quote within quote

[marianna]

I use "smart quotes" -- i.e., quotation marks that curl downward toward
the quoted material: on the front end, they curl from left to right;
after the quotation, it's vice-versa. The problem: When I do a quote
within a quote -- i.e., one that begins with a double quotation mark
followed by a single one: "'
For some reason MS Word isn't so 'smart' about those single quotes: The
initial one curls in the wrong direction, as if it's at the end of a
quotation. The only 'fix' I've found is ridiculous: Type double
quotation; space; type single quotation (which curls properly); move
cursor to left of single quotation; delete empty space. I've looked in
two Word for Mac books; neither had anything more than vague, global
information about the concept of smart quotes and editing an entire
document.
Can anyone help?

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Marianna,

Thanks for asking a question that no-one has asked in the five years I've
been in this newsgroup!

This is an opportunity to use AutoCorrect to give you exactly what you want.

Firstly you should know that "smart" quotes can be typed, in applications
that don't support smart quotes as a setting, as follows:

³ = Option-[

² = Shift-Option-[

Π= Option-]

¹ = Shift-Option]

[Just in case they don't appear correctly on all modes of displaying this
post, I'll mention that the characters on the left are respectively open
double curly quotes, close double curly quotes, open single curly quotes,
and close single curly quotes.]

This is what you do:

1. Type Option-[ followed by Option-]

2. Select the two characters.

3. Tools menu -> AutoCorrect.

4. The selected term will already be in the right-hand box. In the
left-hand one, type a combination of letters that you are virtually never
going to use. When I tested this I used o2q ­ which would be easily
remembered as standing for "open two lots of quotes".

5. Click OK.

Repeat steps 1-3 but with the closing characters. Repeat step 4; you could
use say c2q for this AutoCorrect term, standing for "close two lots of
quotes".

Type o2q or c2q ­ and once you follow with a space or punctuation,
AutoCorrect will replace those letters with the quotes you want.

(I might leave this one on my Mac; it will be useful...)

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================
* A SUGGESTION -- WAIT FOR CONSIDERED ADVICE: If you post a question, keep
re-visiting the newsgroup for several days after the first response comes
in. Sometimes it takes a few responses before the best or complete solution
is proposed; sometimes you'll be asked for further information so that a
better answer can be provided. Good tips about getting the best out of
posting are at http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari
you may see a blank page and have to hit the circular arrow icon -- "Reload
the current page" -- a few times) and
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/AccessNewsgroups.html

============================================================

 

[NY Law Firm Trainer]

Given the strong knowledge on quotes shown here, might any of you know if
there's a way to prevent the following: When text inside a set of straight
double quotes is marked for an index, an XE field is inserted before the
close quote. If a find>replace for straight to smart quotes is then run, all
quotes which should be close smart quotes after the XE fields are inserted as
open smart quotes. The only way I've found to avoid this is to manually move
the XE field to inside the open quote, which is clunky to do. Do any of you
know a solution? Many thanks.

Hello Marianna,

Thanks for asking a question that no-one has asked in the five years I've
been in this newsgroup!

This is an opportunity to use AutoCorrect to give you exactly what you want.

Firstly you should know that "smart" quotes can be typed, in applications
that don't support smart quotes as a setting, as follows:

³ = Option-[

² = Shift-Option-[

Å’ = Option-]

¹ = Shift-Option]

[Just in case they don't appear correctly on all modes of displaying this
post, I'll mention that the characters on the left are respectively open
double curly quotes, close double curly quotes, open single curly quotes,
and close single curly quotes.]

This is what you do:

1. Type Option-[ followed by Option-]

2. Select the two characters.

3. Tools menu -> AutoCorrect.

4. The selected term will already be in the right-hand box. In the
left-hand one, type a combination of letters that you are virtually never
going to use. When I tested this I used o2q ­ which would be easily
remembered as standing for "open two lots of quotes".

5. Click OK.

Repeat steps 1-3 but with the closing characters. Repeat step 4; you could
use say c2q for this AutoCorrect term, standing for "close two lots of
quotes".

Type o2q or c2q ­ and once you follow with a space or punctuation,
AutoCorrect will replace those letters with the quotes you want.

(I might leave this one on my Mac; it will be useful...)

