Quotation/Punctuation marks

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
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1

Hi everyone! Sorry if this has been asked before, but I’ve been searching the internet for hours trying to find a solution to my problem.

I want to use the same punctuation style as shown in LibreOffice:

”Scrivener.”

“LibreOffice.”

Right now, I have to manually convert everything in LibreOffice afterward, which is just unnecessarily exhausting.

I have no idea what’s wrong with my settings. I’ve tried pretty much everything I can think of, but I just can’t seem to get it right.

Does anyone know how I can fix this?

2

Punctuation style? Do you mean smart quotes?

I’m on windows, so this setting might be in a different place for you, but try doing

Edit > Transformations > Convert Quotes to Straight Quotes

then

Edit > Transformations > Convert Quotes to Smart Quotes

That fixes backwards smart quotes for me.

Under File > Options > Corrections, also check if your have Use Smart Quotes checked, and what type of smart quotes you have it set to create.

Where was your document originally written? I’m guessing you imported it after beginning it in a different program.

3

You can also take a look at the Scrivener Manual (Menu: Help → Scrivener Manual) for a number of tips. Search for “smart quotes”. (No need to spend hours on the “Internet” :wink: )

4

Yes, I mean the smart quotes. I’m only getting the closing quote, not the opening one, even at the beginning of a sentence.

I have a new Scrivener file and usually write directly in it, but since the quotes aren’t working, I’m importing the sentences from LibreOffice instead.

I’ve already tried all of those things. Smart quotes are enabled, as are the relevant settings on my Mac. The quotes work everywhere else, just not in Scrivener.

Buuut I found a way to type the opening quote by pressing Option + 2. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing. I just don’t understand where the problem is coming from.

5

I’ve already tried all of that. The smart quotes turn my opening quotation marks into closing ones. :face_exhaling:

6

So, you create a new, blank Scrivener project, type "Scrivener" and it changes into ”Scrivener”?

Just to eliminate unknown variables.

Does changing the font make a difference? (Before you start typing!)

:thinking:

7

Because Option-2 is not the usual way to get curly quotes around here, I am guessing you either have some keyboard macro app running, or you are set for a non-English language / non-US keyboard.

If you have a keyboard macro app running, quit out of that and see if that makes a difference.

On my keyboard (std U.S.-issue MacOS), curly quotes are typed by using combinations of option and shift together with the brackets keys (‘[’ and ‘]’).

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8

What version of MacOS are you on? Intel or Apple Silicon?

What keyboard setting… US/US International/GB/…? Your saying pressing Option-2 gives you an opening quote suggests you have a variant keyboard setting; on all my machines ever (International or GB keyboards) Option-[ is the opening typographer’s quote keystroke.

I’m assuming you’re on the latest version of Scrivener… (3.5.2).

Such information is essential for us to understand.

:slight_smile:
Mark

PS @gr got there first! :grin:

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9

No, that’s not what I mean. I have curly quotation marks enabled, not straight ones. But whenever I open a new file and start typing, it always gives me “” (the curly closing mark). Changing the font doesn’t make any difference, and copying it into LibreOffice doesn’t turn the closing quotation mark into an opening one either.

10

Oooh!!! This helps SO much, thank you! Problem solved!

Yeah, I don’t have a standard English MacBook, but I write in English. I’ve never had to use Option + 2 to type the opening curly quote before, so I had no idea!

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11

After carefully reading the whole thread, I feel much dumber now.

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