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SnowshoeLaneLOL
Participating Frequently
July 16, 2012
Question

How to globally change straight double quotes to curly open and close?

  • July 16, 2012
  • 3 replies
  • 49332 views

I am editing with InDesign (5.5) some documents created by others. I suddenly noticed that the double quote marks were straight, not curly, in one document and Find/Change does not seem to offer and option to distiguish the open (left) double quote mark from the right (close) when starting with double straight quotes. Any suggestions?

And--unrelated--why is so hard to get to a page where you can actually post a question?

Thanks!

Jill

    3 replies

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    Thomas24144043j68r
    Participant
    August 21, 2023

    Hello,

    In InDesign how can I globally change quoted content currently punctuated with SINGLE open and closed quote marks to DOUBLE open and closed quote marks? (without undoing apostrophes). Thank you very much in advance.

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      samar02
      Participating Frequently
      July 16, 2012

      Since the position of a double quotation mark determines its shape, it is easiest to use GREP with Find/Change. You can (1) find a straight quotation mark at the beginning of a word/phrase and change it to left quotation marks, and then (2) find a straight quotation mark at the end of a word/phrase and change it to right quotation marks.

      (1)

      Find what:

      ~"([\l\u\)[:punct:]])

      This finds a straight quotation mark in front of any character or punctuation.

      Change to:

      \x{201C}$1

      This puts a left quotation marks in front of what was behind the straight quotation mark.

      (2)

      Find what:

      ([\l\u\)[:punct:]])~"

      This finds a straight quotation mark behind any character or punctuation.

      Change to:

      $1\x{201D}

      This puts a left quotation mark behind what was behind the straight quotation mark.

      I would find/change the first hits one at a time, and when you are confident that it works for your documents, go ahead and Change All.

        Peter Spier
        Community Expert
        Peter SpierCommunity Expert
        Community Expert
        July 16, 2012

        Samar,

        While your thinking is sound, the execution probably isn't. The position of close quotations relative to punctuation is hightly dependent on the language conventions as well as the type of words in use. In US English, for example, most style manuals will tell you that periods and commas are always inside the quotes unless you are quoting from a foreign source where the convention is that punctuation goes outside the quotes or you are using a term, such as in a coding manual, where placing the puctuation inside might cause confusion. Other types of puctuation, such as question marks and exclamation points, would normally fall outside the quote, and parentheses, brackets, braces, dashes, etc. might fall either in or out of the quote.

        I'd be more inclined to look for whitespace preceding a quote mark, or a quote mark at the beginning of a paragagraph (I think you need two searches to do this) and repalce the quote mark with an open curly quote, then look for other straight quotes and replace with a close curly quote, but Im not sure that's foolproof either.

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        SnowshoeLaneLOLAuthor
        Participating Frequently
        July 16, 2012

        Fortunately, I think Samar02's suggestion will work as I am using US English punctuation style. I'll post back if it doesn't work out just for future reference.

        Jill

          Peter Spier
          Community Expert
          Peter SpierCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          July 16, 2012

          First thing, if you open the file and go to preferences (Edit > Prefernces... on Windows, InDesign > Preferences... on Mac), is the Enable Typographers Quotes  box checked in the Type section?

            S
            SnowshoeLaneLOLAuthor
            Participating Frequently
            July 16, 2012

            That I did figure out from the HElp files--but (unfortunately) it won't change the quote marks already in the file. But, I learned something new!

            Willi Adelberger
            Community Expert
            Willi AdelbergerCommunity Expert
            Community Expert
            March 21, 2017

            Find & Replace

            Find " and replace all with "

            Find ' and replace all with '

            It will detect opening and closing quotations automatically.

            In German you would have to take care as the closing apostrophe ‘ and the missing letter sign ’ are different and therefore you have to watch all ' replacements by hand.

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