Straight quotes and smart quotes

[news]

In Word, you can do a global change on straight quotes to smart quotes
simply by putting a straight quote into both the 'find' and 'replace' boxes,
and it'll automatically replace them with the appropriate smart quotes, left
or right versions.

Why won't this work in even the latest Powerpoint? If I put a straight quote
in the 'find' box and 'replace' box using the standard keyboard key for an
apostrophe, it simply does nothing. If I try to put an ALT character for a
smart quote in the 'replace' box, it replaces all the straight quotes, but
fails to reverse them around a word -- in other words, they all end up
facing the same way at the beginning and end of a word.

Is there a workaround for this? I'm not talking here about replacing
straight quotes with smart quotes as you type...I'm talking about a PPT that
has already been created with pasted text that had straight quotes in it.

I scoured the web to find an answer but no luck. Can't believe that MVPs,
etc., haven't pointed out this shortcoming in Powerpoint.

Cheers
Fred

 

[Michael Koerner]

Because I'm VBA challenged, I use the following two step method which I got from the CorelDraw NG a year or so ago. Alt+number means hold down the Alt key, and press the numbers using the numeric keypad.

Step One: Use the Find ("), Replace Alt+0148, This gives you end quotes in every instance.

Step Two: Find (space)Alt+0148, replace with (Space)Alt+0147

Also works if you have apostrophes that come through as a straight instead of typographic: Find (') Replace Alt+0146

--
Michael Koerner
MS MVP - PowerPoint


In Word, you can do a global change on straight quotes to smart quotes
simply by putting a straight quote into both the 'find' and 'replace' boxes,
and it'll automatically replace them with the appropriate smart quotes, left
or right versions.

Why won't this work in even the latest Powerpoint? If I put a straight quote
in the 'find' box and 'replace' box using the standard keyboard key for an
apostrophe, it simply does nothing. If I try to put an ALT character for a
smart quote in the 'replace' box, it replaces all the straight quotes, but
fails to reverse them around a word -- in other words, they all end up
facing the same way at the beginning and end of a word.

Is there a workaround for this? I'm not talking here about replacing
straight quotes with smart quotes as you type...I'm talking about a PPT that
has already been created with pasted text that had straight quotes in it.

I scoured the web to find an answer but no luck. Can't believe that MVPs,
etc., haven't pointed out this shortcoming in Powerpoint.

Cheers
Fred

 

[news]

I can't get this to work in PP2007. Most of the text in the ppt is using a single straight quote for all quoted speech, plus a single straight quote for apostrophes too. So, if I do Find (') and Replace (Alt+0146) then it replaces all the straight quotes with left-facing (end) single smart quotes. So far so good for step I. Then, if I do Find (space)Alt+0146 and Replace (space)Alt+0145 to correct the beginning single quotes marks, it simply comes up with an error message saying the search item wasn't found.

Am I misunderstanding your 'space' -- I'm taking it to mean pressing the spacebar once before entering the Alt character. I'm not sure how this works anyway, because if the single quote mark is at the beginning of a sentence, at the start of the first paragraph, there is no space for it to find?

Fred
Because I'm VBA challenged, I use the following two step method which I got from the CorelDraw NG a year or so ago. Alt+number means hold down the Alt key, and press the numbers using the numeric keypad.

Step One: Use the Find ("), Replace Alt+0148, This gives you end quotes in every instance.

Step Two: Find (space)Alt+0148, replace with (Space)Alt+0147

Also works if you have apostrophes that come through as a straight instead of typographic: Find (') Replace Alt+0146

--
Michael Koerner
MS MVP - PowerPoint


In Word, you can do a global change on straight quotes to smart quotes
simply by putting a straight quote into both the 'find' and 'replace' boxes,
and it'll automatically replace them with the appropriate smart quotes, left
or right versions.

Why won't this work in even the latest Powerpoint? If I put a straight quote
in the 'find' box and 'replace' box using the standard keyboard key for an
apostrophe, it simply does nothing. If I try to put an ALT character for a
smart quote in the 'replace' box, it replaces all the straight quotes, but
fails to reverse them around a word -- in other words, they all end up
facing the same way at the beginning and end of a word.

Is there a workaround for this? I'm not talking here about replacing
straight quotes with smart quotes as you type...I'm talking about a PPT that
has already been created with pasted text that had straight quotes in it.

I scoured the web to find an answer but no luck. Can't believe that MVPs,
etc., haven't pointed out this shortcoming in Powerpoint.

Cheers
Fred

 

[Michael Koerner]

If your replacing (") then Do Step One, then Two.

If your replacing ( ' ) then use either Alt+0145 ( ' ) or Alt+0146 ( ' ) depending on which way you want the tail to go. there is no (space) required in this step.



