When an editor asks for straight ASCII quotation marks, you can change the punctuation in a saved copy of your draft with two short searches. Check both dialogue marks and apostrophes inside words, then confirm the result in the document you will deliver.
Identify the marks you intend to replace
This example targets the opening and closing double quotation marks “ ” and single quotation marks ‘ ’. The closing single mark also appears in contractions such as We’re. Their Unicode values are U+201C, U+201D, U+2018 and U+2019. The similar-looking ′ in 6′ is U+2032 PRIME, used for feet or minutes. Keep it for this edit. See the Unicode General Punctuation chart.
Open Find and Replace Text and paste this sample into Your text.
“Meet at six,” said Jo.
‘Bring a coat,’ she added.
We’re ready for the 6′ board.Replace the double quotation marks
Turn on Use regular expression and Replace all. Leave Whole word only and Match case off. Paste this pattern into Find, using the single backslashes shown.
[\u201C\u201D]Put one straight double quotation mark, ", in Replace with and click Replace. Expect two replacements and this separate result.
"Meet at six," said Jo.
‘Bring a coat,’ she added.
We’re ready for the 6′ board.The bracketed pattern matches either specified character. Each \u escape names a character by four hexadecimal digits. This lets you specify the marks without judging their shapes in a font. See the MDN character escape reference.
Use the first result for the apostrophe pass
Copy the entire first result into Your text. The tool keeps its input and output separate, so this step carries the double-quote changes into the next pass.
Keep the same options. Change Find to the pattern below and set Replace with to one straight apostrophe, '.
[\u2018\u2019]Click Replace. Expect three replacements, including the apostrophe inside We’re.
"Meet at six," said Jo.
'Bring a coat,' she added.
We're ready for the 6′ board.Check that both dialogue pairs changed, the contraction retained its letters, and the prime after 6 is still present. Use the draft comparison workflow to review a longer passage against its saved original.
Check automatic quote formatting before delivery
If you continue editing in Word, its typing settings can turn straight quotes back into smart quotes. In Word for Windows, open File, Options, Proofing, then AutoCorrect Options. On AutoFormat As You Type, clear the option that replaces straight quotes with smart quotes. See the Microsoft smart quotes instructions.
Save the revised draft and inspect the delivered copy. These two patterns target four specific punctuation characters, so review any other quotation styles required by the receiving editor separately.