Changing the default smart quotes for “Spanish (Spain, International Sort)

Hi everyone!

I finally installed Studio 2015 and have a question about the new smart quotes feature.

Is there a way to get Studio to use smart quotes that look like this: “ (the regular curly quotes) instead of this: « ?

This is specifically for “Spanish (Spain, International Sort).” I know that I could resolve this using AutoHotkey, and I do have a script running. But it only works if you put in a blank space before you type the quotation mark (for the opening ones) and if you put a blank space after the quote (for the closing quotation mark). I also know that I could change all my TMs to use a different “flavour” of Spanish, but that doesn't make sense at this point. I know QuickInsert is also an option, but it seems cumbersome.

For now, I've tuned off the "Replace straight quotes with smart quotes” option.

Thanks for the help!

best regards,

Becky

  • According to Wikipedia these quotes seems to be correct for Spanish: es.wikipedia.org/.../Comillas
    You can also simply use the straight ones and replace them afterwards with regex:
    (")([a-z0-9]) replaced by “$2 and ([a-z0-9]\b)(") replaced by $1”

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  • I have the same issue. Trados is supposed to display the same AutoCorrect behaviour as Word, but it does not. It insists in changing "" to «» instead of “”. The «» quotes may be correct in Spanish, but I don't see them anywhere but in classic literature. So, it would be great if SDL could take another look and get smart quotes working for Spanish!

  • Hi ,

    Perhaps you should log this as an idea:

    http://ideas.sdl.com

    If you get enough support the product management may look at introducing an option. Until then AutoHotkey or search and replace afterwards are going to be your best options. I think search and replace is probably the easiest so you let Studio do its thing and then correct at the end.

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • Thanks Paul!

    I have tons of very small translation projects into Spanish, and it is rather annoying to have to search and replace "dumb quotes" with “smart quotes” that you can't even type with your keyboard. So you have to go and look for them somewhere, or take them from QuickInsert, but that is rather cumbersome as Becky points out, because you can only get 2 of them at the same time (“”) and then you have to go back and delete one of them.

    Studio is all about speeding up your work, not about delaying it, right? So, I've followed your advice and logged it as an idea.

    Best,
    Hans
  • Hello ,

    Another option is autohotkey and then you would have what you need as you type:

    multifarious.filkin.com/.../

    Check the comments though as the scripts improve as time goes by.

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!

    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub

  • Good morning Mr Geluk,

    Just reacting to your remark 'that you can't even type with your keyboard'.

    There are two ways to very easily enter a wide variety of 'unusual' characters.

    The first way is using the left Alt key plus a code to be typed on the numeric keypad. (It must be the numeric keypad; the numbers on the top row of the main keypad will not work.) For example: LeftAlt + 0171 produces «, LeftAlt + 0187 produces ». LeftAlt + 0163 produces £. This way of working now comes as second nature to me. I have produced a laminated sheet for myself, listing about 100 of such codes. And incidentally, for all of those codes there also are hex codes available that can be used in several Office programmes. For example, in Word U+00BB immediately followed by LeftAlt+X will produce ».

    The second way is useful for people, who have a US English qwerty keyboard. Instead of using the standard keyboard, choose the US international keyboard through the Windows language settings. I type a lot in Dutch and German, so I must enable those languages for spell-checking etc. By itself, Windows would assign the Dutch keyboard to Dutch and the German one to German (and the French azerty one to French, etc.) But in the language setting window, there is also an option to select the input method. So, to each of my working languages I have assigned the US international keyboard as input method. Because all languages will then have the same input method, there will no need for switching languages, because it is the input method that matters and not the language itself.

    In this case, use the right Alt key plus a particular other key, depending on what you wish to produce. For example: RightAlt + [ procudes « and RightAlt + ] produces ». RightAlt + 2 produces ², RightAlt + 3 produces ³, RightAlt + r produces ®, RightAlt + s produces ß. RightAlt + n produces ñ. RightAlt + N produces Ñ. Additionally, dead keys will be available. For example, to produce ü, type " followed by u. If you actually need to type " itself, type "followed by space.

    Both these methods function at the same time.

    These two methods are much easier to use than it might seem and have saved me an incredible amount of time.

    I hope this is useful information.

    Best regards,

    Rahiem