Under Community Review

Quotation marks | Missing choice option for the quotation marks to be used

The function “Replace ‘straight quotes’ with smart quotes” has been a major improvement in the last few years.

Trados Studio Options menu with AutoCorrect settings for Italian showing 'Replace straight quotes with smart quotes' checked.

This functionality could and should however be improved because some languages use two different types of quotation marks (German, Italian, Spanish…).

GERMAN

  • AAAA (deutsche Anführungszeichen)
  • »AAAA« (französische Anführungszeichen [French quotation marks] or Chevrons)

ITALIAN

  • AAAA (virgolette inglesi)
  • «AAAA» (virgolette francesi, also called virgolette caporali)

 

SPANISH

  • AAAA (comillas inglesas)
  • «AAAA» (comillas latinas, comillas españolas)

 

The use of the one or the other quotation marks is usually a question of context (type of texts) and a typographical choice. The French quotation marks [«», »«] are being used in high quality journalism, in books, etc.

 

This is why it would be important for translators to be given the possibility in the Trados settings (Options) to choose which type of quotation marks they want to use, especially of course for all the languages where you may use two different types. It would be great if that enhancement could be implemented.