Ensuring Consistent Types of Quotes

When Helena receives a document for editing, she likes to ensure that all of the quotes and apostrophes are of a consistent type. In other words, she likes to ensure that they are either smart or straight, not a mix of the two. Helena wonders if there is an easy way to do this for an entire document.

Perhaps the easiest way to do this is to use Find and Replace. Before taking that step, though, you need to make sure that Word is set to use the type of quotes you prefer:

1. Display the Word Options dialog box. (In Word 2007 click the Office button and then click Word Options. In Word 2010 and later versions display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options.)
2. At the left side of the dialog box click Proofing.
3. Click AutoCorrect Options button. Word displays the AutoCorrect dialog box.
4. Make sure the AutoFormat As You Type tab is displayed. (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The AutoFormat As You Type tab of the AutoCorrect dialog box.

5. Make sure the Straight Quotes with Smart Quotes option is cleared if you prefer straight quotes, or selected if you prefer smart quotes.
6. Click OK to dismiss the AutoCorrect dialog box.
7. Click OK to dismiss the Word Options dialog box.

Now you are ready to do your Find and Replace operation:

1. Press Ctrl+H. Word displays the Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box. (See Figure 2.)



Figure 2. The Replace tab of the Find and Replace dialog box.

2. Put a quote mark in the Find What box.
3. Put a quote mark in the Replace With box.
4. Make sure you aren't searching for any formatting or using any formatting in the replacement text.
5. Click Replace All.
6. Repeat steps 2 through 5, but use an apostrophe in steps 2 and 3.
7. Close the Find and Replace dialog box.

At this point your quotes should be consistent throughout the entire document. If you want to make the change even more automatic, you can record a macro that performs all of these steps. Then, assign a shortcut key to the macro, and you can do it all with the shortcut.

One thing you might notice is that in the AutoCorrect dialog box there is also an AutoFormat tab, in addition to the AutoFormat As You Type tab. The settings on the AutoFormat tab are largely the same as those on the AutoFormat As You Type tab, meaning that you can find a "Straight Quotes with Smart Quotes" check box on both tabs. The steps in this tip directed you to only make a change on the AutoFormat As You Type tab because testing has shown that it is only the setting on this tab that affects Find and Replace, not the setting on the AutoFormat tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (10414) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, 2024, and Word in Microsoft 365.