[scribus] Quotes and apostrophes

[John Jason Jordan]

On Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:03:53 +0200
alessandro rimoldi <ale.comp_06 at xox.ch> dijo:

> > But that is not what I was looking for. I assumed that "typographer's
> > quotes" would be an option somewhere. Like I could turn it on and then
> > Scribus would always use the typographer's quotes when I am typing -
> > no need to insert a special character.
> > 
> > I can't find the option anywhere. I know it is not trivial to add a
> > feature like this, but all word processors do it, so it should be
> > possible. Does it exist as an option somewhere in Scribus?
> 
> typographer's quotes are very hard to get right, and scribus being an app which is still under heavy development preferred to concentrate on other topics.
> 
> you have to consider that scribus is used all around the world and different languages (and even some regional versions of languages) have different rules, which may even be somehow complicated. you also have to consider that quotes can be nested and that quote signs may also be used as apostrophes.
> 
> so, for now, you have to manually set the correct quote for each case...

Word processors don't always get it right either. For example, I was
trying to type "because" using the common pronunciation [kʌz], which is
normally spelled 'cause. The typographer's single quote required there
is the one that curls to the left (closing single quote), but OOo
Writer insisted that it started the word so it needed to be the opening
single quote. I had to fool OOo by typing a single quote at the end of
the word and then dragging and dropping it in front.

As for different languages, that is a good point, and there are also
languages which have optional systems. E.g., in English the nesting of
single and double quotes is reversed between US and other areas of the
world. For this reason nesting is something that the English versions
of word processors do not do. I can certainly make such decisions for
myself - my keyboard has different buttons for the single and double
quotes. It's having to insert a special glyph that is time consuming.

I think the way word processors do it is basically just an autocorrect
function, with the added feature of checking first for whether the
preceding glyph is a space versus anything else. I don't think it's any
more complicated than that. Maybe this could be scripted in Scribus.

Anyway, now that I know the feature does not yet exist in Scribus I can
stop looking for it. I'll just make it a point to do my writing in OOo
except for the little tweaks that are always necessary in the layout.