Curly quotes vs plain quotes

[Haibane]

I've used WinXP for years and on my old PC set Word to use 'plain double quotes', I've just bought a new shiny PC running Windows7 and I have Office2010 on it and for the life of me I can't find anywhere in Word to set the curly double quotes to plain ones. Does anyone know how please?

[Soran]

I found this on google. I hope it helps. (I use office 2007)

Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.
Click Proofing, and then click AutoCorrect Options.
In the AutoCorrect dialog box, do the following:
Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab, and under Replace as you type, select or clear the "Straight quotes" with “smart quotes” check box.
Click the AutoFormat tab, and under Replace, select or clear the "Straight quotes" with “smart quotes” check box.

[Haibane]

Thank you! That was close enough to lead me in the right direction. On Windows 7 and Office 2010 it is:

Open Word
Click "File"
Click "Options"
Click "Proofing"
Click "Auto-Correct Options"
Select "Auto Format As You Type" Tab
Under "Replace as you Type" UNCHECK "Straight Quotes with Smart Quotes"

[Amber]

This might be worth mentioning, but the "straight" quotes that you are talking about are actually the "inch" and "foot" symbols. Here in school we're told to be very careful of which we're using because if you use the "foot" symbol as an apostrophe it's going to look like you don't know what you're doing. If you're not using these for anything professional then I suppose it doesn't matter but if you're using them for things with clients or something of the sort, I would use the true "curly quotes."

[Haibane]

It's the same symbol, so I understand. The 'inch' symbol can be 'slanted' at an angle in some fonts as well as straight in some fonts. Of course the 'curly' or 'smart' quotes are more correctly a '66' to open a set if quote marks and a '99' to close them, but it really depends on the font face you are using; some legitimately do not use the '66' and '99' symbols.

But I know what you mean!

I do have a good reason not to use the 'curly' quotes since they are right- and left-handed while the plain quotes are symmetrical and the opening and closing quote marks around spoken text using them are the same. Writing BBCode in Word really confuses 'smart' quotes since if I want to have a character 'speak' in bold as soon as I write the [ b ] tag the curly quote after it is a '99' while I actually need a '66'. It's hard to explain and equally annoying while I'm typing!

Using the plain quotes fixes this annoying problem. I'd have thought by Word7 Microsoft would have realised that bbcode is messing up their quote logic!

[Oniya]

I'll do tricks like throwing a space in after my tags and before the quote.  If you back that space out later, the quote stays with the appropriate 'curl'.

[Haibane]

Yes, I do the same and it bugs the heck out of me! I also sometimes (aka often) forget and have to backspace to get rid of the '99' and redo it, that happens often enough that I now only use plain quotes and the search for the setting in this new version of Windows was so tricky I had to come cap in hadnd to all you lovely people.