straight vs 'curly ' quotes in pages

It is possible in two steps. Open the Find/Replace tool.

Left Straight Quote

Find field

• Enter a single space and the straight quote symbol.

Replace field:

• Enter a single space and then immediately press ctrl+cmd+spacebar to open the Character viewer. Search for these words: left double. You will see the left double quotation mark and you want to double-click it so that it inserts right next to that leading space you typed.
• While in the character viewer and you have located the respective double quotes, on the right side of the viewer, click Add to Favorites so you don't have to search for the left and right double quotes. They will be in the Favorites part of the character viewer and you can just double-click them there to insert into Pages.
• If a yellow found indicator is not present, press the > arrow and that first straight quote should light up. Then click replace all and you have fixed half of your straight quote occurrences.

Right Straight Quote

Find field:

• Enter the straight quote followed by a single space

Replace field:

• Press ctrl+cmd+spacebar and search for these words: right double. You will see the right double quotation mark in the middle of the character viewer and you double-click that to insert it into the Replace field. Then you insert a single trailing space.
• Same as the last bullet for the Replace field above to replace all occurrences of a straight quote with white space behind it.

In Pages Settings > Auto-Correction, there is a check box to Use smart quotes and dashes to avoid the above labor.

If one is using the ABC - Extended input source, then the following will enter smart quotes whether they are selected (or not) in the Pages > Settings > Auto-Correction panel:

Left

• double-quote
  • option+{
• single-quote
  • option+}

Right

• double-quote
  • shift+option+{
• single-quote
  • shift+option+}

Tested: U.S. extended Magic Keyboard with Pages v14.1 on macOS Sonoma 14.5.

Changing from straight to smart quotes, or vice versa, is among the many services Devon Technologies WordService can add to the Services menu. You can download WordService directly from Devon Technologies or in the Mac App Store.

You are welcome.

Thanks. Forgot about that specific feature of WordService as never used it.