Curly quotes in Rise

Hello! I am a professional typography guy. As Tonya and others have helpfully explained, smart quotes are preferred (and expected) pretty much everywhere.

Copying and pasting from an application that handles text properly is not an especially reasonable thing to have to do in 2023, but since this thread is three years old and there’s no fix in sight, I thought it might be helpful to share some other workarounds in the browsers I use. 

• For Safari users, highlight the text, then right-click and go to Substitutions > Smart Quotes and make sure it’s checked. Now it’ll switch to smart quotes automatically whenever you type.
• For Chrome users, there’s an extension called Instant Smart Quotes that will correct dumb quotes along with other forms of typographical malpractice. Not familiar with the developer, but the extension is working as expected for me.

Replacement is especially important when using fonts like Be Vietnam, which displays the so-called 66 on both sides of the quoted text if you don’t fix it. 

Hope this helps!

Curly quote marks, or "smart quotes," are true typography quote marks while straight quote marks, or "dumb quotes" are a vestigial constraint from typewriters when using one key for two different marks helped save space on a keyboard. 

It would be ideal if Articulate would have Rise default to smart quotes or have something added to the Format bar that we could click on to convert the dumb quotes to smart.

Hi Alyssa, in English, curly (or smart) quotes are preferred typographically. 

Hi Benjamin! Thanks for reaching out and voicing your thoughts on this! 

No new updates yet, but we'll be sure to reach update you here if we make any changes that help!

Just chiming in: Please default to curly quotes for the reasons noted above.

Hi Laura!

The text editor used in Rise 360 defaults to straight quotes. Is there a reason why you need curly quotes instead? I'll pass along your feedback to our team! 

I add my vote to wanting the benefits of using typographically correct ones. I had two reviewers of my most recent Rise course point out the "error" of using straight quotes. Makes me look like I don't know basic composition.

Check out, for example, some online news publications. The crude, less respected ones pay little attention to correct typographical selections. Respected outlets like NY Times get it right because it matters.

I second Laura, Tonya, and Dave. Please change the Rise default to the correct typographer's (curly) quotes. The "straight" quotes are actually mathematical inch and foot symbols. It's a mark of professional layout in web spaces to have typographer's quotes. When Rise doesn't do this, it degrades otherwise lovely layouts.

Thanks for adding your comments, everyone. We'll let you know if we make changes to the text formatting to better work with curly quotes! 

Hi y'all! I searched my way to this thread today in service of some New Year's housekeeping. Like other folks above, the publishing team where I work would like to automate the use of directional quotation marks within all our tools. It seems like a new post here might help push this functionality forward; that's ultimately why I'm writing.

As part of the conversation, here's the most pertinent entry from the Chicago Manual of Style (6.115):

Published works should use directional (or “smart”) quotation marks, sometimes called typographer’s or “curly” quotation marks. These marks, which are available in any modern word processor, generally match the surrounding typeface. For a variety of reasons, including the limitations of typewriter-based keyboards and of certain software programs, these marks are often rendered incorrectly. Care must be taken that the proper mark—left or right, as the case may be—has been used in each instance. All software includes a “default” quotation mark ("); in published prose this unidirectional mark, though far more portable than typographer’s marks, signals a lack of typographical sophistication.

In sum? I wouldn't go so far as to call straight quotes an error. But smart quotes sure would be nice : )