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Smart Quotes Possible


debbiespray

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I've read through many postings and had lengthy email chains with support. What is the bottom-line? Are smart quotes possible in FusionPro when composing in the Variable Text Frame for static or for variable text? (And then ultimately MarcomCentral).

 

Thanks for ANY advice you have!

 

Regards,

Debbie

Edited by debbiespray
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Yes, of course smart quotes are possible for FusionPro to output, just like any other character. You need to use a font which supports them, and you also probably need to make sure that the "Limit processing to Latin-1/Mac Roman text" box on the Advanced tab of the Composition Settings dialog is NOT checked.
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Give this a shot:

 

var s = Field("Your Field Name");
return s.replace(/"(\w|\d)/g,'„$1').replace(/(\w|\d)"/g,'$1”');

 

Make sure that "Treat returned string as tagged text" is checked in the text frame you apply it to. Hope that helps!

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var s = Field("Your Field Name");
return s.replace(/"(\w|\d)/g,'„$1').replace(/(\w|\d)"/g,'$1”');

Make sure that "Treat returned string as tagged text" is checked in the text frame you apply it to. Hope that helps!

Well, that would convert "straight" double-quotes to "smart" (or "curly") quotes in a given data field. But I'm not sure if that's what Debbie was asking about. (By the way, the "Treat returned strings as tagged text" box is on the Rule Editor; it doesn't apply to specific text frames.)

 

You can just type or paste curly quotes directly into the Variable Text Editor, without the need for any JavaScript rules.

 

Debbie, did you have a more specific question? Are you having a particular problem with smart quotes?

Edited by Dan Korn
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Dan / All -

 

I have been unable to get smart quotes to work. These are new Adobe OTF

fonts, working in Windows for both Indesign 5.5 and Acrobat 10, FusionPro 8.

 

First in Indesign, I layed out as much as possible. The smart quotes are working in the variable text frames and appear in the initial pdf exported.

 

Once in Acrobat, I edited in the Variable Text Editor - I have the following:

 

«OfferDescription_RULE»

We are pleased to offer «Bold_OrganizationName_RULE»a special discount of «Bold_DiscountText_RULE» your next trip! This exclusive Promotion Code may be used only once by «BookingEndDate_RULE», for travel beginning «TravelStartDate_RULE» through «TravelEndDate_RULE».

 

----

 

«OfferDescription_RULE» could have data such as October's Flight Offers.

 

The «Bold_OrganizationName_RULE» could have data that has something like Macy's or Toys "R" Us.

 

I only get the chicken scratches on compose.

 

---

 

Other text in the Variable Text Editor that are not variable, loose the smart quotes on compose:

 

Go to Site.com and click on “More Flight Search Options”.

 

---

 

These will also be uploaded to MarcomCentral once I get to work offline.

 

I just tried composing with unchecking "Limit processing to Latin-1 text" - issue continues.

 

Thanks in advanced for any help you can offer.

 

- Debbie

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«OfferDescription_RULE» could have data such as October's Flight Offers.

 

The «Bold_OrganizationName_RULE» could have data that has something like Macy's or Toys "R" Us.

 

I only get the chicken scratches on compose.

Sorry, I don't know what you mean by "chicken scratches." A picture may be worth a thousand words here. Better yet, if you could collect up the job, or a minimal sample which reproduces the problem, and post it here, that would make this a lot easier.

Other text in the Variable Text Editor that are not variable, loose the smart quotes on compose:

 

Go to Site.com and click on “More Flight Search Options”.

What font are you using? Are there any warning messages in the composition log (.msg) file?

 

Also, what specific versions of FusionPro, Acrobat, and either Windows or Mac OS are you running?

 

Let's try this: Open up the Frodo Travel Tutorial. (From the menu in Acrobat, select FusionPro -> Documentation -> Tutorials, then open the FrodoTravel folder, and open frodo.pdf.) Open up the first text frame at the top of page 1, select all the text there, and then paste the string “More Flight Search Options”, with the curly quotes, copied from right here on this web page. Make sure it's still in the in the "Arial Unicode MS" font. Then either Preview or compose.

