converting straight to curly quotes

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rv
Posts: 2
Joined: 2005-10-08 08:02:47

converting straight to curly quotes

Post by rv »

Hi. Is there a way to do a search and replace in a file, converting straight quotes to curly quotes? Since curly quotes are context-sensitive, you can't just do a simple 'replace " with ” '.
cchapin
Posts: 424
Joined: 2004-02-25 18:28:40
Location: Nagoya, Japan

Post by cchapin »

My previous word processor would do this if you searched for " and replaced it with " while smart quotes were turned on. However, that doesn't seem that Nisus will do that.

You could do a series of search and replace operations (quotation marks after a space or return, quotation marks before a space or return, then search for straight quotes and clean up whatever might be left). PowerFind would simplify this.

If you don't have lots of different formats or styles within the block of text, you could copy the text to TextWrangler, use the Text > Educate Quotes feature, then copy the results back to Nisus Writer Express.

Or perhaps someone else has a simpler solution than these workarounds.

--Craig
allenwatson
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Joined: 2005-10-05 15:05:51
Location: Portland, OR
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Make it a feature request

Post by allenwatson »

If there really is no way to "educate quotes" and "stupify quotes" in NWE, it has to be a feature request! I can't believe this isn't included. Text Wrangler is free, but one should not need a second app for such things. (Text Soap and Tex-Edit Plus are other options for an alternative; but again, it should be included in NWE.)
rv
Posts: 2
Joined: 2005-10-08 08:02:47

Post by rv »

I think this is pretty essential, too. The reason is that it's sometimes necessary to "stupify" quotes when you want to process the text in a database (something I do a lot of), or send the text to people using, e.g., Word on a Windows computer. As much as I love Macs, I work almost exclusively with people who use Windows. Using Unicode, of course, this wouldn't be a problem, but lots of people (including me, often) don't use Unicode. Of course, I'm only basing my comments on work with my previous word processor, Microsoft Word, which has a lot of quirky implementations (one of many reasons I switched to NWE).
cchapin
Posts: 424
Joined: 2004-02-25 18:28:40
Location: Nagoya, Japan

Post by cchapin »

"Uneducating" quotes should be pretty straightforward. Search for the curly quotes and replace them with straight quotes. You can do this in one step with PowerFind Pro: Search for [“”] and replace it with ".

There might be a better way of "educating" quotes, but my earlier post is all I knew to suggest.

--Craig
midwinter
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Location: Utah
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Post by midwinter »

I just want to put in a vote for the terms "educating quotes" and "dumbing quotes down."

I'm just saying.

Anyway. Usually what I do in any word processor is just select an open or a close educated quote and paste it into the find/replace. Then I tell it to replace with a quote that has been dumbed down.
Ryan
Posts: 211
Joined: 2005-01-31 14:36:45
Location: Portland, OR
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Post by Ryan »

I call for the terms "edumacating quotes" and "beating quotes with a stupid stick". And yes, a useful feature request.

In the meantime, I get by quite well with DEVONtechnologies' WordService (http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10523). It adds a menu to your Services menu that, among other things, lets you convert smart and stupid quotes. It also has initial caps, all caps, and a number of other useful (or not) things.
cchapin
Posts: 424
Joined: 2004-02-25 18:28:40
Location: Nagoya, Japan

Post by cchapin »

Ryan wrote:In the meantime, I get by quite well with DEVONtechnologies' WordService
Yes, that's much better than my suggestions.

--Craig
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