Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Adding Quotes.

Adding Quotes

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated June 29, 2019)

Normally, you add quote marks to your text as you type. There may be times, however, when you want to add the quote marks at a later time. For instance, while editing your document you may select some text and then want quote marks added around the selected text. You can accomplish this task with the following macro:

Sub AddQuotes()
    Dim sBegQ As String
    Dim sEndQ As String

    If Options.AutoFormatAsYouTypeReplaceQuotes Then
        sBegQ = Chr(147)
        sEndQ = Chr(148)
    Else
        sBegQ = Chr(34)
        sEndQ = Chr(34)
    End If

    Selection.InsertBefore sBegQ
    Selection.InsertAfter sEndQ
End Sub

The macro determines the proper type of quote marks to use, based on whether you have Word's SmartQuotes turned on or not. The proper quotes are then placed before and after the selection.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the WordTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Adding Quotes.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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What is 5 - 4?

2021-11-29 11:39:45

Phil Rabichow

Thank you Allen. I've changed the macro. It's strange though. I have the macro in a global template (Macros.dot), which loads when I start Word. If I open the template, select text in a document, go to the macro in the VBE, I can press F5 or F8 & the macro works perfectly.

If I, instead, press Alt+F8 & run the macro (or use the toolbar button that I assigned to the macro), it clips off the entire last word. e.g. here I selected
quick brown fox space
Here's the result: (see Figure 1 below)

Here are my edit settings: (see Figure 2 below)

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

2021-11-29 08:58:44

Allen

See the macro version over on the WordTipsRibbon site, Phil. (Link is in the gray box at the top of this page.) It includes logic to not include the space.

-Allen

2021-11-28 18:13:27

Phil Rabichow

Hi Allen:
I tried this macro, as well as your "Add Parens" macro. The trouble that I've had with both is that when I select text by double clicking & dragging my mouse, Word select both the words & the space after. The macros always place the final quote or paren after the space...i.e. it looks like this: "this is in quotes ", rather that this: "this is in quotes".

2019-09-30 13:35:17

Niki Pino

Do you know how to add quotes to multiple lines in MS Word? So that quotes are at the beginning of each new line after enter is pushed and at the end before enter is pushed?

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