Here is a great programmer article on the topic: http://www.fourmilab.ch/webtools/demoroniser/
Here is PHP code that replaces all the MSFT smart chars (except bullet point?)
str_replace(chr(150), "-", str_replace(chr(148), '"',
str_replace(chr(146),
"'", str_replace(chr(133), "...", $text))));
By default, Microsoft Word automatically changes straight quotation
marks ( ' or " ) to curly (smart or typographer's) quotes as you type.
This is fine if you are only authoring your works for applications not
relating to article marketing. When smart quotes are converted to HTML,
the quotes are converted to non-standard characters which end up
littering your document with question mark symbols and/or other garbage
code.
When in doubt, don't allow your Ezine Articles to contain smart quotes:
Most
articles that are put into article marketing distribution eventually
end up being sent to an email newsletter audience. Email newsletter
servers have near zero-tolerance for MS Word smart quotes; they will
not recognize them as valid ASCII characters (because they are not
valid). They are a figment of the Microsoft ASCII imagination. In most
cases they will show up as garbage code; thus making you, and your
article, look like a real novice lacking proper formatting skills.
At risk are: quotes, apostrophes, double dashes, and 3 periods in a row.
This is what smart quotes looks like when properly displayed:
“smart quotes” aren’t very smart…
This is what STANDARD quotes looks like when properly displayed:
"smart quotes" aren't very smart...
This is what smart quotes looks like when NOT properly displayed:
“smart quotes†aren’t very smart…
Do
you see the downside potential of leaving smart quotes in your articles
that you put into distribution? Standard quotes use the lowest common
denominator in the ASCII character standards world and this ensures
that your articles will look great in any HTML or TEXT format.
How To Disable Microsoft Word’s Smart Quotes:
1. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options, then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.2. Under Replace as you type, select or clear the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box.
Alternatively,
you can copy your entire MS Word document over to a non Microsoft text
editor (EditPlus, UltraEdit, TextPad, etc) and do a simple search and
replace. Search and replace the smart quotes into standard quotes,
apostrophe’s, dashes and dots if applicable.
Caution For Authors Who Do HTML Code For Their Articles in MS Word:
Unless
you have smart quotes disabled, it should be noted that smart quotes
are not valid HTML code. Therefore, don’t even consider using MS Word
to do HTML code unless you have the smart quotes feature disabled.
Article Marketing Smart Quotes Conclusion
Smart
quotes are best left for e-books, physical books in print, PDF
documents and any non-HTML related document. If you want to increase
the portability of your ezine articles, do the smart thing and turn off
Microsoft Word’s smart quotes or do a search/replace before you upload
your next article to the web.
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