Customizable smart quotes

[Claus Tondering]

Both Word and PowerPoint have the ability to automatically convert straight
quotes to smart quotes.

In English, there is only one way to perform the conversion: The opening
quotes should look like a small 66 at the top of the line, and the closing
quotes should look like a small 99 at the top of the line.

But in other languages, several different quote styles are possible. In
Danish, for example, three different styles are possible:

* The same as English
* Opening quote: Small 99 at bottom of line. Closing quote: Small 66 at top
of line.
* Opening quote: ». Closing quote: «.

Curiously, the Danish version of Office uses neither of these. It insists on
a small 99 at the top of the line as both the opening and closing quote. This
is not correct usage! But it is the only thing possible, unfortunately.

It would be really nice if it were possible (in both Word and PowerPoint) to
customize the quotation marks use for smart quotes.

----------------
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Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...c5574c&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement

 

[Stefan Blom]

Have you always had this problem in Danish Office, or is it something
you've experienced with recent versions? If the latter, you may want
to verify that the language is correctly set in Word. See:

Get control of language formatting in Word
http://homepage.hispeed.ch/cindymeister/LangFmt.htm

If everything else fails, you can do the following to insert the
correct quotation marks: To insert “ hold Alt and press 0147 on
the numeric keypad (with NUMLOCK activated).

” Alt+0148
« Alt+0171
» Alt+0187
„ Alt+0132

(Depending on which font you're using to read messages, the above
characters may not display correctly.)

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


"Claus Tondering" skrev i meddelandet

Both Word and PowerPoint have the ability to automatically convert straight
quotes to smart quotes.

In English, there is only one way to perform the conversion: The opening
quotes should look like a small 66 at the top of the line, and the closing
quotes should look like a small 99 at the top of the line.

But in other languages, several different quote styles are possible. In
Danish, for example, three different styles are possible:

* The same as English
* Opening quote: Small 99 at bottom of line. Closing quote: Small 66 at top
of line.
* Opening quote: ». Closing quote: «.

Curiously, the Danish version of Office uses neither of these. It insists on
a small 99 at the top of the line as both the opening and closing quote. This
is not correct usage! But it is the only thing possible, unfortunately.

It would be really nice if it were possible (in both Word and PowerPoint) to
customize the quotation marks use for smart quotes.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...c5574c&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement

 

[Claus Tondering]

Have you always had this problem in Danish Office, or is it something
you've experienced with recent versions?

This has always been a problem with Danish Office. Or, for that matter, with
English office if you set the proofing language to Danish.

But my point is not just that the Danish Office does it wrong. The problem
is that there are three different correct ways to do it in Danish, and
different users may have different preferences. For that reason, it would be
convenient if you could actually customize the characters used for smart
quotes. (As I believe you can in WordPerfect; at least you could many years
ago when I used that program.)

 

[Stefan Blom]

in message

But my point is not just that the Danish Office does it wrong. The
problem
is that there are three different correct ways to do it in Danish,
and
different users may have different preferences. For that reason, it
would be
convenient if you could actually customize the characters used for
smart
quotes.

That seems like a reasonable request, indeed.

FWIW, in Sweden we don't have this problem; only ” (the "right-hand"
quotation mark in US English text) is allowed as a quotation mark, and
it is correctly inserted by Word, assuming that the language is set to
Swedish.