How to use the smart quote converter
- Choose Straight to curly or Curly to straight.
- Paste your text.
- Tick the options for three dots and the ellipsis character, and for two hyphens and the long dash character.
- Read the converted text line by line and use Copy result to take the whole text.
Formula
double quote: opening if the text starts here or it follows a space, bracket or dash, otherwise closing
single quote: opening if it follows a space or opening mark and a letter follows, otherwise an apostrophe or closing mark
three dots become one ellipsis character; two hyphens become one long dash character
The rules look only at the characters around each mark. They cannot read the meaning of the text, so a few cases need a check by eye.
Quotes, apostrophes and an ellipsis
The line "It's a trap," she said. 'Tis the season... and the '90s were fun -- weren't they? has 8 marks to change. The double quotes become an opening and closing pair, the apostrophes in It’s and weren’t become closing marks, the three dots become one ellipsis character, the two hyphens become one long dash, and the ’90s apostrophe is kept as a closing mark because a digit follows.
The one limit shows in 'Tis: a quote before a word looks like an opening quote, so the page writes it as an opening mark, while typography calls for an apostrophe. Fix such words by hand. Going the other way, "It’s a trap," she said. changes 3 marks back to straight quotes.
Why curly quotes
Curly quotes, also called smart or typographic quotes, have different shapes for opening and closing marks. They look like printed text, while straight quotes look like typewriter text. Many word processors convert them as you type, but text from code editors, forms and chat often arrives with straight ones.
Going back to straight quotes is useful for code, data files and systems that choke on non-ASCII marks. The round trip is exact for quotes, but not always for apostrophes, since a straight mark loses the information about its role.
Related tools
If quotes and accents have turned into strange symbols, use the Text Encoding Fixer. To change capital letters, use the Case Converter. To tidy a list, use Text Line Tools, and to flip text around, try Reverse Text.
Assumptions and limits
- Only double and single straight quotes, and their curly counterparts, are converted.
- Quotes inside code or markup are converted too, so convert prose only.
- Text is limited to 50,000 characters.
- The result is shown one line at a time and Copy result copies the whole text.
- The text shown when the page opens is an example.
Frequently asked questions
How does it know which quote is opening?
It looks at the character before the mark. After a space, an opening bracket or a dash, or at the start, the mark opens. Anywhere else it closes.
Why is the apostrophe in '90s handled differently?
A quote followed by a digit is read as an apostrophe that replaces missing digits, so it becomes a closing-style mark, not an opening quote.
Can I keep dots and hyphens as they are?
Yes. Untick the options for the ellipsis and the long dash, and only quotation marks and apostrophes change.
Does it handle other languages’ quotation marks?
It converts the English style. Other styles, such as the guillemets used in French, are left as they are, and German low quotes are turned into straight ones when going back.