The ID Toolbox
← All tools

Smart Quote Fixer

A curly apostrophe is the single most common reason a JavaScript trigger stops working, and straight quotes look wrong in copy a learner reads. Convert either way in one step, including em dashes, en dashes and ellipses.

Free · No account · Your files never upload

Paste your text
Which way

What this does

Converts quotes, apostrophes, dashes and ellipses in either direction. Straighten them for anything that will be read by code. Curl them for anything that will be read by a person.

Why both directions

A curly apostrophe inside a JavaScript trigger ends the string early and the trigger stops working, usually with an error that says nothing about quotes. That is the single most common cause of a broken trigger, and straightening is the fix. But straight quotes in body copy look like a typewriter, and for text a learner reads the curly ones are correct. Neither direction is right in general, only right for a destination.

About em dashes

The em dash is offered for replacement because it has become a widely recognized signal that a piece of text was machine-written. Whether that is fair is beside the point: if your audience reads it that way, it costs you credibility. A comma, a colon, a full stop or a pair of brackets almost always reads better anyway.

What it will not do

Curling is done by rule, not by understanding. It decides an apostrophe inside a word is a right single quote, and that a quote after a space opens rather than closes. That is right nearly all of the time and wrong on the odd construction, so check anything unusual before it goes to print.

Related tools