 02 '19 at 22:48

score 38 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 23 '17 at 15:20

38

this one is working .... just in your code in your bottom code add this one :

android:textAllCaps="false"

it should deactivate the caps letter that U trying to type small .

answered Oct 23 '17 at 15:20

parsa sarshar

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score 33 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 21 '14 at 17:02

33

Lollipop default comes with "textAllCaps true", so you have to manually make it to false

answered Dec 21 '14 at 17:02

tharinduNA

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That's great to know. If there a site which lists all of these defaulted values per android version? – Adam Jan 08 '15 at 18:05

score 25 · Answer 8 · edited Feb 10 '16 at 17:38

25

Add android:textAllCaps="false" in <Button> tag that's it.

edited Feb 10 '16 at 17:38

Mr Lister

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answered Feb 03 '16 at 07:15

rajlaxmi_jagdale

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score 25 · Answer 9 · answered Dec 06 '19 at 11:37

25

Use this line android:textAllCaps="false" in your xml

<Button
            android:id="@+id/btn_login"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:text="@string/login_str"
            android:background="@color/colorBlue"
            android:textColor="@color/colorWhite"
            android:textAllCaps="false"
           />

answered Dec 06 '19 at 11:37

Abdul Basit Rishi

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Very useful answer. Thank you – Yi Xiang Chong Apr 22 '21 at 05:52

pedroca · Answer 10 · 2015-06-03T16:21:15.320

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There is an easier way which works for all buttons, just change appearance of buttons in your theme, try this:

in values-21/styles.xml

<resources>
    <style name="myBaseTheme"
        parent="@android:style/Theme.Material.Light">
        <item name="android:colorPrimary">@color/bg</item>
        <item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">@color/bg_p</item>
        <item name="android:textAppearanceButton">@style/textAppearanceButton</item>
    </style>

    <style name="textAppearanceButton" parent="@android:style/TextAppearance.Material.Widget.Button">
        <item name="android:textAllCaps">false</item>
    </style>
</resources>

PS: it's recommended to follow material design's principles, you should show capitalized text in Buttons, http://www.google.com/design/spec/components/buttons.html

edited Jun 03 '15 at 16:21

answered May 26 '15 at 16:42

pedroca

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I agree, it's great to follow design guidelines... until the button text no longer fits in the button – Someone Somewhere Sep 28 '15 at 11:24
google should just stop talking about styles - i wasn't aware that there were ppl crying and sobbing in the streets because of lowercase buttons! – bharal Nov 02 '16 at 17:55

Amir Hossein Ghasemi · Answer 11 · 2019-10-17T08:35:58.267

Java:

yourButton.setAllCaps(false);

Kotlin:

yourButton.isAllCaps = false

XML:

android:textAllCaps="false"

Styles:

    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
        <item name="buttonStyle">@style/yourButtonStyle</item>
    </style>

    <style name="yourButtonStyle" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Button">
        <item name="android:textAllCaps">false</item>
    </style>

In layout:

   <Button
      .
      .
      style="@style/yourButtonStyle"
      .
      .
   />

score 12 · Answer 12 · answered Feb 05 '16 at 10:32

12

You could add android:textAllCaps="false" to the button.

The button text might be transformed to uppercase by your app's theme that applies to all buttons. Check themes / styles files for setting the attribute android:textAllCaps.

answered Feb 05 '16 at 10:32

chakri Reddy

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score 12 · Answer 13 · answered Apr 30 '17 at 22:13

Using the android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatButton in the XML layout will allow you to avoid having to have a layout-21 or programmatically changing anything. Naturally this will also work with AppCompat v7 library.

<android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatButton
    android:id="@+id/btnOpenMainDemo"
    android:textAllCaps="false"
    style="@style/HGButton"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:text="@string/btn_main_demo"
    android:layout_centerHorizontal="true"
    android:layout_centerVertical="true"/>

Hope this helps.

score 10 · Answer 14 · answered Apr 28 '15 at 21:35

10

In Android Studio IDE, you have to click the Filter icon to show expert properties. Then you will see the textAllCaps property. Check it, then uncheck it.

answered Apr 28 '15 at 21:35

wisbucky

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score 4 · Answer 15 · answered Mar 17 '15 at 05:26

4

If you have arrived here because your facebook button text appears in all caps then just add this android:textAllCaps="false" in your xml file. It worked for me.

answered Mar 17 '15 at 05:26

Mightian

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score 2 · Answer 16 · answered Mar 11 '15 at 02:12

OK, just ran into this. Buttons in Lollipop come out all uppercase AND the font resets to 'normal'. But in my case (Android 5.02) it was working in one layout correctly, but not another!?

Changing APIs didn't work.
Setting to all caps requires min API 14 and the font still resets to 'normal'.

It's because the Android Material Styles forces a change to the styles if there isn't one defined (that's why it worked in one of my layout and not the other because I defined a style).

So the easy fix is to define a style in the manifest for each activity which in my case was just:
android:theme="@android:style/Theme.NoTitleBar.Fullscreen"
(hope this helps someone, would have saved me a couple of hours last night)

That is a very bad attempt, just create styles for your buttons, one in values-21 that has allCaps false. Falling back to an older theme (here a Holo Theme) makes your app uglier and more inconsistent to the user. — paulgavrikov, Mar 14 '15 at 21:30

hidro · Answer 17 · 2016-01-11T04:37:57.010

If you use appcompat-v7, you can subclass AppCompatButtonand setSupportAllCaps(false), then use this class for all your buttons.

/**
 * Light extension of {@link AppCompatButton} that overrides ALL CAPS transformation
 */
public class Button extends AppCompatButton {
    public Button(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
        setSupportAllCaps(false);
    }

    public Button(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
        setSupportAllCaps(false);
    }
}

See AppCompatButton#setSupportAllCaps(boolean) Android docs.

score 2 · Answer 18 · edited Jul 24 '19 at 19:15

2

By default, Button in android provides all caps keyword. If you want button text to be in lower case or mixed case you can disable textAllCaps flag using android:textAllCaps="false"

edited Jul 24 '19 at 19:15

Shalu T D

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answered Jul 24 '19 at 16:55

Reyaz Ahmad

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score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Sep 04 '15 at 18:40

I do not know why the answer of @user1010160 got rating of 0. I would have given it +1 if I had enough reputations.

Since my app is designed for API less than 14 and I did not want to add code to my program I did not find a solution until I read his answer. What he said was that even though you have done what is needed in the Application styles it will not work unless you add a style to your activity and there you set textAllCaps to false.

It is not enough to have a style for the activity (my activity had a style), because the style might defaults to the AllCaps property. You have to set explicitly, in the activity too, that property to false.

I now have it both in the Application and in the Activity parts of the manifest file.

score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Nov 23 '19 at 18:06

0

Another programmatic Kotlin Alternative:

mButton.transformationMethod = null

answered Nov 23 '19 at 18:06

Native_Mobile_Arch_Dev

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Why is my Button text forced to ALL CAPS on Lollipop?

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