In the past I’ve been able to turn smart quotes to dumb when I compile, but I started a new project recently and because I use a text expander, things like “ it’s ” and “ don’t ” come out in dumb, straight quotes I’ve got a mixture of the two, and it would be a long process to convert them in any automated way. So where is the setting to create everything to dumb quotes? I’ve been through every menu I can find but nothing.
I’m on Srivener 3.5.2 on macOS 26.5.2
I’m not quite sure which you want, but, as you’re on Mac, Open a Scrivenings session on Draft/Manuscript, then Cmd-A in the editor to Select the lot, then:
Edit > Transformations > Convert Quotes to Smart Quotes or vice-versa.
Mark
That’s fine if I’m at the end of a manuscript, but I’m not. I’ve got a long way to complete Draft 1! I would do what you suggest if I knew that new text wouldn’t come with smart quotes, and the only way I can think of circumventing the continued smart quotes would be to export everything and then import it to a new project.
Do you have
Scrivener > Settings > Corrections > Use smart quotes in new projects
ticked on? If that’s not the problem, then you could set up compile-time replacements to convert smart quotes back to straight quotes.
The alternative is to ignore them while you’re typing away, and then periodically use the Edit > Transformations… route.
Or someone else might come along with better ideas.
Mark
Or use the MacOS keyboard shortcut on Scrivener. I stole the Windows shortcut Ctrl+Q to switch to smart quotes where required and Ctrl+Shift+Q to switch to straight quotes.
Of course I use Mac things like ^Q and the equivalent for Shift, which I have no idea of how to type in an iPhone message.
thanks to both of you.
Smart to dumb is a simple series of four character replacements. Seems like you ought to be able to just use the Replacements tab in the right pane of the compile dialog box to get the job done automatically at compile time.
You can make straight quotes the default setting for new projects by deselecting Use smart quotes (“”) in new projects in the Corrections tab of Scrivener ▸ Settings.
For existing projects that are currently using smart quotes, you can disable the setting for new text by toggling off Edit ▸ Substitutions ▸ Smart Quotes. To convert existing smart quotes in the project, load the documents together in the editor in Scrivenings view, click into the editor to focus it, and run Edit ▸ Transformations ▸ Convert Quotes to Straight Quotes. (The command affects text in the focussed editor, limited to a text selection if there is one, so loading multiple documents lets you do this faster, but of course it can be done at any time when you come across a document that needs it.)
To convert the quotes during the compile process, double-click the compile format to edit it (or duplicate and edit, if it’s one of the built-in formats) and tick Convert “smart” punctuation to "dumb" punctuation in the Transformations pane.