curly question

Because curly quotes don't translate to all devices and programs, so it's easier to just not use them.

DeleyanLee said:

Because curly quotes don't translate to all devices and programs, so it's easier to just not use them.

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But if you load a document using smart quotes into a program that doesn't support them, you'll just automatically see straight quotes.

My theory is that agents and editors stick funny things like that into their submission requirements just to test if you've actually read them.

Chasing the Horizon said:

But if you load a document using smart quotes into a program that doesn't support them, you'll just automatically see straight quotes.

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Never noticed that, but I have noticed all the little squares where quotes should be all too often. Same with letters with accents--it's made some ebooks almost impossible to read.

The ASCII character set of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and basic punctuation (English style period, question mark, comma, exclamation mark, and "straight" quotation and apostrophe marks) was created as a standard and all use the came codes for each characters.

"High" ASCII includes non-standard characters, accent marks, and things like em-dashes, and "curly" quotation/apostrophe marks. Those were coded differently in not only different operating systems (say, Windows and Mac) but may be encoded differently in different fonts.

So you might send a ms. with a lovely “ and ” but your agent reading on a Linux computer or a Mac or maybe even on Windows gets a ø and ¥ instead of your lovely quotation marks, or the empty box known as the "empty character" because that particular code in that particular font isn't associated with any character.

Also, it's just better for a typesetter to deal with those, because when Word Processors insert curly quotes or apostrophes automatically, they often get them wrong.

Chasing the Horizon said:

But if you load a document using smart quotes into a program that doesn't support them, you'll just automatically see straight quotes.

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That depends a lot on the application, the OS and the font.

Medievalist said:

Chasing the Horizon said:

But if you load a document using smart quotes into a program that doesn't support them, you'll just automatically see straight quotes.

Click to expand...

That depends a lot on the application, the OS and the font.

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What Medi said. I've seen plenty of applications that don't translate curly quotes into straight ones but into oddball characters instead.

Personally, I hate how straight quotes look, so I use curly quotes when I'm writing, then change them to straight quotes when submitting. It's a 30-second process to switch them back and forth, and everyone is happy.

Something else to note - Word, for example, has an awful lot going on under the surface when it comes to formatting. I know that certain programmes I use in word I have to completely strip all the hidden formatting because otherwise I just get lots of missing character boxes - or my personal favourite is when it's really incompatible and you get a page of random text and numbers and symbols between every line or so of your text.

Smart quotes can screw things up royally, and do not always translate into straight quotes. They can mess up a manuscript, and it can take hours to fix the damage.

If Word is not set properly, it can load all sorts of hidden junk into a manuscript.