Smart Quotes aren't so smart for me :-(

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
1

I can’t seem to get smart quotes to work – at all. I have tried every combination of system preferences, scrivener preferences, and compile smart quotes on/off options - both on new and existing projects. Everything results in straight quotes being used. What am I doing wrong?

BTW- I also tried the Transformation - Straight to Smart Quote - and still straight quotes. HELP!

Thanks,
Dee

2

One possibility is that the font you’re using doesn’t have “curly” quotes. I ran into that one once, in an otherwise appealing font.

Try holding down shift+option while typing an opening square bracket. It should give you a closing smart quote [size=150]”[/size]. If you don’t see a closing quote, your font may be to blame; try changing it to something boring like Times New Roman and see if that makes a difference.

Hope this helps!

3

It looks like you’re on a Mac.

The suggestion about fonts is probably correct, but here’s another thing to check.
System Preferences → Keyboard → Text
On there you will see a checkbox for “Use smart quotes and dashes.” This should normally not be checked, but if it is, and the bottom choice on the dropdown menus is checked, that would transform your smart quotes into dumb quotes.

4

Yes, sorry, I am on a Mac running version 3.15 of Scrivener.

I’m working in Time New Roman, so that should work. When I do the Shift/Opt/OpenBracket - I DO get a closing curly quote (yea! first one I’ve ever seen in scrivener). Now how do I get that to show up when I type?

I turned off the “Use Smart Quotes” in System Preference/keyboard/text - because the last item on the list was checked. But that didn’t help. When I test - I’m always testing in a “new” scrivener file because I thought I had read it wouldn’t change for existing files.

If I check the System Preferences keyboard text - Use smart quotes - and choose the first option in the drop-down I do get a version of a curly quote - where it looks like the opening quote is an upside-down version of the closed quote. Bett than straight but sill not an industry standard for manuscripts.

Any other thoughts?

5

I think I’m good. My editor says the final test is good.

Final solution: - System Preferences/keyboard/text - Use Smart Quotes Checked - with the first option in drop-down selected for both single and double-quotes.

Thanks all!

Dee