[stylist] Peter, Straight Quotes vs Smart Quotes in MS Word

[Donna Hill]

Peter,
I googled "left right quotes in Word" and I am copying the pertanant 
link and the text of an article by a former PC World writer.  Notice 
that, if you are intending to use the Smart quotes  (left & right quotes 
in Word) in anything that is HTML, which I'm assuming a web page would 
be, though I really have no experience writing them, HTML will render 
them as gibberish.  They're easier to read, but don't work in HTML, so 
the author explains how to switch between them to meet your current 
needs.  There are several comments below the article as well.
HTH
Donna
***
From:
http://earthlink.com.com/8301-13880_3-9835631-68.html
Switch quickly between Word's smart quotes and straight quotes
Posted by
Dennis O'Reilly

Dennis O'Reilly has covered PCs and other technologies in print and 
online since 1985. Along with more than a decade as editor for 
Ziff-Davis's Computer

Select, Dennis edited PC World's award-winning Here's How section for 
more than seven years. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is 
not an employee

of CNET.


When I described how to
replace Microsoft Word's smart quotes with straight quotes
 to keep the HTML versions of documents from breaking, several people 
objected, claiming that straight quotes make the docs more difficult to 
read. I agree
completely, which is why I decided to tell you about the quickest way I 
know to convert from one quote style to the other. In just a few seconds 
you can
optimize a document for the Web, or for readability in print or onscreen.

Suppose you want to put a Word document that's full of smart 
quotes--both the double quotation-mark style, and single 
apostrophes--onto a Web page. You
know the HTML will break the smart quotes, rendering them a nonsensical 
series of characters. To get the file ready for the Web in Word 2003, 
click Tools*AutoCorrect
Options*AutoFormat As You Type; in Word 2007, choose the Office button 
in the top-left corner, click Word Options
 at the bottom of the window, select Proofing in the left pane, and 
click AutoCorrect Options*AutoFormat As You Type. In both versions, 
uncheck "Straight
quotes" with "smart quotes," and click OK (twice in Word 2007).

Microsoft Word's AutoFormat As You Type dialog box

Uncheck "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" in Word's AutoFormat As 
You Type options to get your document ready for the Web.

Next, click Edit*Replace in Word 2003, or the Home tab and then the 
Replace button to the far right in Word 2007 to open the Find and 
Replace dialog box.
Type " (the double-quote mark) in the "Find what" field, and the same 
character in the "Replace with" field below it. Click Replace All*OK (or 
press Alt-a
and then Enter). Now type ' (the apostrophe) in the "Find what" field, 
and the same character in the "Replace with" field, and click Replace All*OK
 again (or press Alt-a and then Enter again). Your document's quotes are 
now as straight as a school marm's posture.

Now suppose you want to switch back to smart quotes to make the text 
easier to read. Simply follow the same steps again, checking rather than 
unchecking
the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" option in the AutoFormat As 
You Type dialog.

A question of readability
When I took a class in Web design back in the late '90s, we were taught 
that sans serif fonts (such as Arial, Calibri, Tahoma, and others 
without the little
finishing strokes at the ends of each character) were easier to read on 
computer screens than serif fonts, such as Times New Roman, Garamond, 
and Century.
Researcher Alex Poole conducted
a literature review of serif vs. sans serif readability
, finding that such characteristics as the "x-height" (the height of the 
lower-case "x"), letter spacing, and stroke width had a greater effect 
on a font's
readability than whether or not it uses serifs. Poole concludes that 
aesthetics have more to do with the selection of serif or sans serif 
fonts than legibility.
(I was also intrigued by the researcher's explanation of how 
"legibility" is distinguished from "readability.")

Tomorrow: My 10 favorite Web-search shortcuts.

Dennis O'Reilly has covered PCs and other technologies in print and 
online since 1985. Along with more than a decade as editor for 
Ziff-Davis's Computer
Select, Dennis edited PC World's award-winning Here's How section for 
more than seven years. He is a member of the CNET blog Network, and is 
not an employee
of CNET.
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Topics:

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5 comments  
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by
galacticcruiser
 December 19, 2007 4:43 AM PST  Misleading: HTML does not break if you 
use smart quotes. It will break if the author of the web page/site does 
not support
the right encoding of the web pages (typically, UTF-8 encoding is what 
you want). I would strongly discourage people getting rid of smart 
quotes in favor
of straight ones.

To give the article author the benefit of the doubt, I will assume that 
"You know the HTML will break the smart quotes, rendering them a 
nonsensical series
of characters" means that you know the particular site you are writing 
content for can't handle the smart quotes because of the way that site 
was constructed!
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by
MS2BU
 December 19, 2007 6:36 AM PST  If MSFT complied with web standards in 
IE would your article be necessary?

Communication and language changes; it's time to abandon "smart quotes" 
anyway, strict use of 'straight quotes' would give us a key to use for 
something
useful; like stun for pointless drivel about Microsoft Word.
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by
galacticcruiser
 December 19, 2007 7:26 AM PST  MS2BU -- the point about IE not being 
standards compliant is a HUGE problem for web developers. But, it has 
NOTHING to do
with this issue. Smart quotes are actually good from a typography 
perspective. Straight quotes are not.
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by
jefflac
 December 19, 2007 1:06 PM PST  Dennis, great blog. Please keep up the 
good work. These little tips are really invaluable. Especially the one 
about plain
text - I probably spend 20 minutes a day pulling out tables and 
reformatting text. This little time saver has already made me more 
productive!

Before I read your post, I had actually reverted to opening notepad, 
copying into notepad to strip out the nasty stuff, and pasting into 
Outlook from there.
Now my normal file has the macro and just have to do CTRL+SHIFT+V. Thanks!
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by
richj11
 December 19, 2007 4:41 PM PST  You can automate your toggling of quote 
styles using macros. Here are mine (using Word 95).

To select the checkbox:

----------------------------
Sub Main
ToolsAutoCorrectSmartQuotes 1
End Sub
----------------------------

To clear the checkbox:

----------------------------
Sub Main
ToolsAutoCorrectSmartQuotes 0
End Sub
----------------------------

Taking time to create macros for your most used Options is great time 
saver in the long run. They can be placed in a custom drop-down menu for 
quick access.

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