Janet wonders if there is a way to disable smart quotes for particular styles. She works on a lot of programming documentation, with code examples, where smart quotes are invalid syntax. She would like for Word to notice that she is typing or pasting in "code example" paragraph style or "literal" character style, and not change the quote marks.
There is no way to do this in Word. The smart quotes feature is part of the AutoFormat capabilities of Word, and as such is either on or off for the entire document. Further, turning smart quotes on or off at any given point only affects what you type from that point forward, and it doesn't affect anything you paste into the document.
The best solution for the situation where you are creating programming documentation and you don't want smart quotes to appear in paragraphs formatted with a certain style is to create a macro. The macro would step through the paragraphs in your document and, if the paragraph was the designated style, change any smart quotes to regular quotes. Such a macro could be run at any time to make any necessary changes to the smart quotes.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3375) 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: Turning Off Smart Quotes for Specific Styles.
Learning Made Easy! Quickly teach yourself how to format, publish, and share your content using Word 2013. With Step by Step, you set the pace, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Check out Microsoft Word 2013 Step by Step today!
Word allows you to easily insert the contents of one document into another. Doing so, however, may result in unintended ...
Discover MoreA quick little shortcut can help you easily step through different font sizes for whatever text you've selected. Word ...
Discover MoreInsert a text box, and it is automatically formatted to have a border around it. Getting rid of the border is easy, if ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)
Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
Visit the WordTips channel on YouTube
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2025 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments