Pasting text into Word 2007

[Ian]

I'm copying and pasting Project Gutenberg eTexts into a text editor,
taking out the hard returns inside paragraphs, then copying and pasting
that into Word. I can't figure out how to get the quotes and apostrophes
to change to smart quotes, and the double hyphens into m-dashes. I have
it set in the options to replace straight quotes with smart quotes,
etc., but that doesn't help.

I'm using Windows XP SP2. Thanks for any insight.

Ian

 

[Bernard W Joseph]

I'm copying and pasting Project Gutenberg eTexts into a text editor,
taking out the hard returns inside paragraphs, then copying and pasting
that into Word. I can't figure out how to get the quotes and apostrophes
to change to smart quotes, and the double hyphens into m-dashes. I have
it set in the options to replace straight quotes with smart quotes,
etc., but that doesn't help.

I'm using Windows XP SP2. Thanks for any insight.

Ian

Have you tried opening the PG texts in Word and then doing all the
editing there? I don't know about PG, but I do other stuff that way
using global replaces where necessary.

Bernard

 

[Ed]

Hi Ian,

As Bernard suggested you might be able to use global find and replace. If
you have the "autoformat as you type" option turned on and you do a find for
a straight quote and in the "Replace with" box you also have a straight
quote, Word should replace the straight quote in the document with a curly
one. (This was pointed out to me by Suzanne Barnhill a while ago.) The same
thing applies with apostrophes. For me at least this "trick" did not work for
the em dash but you could either select the em dash from the "Special" list
in the "Find and Replace" dialog, or type ^+ into the "Replace with" box.

One caveat:

I tested with Word 2003 and 2007 and if a quote was immediatly preceded by a
space, the replacement was always an opening quote and a similar thing
happened with apostrophes.

Also, you might want to have a look at this link to see if any of it is
relevant to you:

http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/Formatting/CleanWebText.htm

Regards.

Ed

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

In general, you need to run AutoFormat manually to get these results, and of
course the options must be set on the AutoFormat tab as well as on
AutoFormat As You Type.

 

[Ian]

Thanks to everyone for their responses. Opening the file in Word gives
me straight quotes (etc.) along with the font used in the text editor (a
monospaced font). The same happens with "Insert Text From File". I will
try search and replace, and if it doesn't work with em dashes, I can do
those manually. I think if you put a space after "--" it will
auto-correct into an em dash.

Thanks again,
Ian

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If you have Smart Quotes and dashes and the like checked on the AutoFormat
tab of Tools | AutoCorrect Options, then running AutoFormat (Format |
AutoFormat | AutoFormat now) will convert them. Double hyphens will be
converted to em dashes provided they don't have any spaces before or after;
if they do, they'll be converted to en dashes.

 

[Stan Brown]

I can't figure out how to get the quotes and apostrophes
to change to smart quotes, and the double hyphens into m-dashes.

Autocorrect applies to what you type, not to what you paste.

What I do in similar situations is Edit | Replace (in 2003; I don't
know the 2007 equivalent). Change ' to ' and " to " and Word will
change straight to curly.

Then skim through, looking for things like Rock 'n' Roll, which will
have a quote facing the wrong way.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Word already has AutoFormat which does this without any need for effort of
Edit and Replace.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

As Terry points out, however, this is not AutoCorrect but AutoFormat, which
can be run manually.

 

[Ed]

Hi Suzanne,

Thanks for that. Fewer steps. Good.

FWIW, even AutoFormat seems to convert a quote preceded by a space to an
opening quote.

Regards.

Ed