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Are
Inch Marks the Same as Quotation Marks?
by
Sandy Cusak, staff writer —
W
 hen
we were all using typewriters (if you're as old as I am), we had one choice
for making quotation marks. We chose " because that's all there was
on the keyboard.
Not the same
Today, with computers in full force and typewriters on the
decline, that's not the case anymore. The inch mark (") is not the same as
quotation marks (“”) and shouldn't be used interchangeably in a document.
 On
automatic
Word will often automatically change the inch mark to the
appropriate quotation mark as will Page-layout
programs like QuarkXPress.
If your application isn't doing this, check your preferences for the proper
setting.
A quick fix
You may run into an odd case where you've done a cut and paste,
and you'll get inch marks. This can be fixed by doing a "find-and-replace."
Just type quotes in both the find and the replace box and, as the replacing is
being done, the inch marks will be replaced by quotes.
Proper usage
But, where do they belong in your document? Before or after
other punctuation? Here's a few usage rules for using quotation marks:
- Commas and periods should be included inside an ending quotation mark.
- Colons and semicolons belong on the outside of ending quotation marks
- Exclamation points and question marks can go either inside or outside
quotation marks depending on if they apply to the material being quoted or not
(what a concept).
On the Web
Web pages have their own quotation mark challenges. Quotation
marks need to be changed manually and are treated as special characters
with different code combinations. The coding for “ is “
while the coding for ” is ” It's okay to use
them in moderation but it's unwise to use them throughout your site.
Some search-engines will not read them correctly, if at all. 
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