--
Michael Koerner
MS MVP - PowerPoint


I can't get this to work in PP2007. Most of the text in the ppt is using a single straight quote for all quoted speech, plus a single straight quote for apostrophes too. So, if I do Find (') and Replace (Alt+0146) then it replaces all the straight quotes with left-facing (end) single smart quotes. So far so good for step I. Then, if I do Find (space)Alt+0146 and Replace (space)Alt+0145 to correct the beginning single quotes marks, it simply comes up with an error message saying the search item wasn't found.

Am I misunderstanding your 'space' -- I'm taking it to mean pressing the spacebar once before entering the Alt character. I'm not sure how this works anyway, because if the single quote mark is at the beginning of a sentence, at the start of the first paragraph, there is no space for it to find?

Fred
Because I'm VBA challenged, I use the following two step method which I got from the CorelDraw NG a year or so ago. Alt+number means hold down the Alt key, and press the numbers using the numeric keypad.

Step One: Use the Find ("), Replace Alt+0148, This gives you end quotes in every instance.

Step Two: Find (space)Alt+0148, replace with (Space)Alt+0147

Also works if you have apostrophes that come through as a straight instead of typographic: Find (') Replace Alt+0146

--
Michael Koerner
MS MVP - PowerPoint


In Word, you can do a global change on straight quotes to smart quotes
simply by putting a straight quote into both the 'find' and 'replace' boxes,
and it'll automatically replace them with the appropriate smart quotes, left
or right versions.

Why won't this work in even the latest Powerpoint? If I put a straight quote
in the 'find' box and 'replace' box using the standard keyboard key for an
apostrophe, it simply does nothing. If I try to put an ALT character for a
smart quote in the 'replace' box, it replaces all the straight quotes, but
fails to reverse them around a word -- in other words, they all end up
facing the same way at the beginning and end of a word.

Is there a workaround for this? I'm not talking here about replacing
straight quotes with smart quotes as you type...I'm talking about a PPT that
has already been created with pasted text that had straight quotes in it.

I scoured the web to find an answer but no luck. Can't believe that MVPs,
etc., haven't pointed out this shortcoming in Powerpoint.

Cheers
Fred

 

[Michael Koerner]

If it is just ( ' ) that your replacing, I would go through my document and replace all the instances that include a space behind the character with the appropriate Alt+character and a space. then replace all the remaining ( ' ) characters with whichever Alt+character you want.

--
Michael Koerner
MS MVP - PowerPoint


If your replacing (") then Do Step One, then Two.

If your replacing ( ' ) then use either Alt+0145 ( ' ) or Alt+0146 ( ' ) depending on which way you want the tail to go. there is no (space) required in this step.



--
Michael Koerner
MS MVP - PowerPoint


I can't get this to work in PP2007. Most of the text in the ppt is using a single straight quote for all quoted speech, plus a single straight quote for apostrophes too. So, if I do Find (') and Replace (Alt+0146) then it replaces all the straight quotes with left-facing (end) single smart quotes. So far so good for step I. Then, if I do Find (space)Alt+0146 and Replace (space)Alt+0145 to correct the beginning single quotes marks, it simply comes up with an error message saying the search item wasn't found.

Am I misunderstanding your 'space' -- I'm taking it to mean pressing the spacebar once before entering the Alt character. I'm not sure how this works anyway, because if the single quote mark is at the beginning of a sentence, at the start of the first paragraph, there is no space for it to find?

Fred
Because I'm VBA challenged, I use the following two step method which I got from the CorelDraw NG a year or so ago. Alt+number means hold down the Alt key, and press the numbers using the numeric keypad.

Step One: Use the Find ("), Replace Alt+0148, This gives you end quotes in every instance.

Step Two: Find (space)Alt+0148, replace with (Space)Alt+0147

Also works if you have apostrophes that come through as a straight instead of typographic: Find (') Replace Alt+0146

--
Michael Koerner
MS MVP - PowerPoint


In Word, you can do a global change on straight quotes to smart quotes
simply by putting a straight quote into both the 'find' and 'replace' boxes,
and it'll automatically replace them with the appropriate smart quotes, left
or right versions.

Why won't this work in even the latest Powerpoint? If I put a straight quote
in the 'find' box and 'replace' box using the standard keyboard key for an
apostrophe, it simply does nothing. If I try to put an ALT character for a
smart quote in the 'replace' box, it replaces all the straight quotes, but
fails to reverse them around a word -- in other words, they all end up
facing the same way at the beginning and end of a word.

Is there a workaround for this? I'm not talking here about replacing
straight quotes with smart quotes as you type...I'm talking about a PPT that
has already been created with pasted text that had straight quotes in it.

I scoured the web to find an answer but no luck. Can't believe that MVPs,
etc., haven't pointed out this shortcoming in Powerpoint.

Cheers
Fred