Cannot type opening single quotation mark, just closing one

Question

I recently changed Checking > Quotation Rules from <> to regular “quotation marks”. Using copy / paste from the Quotation Rules window existing quotation marks were changed from << >> to “ ” and < > to ‘ ’. So it looks like the correct characters are in Quotation Rules. However, when I try to type quotation marks I get " (upright, not curly quotes) for double quotes and ’ (single curly closing quote) only for single quotes. Is there any way to get ParaTExt to use proper opening and closing curly quotes?

Answer 1

I have found recently that I have to trick PT into typing the curly quotes into the Find/Replace dialog. If I type

  a "


  (any letter first, then space, then shift+") then I get opening
  quote, then I delete the first two characters. Closing quote
  happens if I type a letter followed by " I think the closing quote
  appears.</p>

In a project window autocorrect.txt, which was installed in my PT by default, changes " and ' to opening quote when it follows a space, closing quote otherwise--this works beautifully.

I haven't gotten around to bug-reporting this; I'm using PT on Linux and I assumed this was a Linux-specific bug. Does anyone else have this problem?

KimB

Comments

KimB,

I’ve tried the following lines in Autocorrect.txt in both Paratext 8.0.53.1 (Windows) and Paratext 7.6.54.10093 (Linux), and have found that they work fine in the find window as well as the text.

   '--> \u2018     (space before the ' and before the output)
  '-->\u2019       (no spaces)
   "--> \u201c
  "-->\u201d

There may be something else happening. If you want to send me your Autocorrect.txt I can take a look at it.
Blessings,
anon848905

---

Thanks anon848905. Your ‘rules’ worked, though I can confirm KimB’s observations about behaviour in Find / Replace (and the same in Notes). I can live with that, though–this is a great step forward!

Answer 2

send me your email address and I will attach the autocorrect.txt which will change your < and > to quotes. You can also use Keyman with a prepared keyboard to do the smart quotes. Also if you want to do it manually, type 201c and then hit alt-X with the cursor to the right and it will toggle to opening double smart quote. 201d is closing smart quote and 2018 is opening single quote and 2019 is closing single quote.

Comments

I guess I’m a bit surprised that this is a matter for autocorrect. I’ll send you my address–I think I have yours. Thanks.