Phyllis,
The rule is that, in Spanish, any letter that is supposed to be accented MUST have the written accent regardless of whether it's uppercase or lowercase. NO EXCEPTIONS, period. It's by no means "optional" but mandatory.
The reason that you sometimes see the accent over a capital letter omitted is caused by one or more of these possibilities:
• The cheap typeface used lacks the glyph;
• It is the product of an uneducated or undereducated individual.
• The text was typed on a traditional typewriter.
In regard to the latter, some second-rate schools in countries like Mexico propagate the myth that "las mayúsculas no se acentúan" (capital letters are not accented) and that has spilled over to usage by uneducated Spanish speakers in the USA, often semi-illiterate immigrants themselves or their offspring. It is just plain WRONG!
The myth is a leftover from the era of typewriters, when it became common practice to leave accents out in uppercase vowels because the accent was a separate keystroke and often made a hole in the paper as the force of both strokes superimposed on each other was combined on the paper. Typewriters only had one accent key that situated the accent mark right over the x-line, fine for lowercase, but way too low for capitals. It has absolutely no place in good typography.
Pick up a good Spanish unilingual dictionary, like the DRAE*, and observe the entries of proper names like Ávila, Álvaro, Écija, etc. The initial capital will always be accented if the grammatical rules require it.
DRAE = "Diccionario de la Real Academia Española (de la Lengua)" (Dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy of the Language).
Message was edited by: Ramón G Castañeda
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