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CyberTaz CyberTaz is offline
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Default converting smart quotes to straight quotes

The AutoCorrect setting you changed is in the AutoFormat As You Type
features which are only in effect while you are typing. Turning it off does
nothing to change content already in the document as you have found.

Leave the feature turned Off but use Find & Replace - just put " in the Find
field as well as in the Replace With field, then replace on a per instance
basis or Replace All.

HTH |:)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac



On 3/30/08 12:23 PM, in article ,
"Three Lefts" wrote:

On Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:21:08 -0700 (PDT), laredotornado
wrote:

Hi,

I'm using MS Word 2003 on Windows XP. How do I convert smart quotes
to straight quotes in a document? I changed the AutoFormat setting
(unchecked the "Straight quotes as Smart quotes" option), but nothing
changed in my document.

Your help is appreciated, - Dave


If it's just a few, you can use Ctrl-Z (undo) immediately after typing
the quote to change it back to a straight (dumb) quote.

When you type a quote mark (single or double), Word changes it to a
smart quote if that feature is enabled. This "change" is logged in the
undo stack, so the Undo function (Ctrl-Z) will undo it and put the
straight quotes back.

This is not a good solution if you have a lot of quotes, but I have
used it for short memos that will be pasted into email messages where
the email program may not support the extended character set and the
smart quotes end up looking like black rectangles.

It also works for other special characters like -- becoming arrows
and -- becoming em-dash etc.