- Read Microsoft Word Files
- Find and Replace Words or Phrases
- Paste Text to Match the Existing Text
- Use your Favorite Text Styles Easily
- Complete your Word Automatically
- Typographer's Quotes!
- Tabs and Indents
- Create Lists that Number Themselves
- Create Tables
- Create Live Web Links and Email Links
- Select Non-Contiguous Text
- Print Automatic Page Numbers
- Extra Tips and Notes
- Standard Mac OS X Application Features
- TextEdit is Integrated With:
- Other Relevant Lessons for TextEdit
Typographer’s Quotes!
At last, in the year 2007, TextEdit finally gets automatic typographer’s quotes, or smart quotes. Smart quotes (and apostrophes) are the curly ones, not the lame, straight, typewriter quotes. Nothing will make your work look as amateurish as typewriter quotes.
There are two places where you can turn “Smart Quotes” on or off. In the TextEdit preferences (explained below), you can turn them on or off for the application. But you can also override this application setting in individual documents.
To turn on Smart Quotes for every new TextEdit document:
- From the TextEdit menu, choose “Preferences....”
- Click the “New Document” tab, if it isn’t already blue.
- Check the box for “Smart quotes.”
To turn Smart Quotes off or on for an individual document:
- From the Edit menu, slide down to “Substitutions.”
- In the sub-menu, click “Smart Quotes.” A checkmark means they’re on, and no checkmark means they are off.
Why would you want to turn them off? So you can type the feet and inch marks without looking dumb. For instance, I am 5'8" tall, not 5’8” tall.