Straight and smart quotes

[Daniel Cohen]

It is quite easy to take a document containing straight quotes and
replace them with smart quotes. All that is needed is to tick an option
in Autoformat and then apply autoformatting.

What should one do if one has a document containing smart quotes and
wishes to replace them with straight ones? Unticking the option and
applying autoformatting doesn't change the text.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Daniel,

1. Tools menu -> AutoCorrect -> AutoFormat as you type -> Replace as you
type -> de-select "Straight quotes with smart quotes".

(I do this often, so I have a simple macro, invoked by a keyboard shortcut,
to switch to/from smart quotes, which allows me to do this on the fly.
You're welcome (and so is anyone else) to post back if you want it.)

2. Command-Shift-h (or Command-h before Word 2004) then type " in both
fields -> Replace all.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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[Daniel Cohen]

Hello Daniel,

1. Tools menu -> AutoCorrect -> AutoFormat as you type -> Replace as you
type -> de-select "Straight quotes with smart quotes".

(I do this often, so I have a simple macro, invoked by a keyboard shortcut,
to switch to/from smart quotes, which allows me to do this on the fly.
You're welcome (and so is anyone else) to post back if you want it.)

2. Command-Shift-h (or Command-h before Word 2004) then type " in both
fields -> Replace all.

Many thanks.

1 does not work, or else I do not understand how it works. All it does
is ensure that any *new* quotes are straight ones, as far as I can see.

2 works fine. I did of course know that a replace option would work. But
I thought I would need to put a smart quote into the Find box, which
might be awkward.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Many thanks.

1 does not work, or else I do not understand how it works. All it does
is ensure that any *new* quotes are straight ones, as far as I can see.

You're right as far as it goes. But if you follow step 1 with step 2, all
the old (smart) ones in the document will be replaced with straight ones.

2 works fine. I did of course know that a replace option would work. But
I thought I would need to put a smart quote into the Find box, which
might be awkward.

No, just " is all you need in both fields. It *will* work if you type
Option-[ (which produces opening -- "66" -- quotes), but that will only
find opening quotes, i.e. you would have to type in Shift-Option-[ to
produce closing quotes in a second sweep through in order to finish the job.

Clive Huggan
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