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

Fri Dec 12 20:19:06 UTC 2008

Good afternoon Donna and listers,

    Thanks for the information. I use the shift of the appostrophy to get 
both left and right quotes and am done with it. This came up because several 
S&S contributors used left and right quotes in their compositions. Should I 
accidentally delete one of them when marking up content for the Web site I 
want to be able to replace them quickly. As I explained yesterday whenever I 
know I've accidentally deleted a left or a right quote I look for that same 
character elsewhere in the document, copy it to the clipboard, and paste it 
back in to where it was deleted. I figured there was an easier way to do 
this so wanted to ask list members for assistance. Thanks again for the 
information.

Peter Donahue

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
To: <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 11:28 AM
Subject: [stylist] Peter, Straight Quotes vs Smart Quotes in MS Word

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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fonts
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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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