One of the things that immediately identifies a person who puts effort into their work, is if they write with proper punctuation, like “smart quotes” or “curly quotes” instead of "inch marks". Most word processors have got smart quotes figured out, and even most blogging platforms support plugins [1. We’re using by John Gruber.] that will automatically replace your inch marks with smart quotes — the lazy way out, but it works. But a lot of platforms aren’t curly quote friendly, so it’s the OS’s job to make it so.
The Mac has recently become curly quote aware, though it’s not turned on by default (and doesn’t work in all apps). Go to Edit » Substitutions, and turn on Smart Quotes. This works in Mail, TextEdit, Safari, and some other core apps. It doesn’t work in Notational Velocity, which is a bummer. I found out about this trick on MacOSXHints that enables text substitutions for even more Cocoa applications, though still no luck for Notational Velocity [2. If someone has figured out how to use TextExpander or something else to automatically produce curly quotes in NV, do enlighten us.]. To type a curly quote on the Mac, it’s Option + [ for the opening double quote, and Option + Shift + [ for the closing double quote (“”). Replace with ] for a single curly quote.
iOS has been stubborn in this regard. Let me first stay that I’m thankful that it does include the ability to key in curly quotes, but then why not have the OS automatically implement them? It’s been done for ages on computing platforms, so why not this modern OS? Even its auto-correct will replace ‘whats’ with ‘what's’, instead of using a smart one. This problem is very apparent on the high pixel density display on the iPhone 4 (ever since I laid my eyes on that screen, I’ve been careful about my quote marks).
What’s even more frustrating is that the iPad’s smart quotes are completely fucked up. With single curly quotes, the opening and closing quotes are in logical order. But with double quotes, they’re on opposite sides (which is why I took that picture above). A lot of fanboys will be quick to point out some clever little things that Apple has done, calling out their ‘attention to detail’. But they’re very selective when it comes to choosing them; huge oversights like this one have been floating around for months, unnoticed. Perhaps they’re waiting to feature-pad their next OS release. /End pointless rant.
While I’m at it, I thought why not dispel some knowledge about writing other kinds of commonly misused punctuation. There’s a difference between a hyphen (-), and an em-dash (—). You use hyphens to join to words, but em-dashes are used — it’s got quite a few use cases, really — to create that break from a sentence, like I just demonstrated. Snow Leopard will automatically convert double hyphens -- into an em-dash if it’s in a supported application. To manually type an em-dash, it’s Option + Shift + – (minus). And while we’re at it, an en-dash (half the width of an em-dash) can be keyed in with Option + – (minus). You use an en-dash to specify a range, such as Monday – Thursday or 100 – 200. If you’re not familiar with the concepts, I highly recommend you Bing them; I admit I myself haven’t yet figured it all out.
Another common character that’s often misused, especially on sites like facebook, is the ellipsis or the three dots. It signifies an incomplete thought, and is a character by itself, not three full-stops. You type it by hitting Option + ; on your Mac. Now, if only we could get this message across to the facebook people …
I’ll now rattle off a few more off the top of my head. To type in a bullet •, it’s Option+8. To type in the degree° symbol, it’s Option+Shift+8. To get über, hit Option + u and then u again (or another supported character). To get an accent over the é, type Option + e, and then the e (or a supported character). Option + g produces a ©, Option + r produces a ®, and Option + 2 for ™. And lastly, you can command your Mac to produce an with an Option + Shift + k.
For even more characters, see this little guide on how to find them yourself. If you want to quickly type shortcuts the pretty way (e.g., ⌘ + ⌥ + K), check out this pretty shortcut generator. If you’re on iOS, just tap and hold keys to spring out any available special characters. For the special-special characters on iOS, you can check out Unicode or Glyphboard.
Hope that helps. Oh, and sharing is caring.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Just a quick note—
Thanks for the explanation of how to find the em-dash on an iPad. I’m an editor so I am glad to finally be able to use the iPad fully. However, you use the em-dash—like I am using it here—without spaces before or after it. That way it can’t get left at the beginning or end of a line.
I’m aware that you’re not supposed to leave a space before or after an em-dash, but I noticed a bunch of designer-y elite use it without the spaces. I asked them about it and it seems like there’s a general consensus that when it comes to screen, spaces is better. Wasn’t sure how to proceed, so I went with the cool people. Might change with high pixel density displays. Of course, I make sure I leave no spaces when dealing with print.
I can give you one more; in law, we use a section symbol, instead of the word, and that is made with option + 6!
One of the things that immediately identifies a person who puts even more effort into their work, is that they also use the proper glyphs (prime and double prime) for the “inch marks” instead of the same straight quotes so often used instead of the proper quotation marks.
As long as we’re getting all proper-like about punctuation, I should point out that the period or comma comes before the closing quote, not after.
And to pick yet another nit, I think it’s somewhat misleading when you say “The Mac has recently become curly quote aware.” I assume you’re referring to automatic correction, but I’ve been typing correct punctuation since ’88.
Those trivialities aside, thanks for helping to education people!
Here we go again. Putting the period or comma before the closing quote is the American way of doing things, not the logical, English way. As for “curly quote aware”, yes, I’m referring to automatic correction.
But “Yay!” otherwise!