 

When I do that in the Frodo job, the curly quotes appear just fine in the output. If that's the case for you as well, then we need to figure out what's different in your template. I suspect it has something to do with the font.

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Dan -

 

I did the tutorial test as you suggested - please see screenshot attached. When I copy and paste and use either Arial Unicode MS or HelveticaNeueLt Std (the font I need to use) I get the smart quotes. However when I type in quotes - see "Flight Search" - I don't, I get the straight quotes instead (chicken scratches). Which is what I get when data places in a variable.

 

I'm working in Windows for both Indesign 5.5 and Acrobat 10, FusionPro 8.0.20. These fonts are new and clean and work in fine in other programs (such as XMPie).

 

Support suggested I install the latest version of FP, I think I'm going to do that this morning to see if it the helps.

 

However, still hoping you or someone else has a solution. I appreciate you hanging in there with me.

 

Thanks,

Debbie

VTE_BothQuotes.thumb.jpg.cd98c403d674258271b32cf53f0ae3fa.jpg

Edited by debbiespray
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Hi Debbie,

Although FP can use the curly quotes if they are available in the font. There is no actual function written in to automatically take care of this for you like there is in InDesign or Word. Basically what those software packages do is find specific occurrences of the straight quotes, either single or double, and replace them with the appropriate curly character.

If the text is entered directly in an FP rule or formatted text box you can enter the appropriate character directly by entering:

On a Mac

Option + [ and Shift + Option + [ (for the curly double quotes)

Option + ] and Shift + Option +] (for curly single quotes)

On a PC

Alt + 0147 and Alt + 0148 (for curly double quotes)

Alt + 0145 and Alt + 0146 (for curly single quotes)

 

However since many times the quotes will be part of the data feed or from an excel document you won't have the chance to simply enter the characters you really want. What you can to is set the value to a variable and perform a few simple ReplaceSubstring lines like this:

str="I'm checking to see if \"Smart Quotes\" will work for me. 'For single curly quotes.'"
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " \"" , " „");
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "\"" , "”");
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " '", " ‚");
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "'", "’");

return str

In this example I setup a variable called str with some simple text. In that string you could have some, or all of it using field values from your data.

str="I'm checking to see if " + Field("Message Field") + " will work for me. 'For single curly quotes.'"
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " \"" , " „");
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "\"" , "”");
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " '", " ‚");
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "'", "’");

return str

 

Or simply:

str=Field("Message Field")
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " \"" , " „");
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "\"" , "”");
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, " '", " ‚");
str = ReplaceSubstring(str, "'", "’");

return str

 

Hope this helps.

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I did the tutorial test as you suggested - please see screenshot attached. When I copy and paste and use either Arial Unicode MS or HelveticaNeueLt Std (the font I need to use) I get the smart quotes. However when I type in quotes - see "Flight Search" - I don't, I get the straight quotes instead (chicken scratches). Which is what I get when data places in a variable.

Yes, if you just type in a double-quote directly from your keyboard by holding shift and pressing the key with ' and " above it, then you'll get "straight" quotes, whether you type that into FusionPro's Variable Text Editor, Notepad, this forum, or just about anywhere else. Certain word processing programs like MS Word do have an "autocorrect as you type" feature which replaces straight quotes with curly quotes, but FusionPro is not a word processing program.

 

However, as I've demonstrated, if you do insert curly quotes into the Variable Text Editor, or copy-and-paste them in, they do indeed appear in the output. So there's no issue with composition.

 

So it seems that your question isn't really about composition at all, nor about fonts; it's about how to type curly quotes into the Variable Text Editor, or a plain-text file. Doug's response explains how to do that. And this link contains more information:

http://google.com/search?q=type+curly+quotes

 

Doug also demonstrates how to convert straight quotes to curly quotes in data fields. FusionPro doesn't automatically convert these; we don't want to get into the business of trying to be "smart" and outputting something different from the data supplied in the input file.

These fonts are new and clean and work in fine in other programs (such as XMPie).

This statement suggests that the fonts somehow don't work in FusionPro, but they work just fine there.

Edited by Dan Korn
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