I am unable to turn off “smart quotes” (for the purpose of entering computer code). I have unchecked the box in System Preferences > Language > Keyboard, and in Safari and Mail under the Edit Menu > Substitutions (also in Word and TextEdit), but the smart or ”curly quotes“ continue to appear in each application. Is there any way to fix this in Mavericks? I am running OS X 10.9.3
Word does not use OS X settings for such things. Look at its own preferences or help or in the MS forum
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mac/forum/macword
TextEdit has its own smart quotes box in its preferences > new document
Are you actually writing code, or writing a paper that includes code examples?
If you are writing code, I suggest a real Text Editor, such as TextWrangler (free), or actually working in XCode. Of course if you are a programmer, you might like Terminal based character cell based editors such as nano, Vim, emacs, etc...
If you are included code examples in a paper, then try specifying a Fixed Width Font for your examples.
TextWrangler is a much better programmer's text editor.
BobHarris wrote:
If you are included code examples in a paper, then try specifying a Fixed Width Font for your examples.
Fixed width fonts also have smart quotes, which will need to be turned off if for some reason they are turned on by default.
I just want to check, but when you said System Preferences -> Language -> Keyboard, was that the same as:
System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Text -> [_] Use smart quotes and dashes? If it was, just ignore me for now.
Thanks for all the quick responses to my question, but I don't think that I made myself clear. I discovered the problem when I was trying to enter some straight quotes into a Python training program on the web, and I couldn't figure out how to do this. So first I tried to turn off smart quotes in Safari, but that didn't solve the problem. I then went to System Preferences > Keyboard > Text and unchecked the use smart quotes box. I then went to Mail (Edit > Substitutions > uncheck smart quotes) and TextEdit (Preferences) and Word (Preferences or Tools).
I don't really want to write code, but this seems to be a bug in OS X (I tried this on both my desktop and my Macbook Pro), and with all of the settings above, when I type something with quotes, they are always “smart” in all of the programs (Mail, Safari, TextEdit, Word)
I also tried making all of these settings and then restarting the computer, but that didn't change anything.
I am not intending to perform any serious coding--mainly interested for my grandson.
Thanks again.
Setting the preference on the application you are using should do it, but that is one of the reasons for using a programmer's text editor when doing that kind of thing. TextWrangler is free, and unlike TextEdit, is designed for programming stuff - it even has menu options to straighten quotes, since that is a fairly common issue when copy/pasting code snippets from articles on the web.
MacBook Pro / OS X Mavericks (10.9.3) / Xcode 5.1.1 / RubyMotion FTW
red_menace:
That's my problem: no matter how I set the preferences in the applications, the smart quotes won't go away.
slps01 wrote:
red_menace:
That's my problem: no matter how I set the preferences in the applications, the smart quotes won't go away.
I've not heard of anyone with that problem before. Could you use the camera icon to post a screenshot of this happening in TextEdit when using the font
Helvetica Regular 36 when both the Preferences and Edit Menu items for smart quotes are turned off?
TL;DR: AFAIK, nobody tries to use Microsoft Word for programming in Python, or programming in general, and TextEdit is dicy here at best.
slps01 wrote:
red_menace:
That's my problem: no matter how I set the preferences in the applications, the smart quotes won't go away.
There is clearly an issue with smart quotes in your configuration. The global smart quotes setting is not being honored, nor is any local setting that might exist.
Which particular application are you using to edit your Python code when this problem arises?
(As with programming in general, details matter here.)
Did the tools you are using also get restarted after the global settings were changed?
Why ask this stuff? This information will allow folks to see if there's something else going on within that particular application, and it's also because there are text tools around that just won't create text files that the Python interpreter can process — whatever you're using here is probably closer to creating a plain-text file than some, as you're noticing the smart quotes here, though. Of what you've mentioned so far, Microsoft Word is not known for its ability to create ASCII or UTF-8 text files, and TextEdit is dicy here at best as that tool is quite fond of using RTF formats.
But if it's Word or TextEdit you're using? That won't work at all well. TextWrangler (free) is a common choice for folks that prefer a GUI editor, or MacVim (free) or whatever emacs is current (also free) or other such if you'd prefer a more advanced editor. (Note: vim and emacs are much more cryptic, and much more powerful editors.) Or use the included nano editor (has an on-screen list of commands), or the integrated vim or emacs editors at the command line. There are also Python IDE packages around, as well. (Xcode doesn't support Python, though there are reports of some success with it.) These tools all work, and these tools all produce the sorts of sequential text files that the compilers and interpreters can process. In some cases, these tools also provide syntax highlighting and other features, which can be very useful when coding, too.
Can you give us a pointer to the Python training program on the web? Maybe we can figure out what is happening based on the web site.
"Safari SQ off, System Pref SQ off” - No Smart Quotes
"Safari SQ off, System Pref SQ on” - No Smart Quotes
“Safari SQ on, System Pref SQ off” - Smart Quotes
“Safari SQ on, System Pref SQ on” - Smart Quotes
This is just a little experiment using Safari while entering this reply via Safari. The System Pref does not seem to affect Smart Quotes in Safari. The Safari -> Edit -> Substitutions -> Smart Quotes seems to be the controlling factor.
Assuming you do not have any special Safari extensions, nor 3rd party keyboard shortcut utilities, such as TextExpander, then I would suggest you try trashing your Safari preferences and see if that affects Smart Quotes.
Quit Safari
Finder -> Go -> Go to Folder -> ~/Library/Preferences
Drag com.apple.Safari.plist to your Desktop for safe keeping.
Launch Safari
Check that Safari -> Edit -> Substitutions -> Smart Quotes is NOT checked.
Check that System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Text -> Smart Quotes is not checked (just to be sure).
Does the Smart Quote problem still occur?
MrHoffman wrote:
TextEdit is dicy here at best as that tool is quite fond of using RTF formats.
All you have to do to make it create plain text instead of rtf is to set its preferences to that, which is hardly difficult or dicey.
I pulled out all of the Safari preferences from the Library but am still getting “smart quotes”.
I'm not sure if I am sending a duplicate message, but the original doesn't seem to appear in the thread. I am attaching a screen shot of a TexEdit document written in Helvetica font with all of the smart quote settings unchecked. As you can see, the smart quotes still appear. I have also tried removing the TexEdit preferences from the Library and checking again, but the problem continues (in all of the other applications as well).
slps01 wrote:
a TexEdit document written in Helvetica font with all of the smart quote settings unchecked. As you can see, the smart quotes still appear.
Is it really Hevetica? Your prefs say that Plain Text is supposed to be in Century 10.
Those quotes are not correct smart quotes, they are at the wrong ends of the phrase.
What happens if you turn off "correct spelling automatically" and "text replacement".
How to Turn off Smart Quotes
