How Do I Get My Quotation Marks To Play Together Nicely?

September 29, 2006 5:57 AM

MicrosoftWordfilter: This program is vexing the heck out of me. I need some help with quotation marks. But not the wiggling finger kind.

I'm working on a manuscript, and when writing dialogue, I sometimes use a - (dash) at the end of a sentence to indicate an interruption, a pause or an incomplete thought.
Unfortunately, Word does not recognize that dash as the end of the sentence and close it appropriately with a closed quotation mark.
It thinks it is the beginning of a new sentence, so it uses an open quotation mark.
Please see here for an example.
I've tried Auto Correcting, turning off Auto Correcting, using Smart Quotes, turning off Smart Quotes (but straight quotes look like crap).
I need (b) to look like (a)
So I'm out of ideas.
Halp!

posted by willmize to computers & internet (4 comments total)

It's a pain but you can just put the quotation marks then go back a space and add the dash.
posted by biffa at 6:00 AM on September 29, 2006

Try this:

(1) In a word document, type out the dash+closed-quote, -"(imagine that is a closed quote, not a straight quote). Select it and copy it (press Ctrl-C)

(2) Go to Tools menu --> AutoCorrect.

(3) Under the "Replace" box type in a string of characters that you would not otherwise use (for example, type in ---). Under the "With" box, paste the dash+closed quote. Make sure that it is a closed quote, not a straight quote. Click the "Add" button.

You have now created an autocorrect option that will turn a typed --- in to a -". I tried this with my copy of Word and it worked, so it ought to work for you.
posted by googly at 6:18 AM on September 29, 2006

Thank you both so much!
I actually kind of combined the two suggestions.
I went and did one example of buffa's fix, then went into "Edit - Replace" and cut and pasted one of the incorrect placements into "Find What" and one of the corrections into "Replace With", and viola!
297 corrections later, the manuscript is repaired.

Again, thank you both so much.
posted by willmize at 6:23 AM on September 29, 2006

You could turn off smart quotes and type the curly quotes directly. This is what I usually do because, like you're experience, "smart" quotes can be more trouble than they're worth but typewriter quotes are ugly.

On a Mac (and US keymap): option-[ & shift-option-[ for double quotes and option-] & shift-option-] for single.
posted by Utilitaritron at 2:01 PM on September 29, 2006