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================
* A SUGGESTION -- WAIT FOR CONSIDERED ADVICE: If you post a question, keep
re-visiting the newsgroup for several days after the first response comes
in. Sometimes it takes a few responses before the best or complete solution
is proposed; sometimes you'll be asked for further information so that a
better answer can be provided. Good tips about getting the best out of
posting are at http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari
you may see a blank page and have to hit the circular arrow icon -- "Reload
the current page" -- a few times) and
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/AccessNewsgroups.html

============================================================

I use "smart quotes" -- i.e., quotation marks that curl downward toward
the quoted material: on the front end, they curl from left to right;
after the quotation, it's vice-versa. The problem: When I do a quote
within a quote -- i.e., one that begins with a double quotation mark
followed by a single one: "'
For some reason MS Word isn't so 'smart' about those single quotes: The
initial one curls in the wrong direction, as if it's at the end of a
quotation. The only 'fix' I've found is ridiculous: Type double
quotation; space; type single quotation (which curls properly); move
cursor to left of single quotation; delete empty space. I've looked in
two Word for Mac books; neither had anything more than vague, global
information about the concept of smart quotes and editing an entire
document.
Can anyone help?

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

No. Run your smart quotes conversion before you put the Index tags in

The Smart Quotes mechanism swings off the position of the "white space" in
relation to the quote. If there is a space or other "white space" (e.g. A
paragraph mark or non-printable field code) BEFORE the quote, it will be
replaced with the character for an opening quote. If the white space is
after, it will be replaced with a closing quote character.

It's a case where the automatic mechanism is about as good as they can get
it. They could throw more code at the problem, but it would only make Word
slower, and it still wouldn't work "perfectly". The problem with Index tags
is that they don't hide themselves. If you could hide the index tags, the
quote mechanism would work

Cheers

Given the strong knowledge on quotes shown here, might any of you know if
there's a way to prevent the following: When text inside a set of straight
double quotes is marked for an index, an XE field is inserted before the
close quote. If a find>replace for straight to smart quotes is then run, all
quotes which should be close smart quotes after the XE fields are inserted as
open smart quotes. The only way I've found to avoid this is to manually move
the XE field to inside the open quote, which is clunky to do. Do any of you
know a solution? Many thanks.

Hello Marianna,

Thanks for asking a question that no-one has asked in the five years I've
been in this newsgroup!

This is an opportunity to use AutoCorrect to give you exactly what you want.

Firstly you should know that "smart" quotes can be typed, in applications
that don't support smart quotes as a setting, as follows:

³ = Option-[

² = Shift-Option-[

Å’ = Option-]

¹ = Shift-Option]

[Just in case they don't appear correctly on all modes of displaying this
post, I'll mention that the characters on the left are respectively open
double curly quotes, close double curly quotes, open single curly quotes,
and close single curly quotes.]

This is what you do:

1. Type Option-[ followed by Option-]

2. Select the two characters.

3. Tools menu -> AutoCorrect.

4. The selected term will already be in the right-hand box. In the
left-hand one, type a combination of letters that you are virtually never
going to use. When I tested this I used o2q ­ which would be easily
remembered as standing for "open two lots of quotes".

5. Click OK.

Repeat steps 1-3 but with the closing characters. Repeat step 4; you could
use say c2q for this AutoCorrect term, standing for "close two lots of
quotes".

Type o2q or c2q ­ and once you follow with a space or punctuation,
AutoCorrect will replace those letters with the quotes you want.

(I might leave this one on my Mac; it will be useful...)

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is 5-11 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
============================================================
* A SUGGESTION -- WAIT FOR CONSIDERED ADVICE: If you post a question, keep
re-visiting the newsgroup for several days after the first response comes
in. Sometimes it takes a few responses before the best or complete solution
is proposed; sometimes you'll be asked for further information so that a
better answer can be provided. Good tips about getting the best out of
posting are at http://word.mvps.org/FindHelp/Posting.htm (if you use Safari
you may see a blank page and have to hit the circular arrow icon -- "Reload
the current page" -- a few times) and
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/AccessNewsgroups.html

============================================================

I use "smart quotes" -- i.e., quotation marks that curl downward toward
the quoted material: on the front end, they curl from left to right;
after the quotation, it's vice-versa. The problem: When I do a quote
within a quote -- i.e., one that begins with a double quotation mark
followed by a single one: "'
For some reason MS Word isn't so 'smart' about those single quotes: The
initial one curls in the wrong direction, as if it's at the end of a
quotation. The only 'fix' I've found is ridiculous: Type double
quotation; space; type single quotation (which curls properly); move
cursor to left of single quotation; delete empty space. I've looked in
two Word for Mac books; neither had anything more than vague, global
information about the concept of smart quotes and editing an entire
document.
Can anyone help?

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410