Auto-Correct , Apostrophes & Curls
Auto-Correct , Apostrophes & Curls
I am constantly hitting the semi-colon key instead of the apostrophe key on all my keyboards for some reason, so I have put most of the common contractions that I use into Auto-Correct. Works perfectly. I also have Smart Quotes turned off. But when Auto-Correct changes my accidental semi-colon to an apostrophe, it uses a curly apostrophe. This means that in a manuscript I have both -- straight apostrophes when I manage to actually hit the right key, and curly apostrophes when I don't. This is going to drive my publisher's copy-edit department insane. And me along with it. Am I missing something? BTW, Atlantis is the hands-down best WP since WordStar (and that's the highest praise possible!).
Could you please email us your current Atlantis settings? Please choose the "Tools | Options..." menu command of Atlantis, and click the "Save to File..." button. Save the settings as "Atlantis.ini" to your disk, and email this INI file to support@AtlantisWordProcessor.com (attach the INI file to your email message).
A quick update to my own post. I sent to .ini file to the good folk at Atlantis, who solved this immediately. "Operator error", I'm embarrassed to admit. I'd added changes to AutoCorrect while smart quotes was turned ON, then turned smart quotes OFF. But Atlantis was just dutifully doing what I'd asked -- changing semi-colons to smart/curly quotes. (In my defense, I'm not sure you can visually tell the difference in those tiny boxes in AC, but maybe it's just my old eyes!). And the default on this will be changed in the next Beta so others won't make the same mistake.
I've never received faster help from a software company in my life, by the way. I already love Atlantis and am recommending it to every writer (and non-writer) I know, but this experience has just made me more of a fanatic. Thanks, Atlantis -- you rock!
I've never received faster help from a software company in my life, by the way. I already love Atlantis and am recommending it to every writer (and non-writer) I know, but this experience has just made me more of a fanatic. Thanks, Atlantis -- you rock!
According to your INI file, nothing was wrong with your custom "replace ... with ..." pairs. There were only two custom pairs with apostrophes. In both pairs, straight apostrophes were used.
The problem was with the default (built-in) "replace ... with ..." pairs of the English AutoCorrect of Atlantis. There were dozens of replacement strings that included curly apostrophes. They all have been replaced with ordinary straight apostrophes in the latest beta version of Atlantis.
For instance, the English AutoCorrect of older versions of Atlantis included the following "replace ... with ..." string:
can;t ---> can’t
Every time you typed "can;t" in your document, Atlantis replaced it with "can+<curly_apostrophe>+t", regardless of the state of the "Replace quotes with" option in the "Tools | AutoCorrect Options..." dialog of Atlantis.
From now on, Atlantis will replace "can;t" with "can+<straight_apostrophe>+t" when the "Replace quotes with" option is off. When the "Replace quotes with" option is on, Atlantis will replace "can;t" with "can+<curly_apostrophe>+t".
The problem was with the default (built-in) "replace ... with ..." pairs of the English AutoCorrect of Atlantis. There were dozens of replacement strings that included curly apostrophes. They all have been replaced with ordinary straight apostrophes in the latest beta version of Atlantis.
For instance, the English AutoCorrect of older versions of Atlantis included the following "replace ... with ..." string:
can;t ---> can’t
Every time you typed "can;t" in your document, Atlantis replaced it with "can+<curly_apostrophe>+t", regardless of the state of the "Replace quotes with" option in the "Tools | AutoCorrect Options..." dialog of Atlantis.
From now on, Atlantis will replace "can;t" with "can+<straight_apostrophe>+t" when the "Replace quotes with" option is off. When the "Replace quotes with" option is on, Atlantis will replace "can;t" with "can+<curly_apostrophe>+t".