Miriam Drori, Author

So, for example, to type the word café, type c a f, hold down Ctrl and press ′ (apostrophe), then release the Ctrl button and press e. Voila!

While we’re on the subject of apostrophes, have you noticed how apostophes at the beginning of words in novels and other writing often appear the wrong way round?

That’s because… I should backtrack. You probably have smart quotes set up. That’s the feature that makes quotation marks at the beginning and end of a quote mirror each other.  To see whether you have smart quotes set up, and to change the setting:

File → Options → Proofing → AutoCorrect Options → AutoFormat As You Type

Under Replace as you type, the option “Straight quotes” with “smart quotes” should be ticked (checked).

That brings us back to the problem of words that start with apostrophes.

Well, I happen to think it is. But it’s easily fixed. Word got it wrong because it thinks your apostrophe is a quote mark. All you need to do is a simple copy and paste, using an apostrophe that’s the right way round.

Next week… ooh, I’ve reached the end of the posts I planned, but there must be more possibilities. What did you always want to do with Word but didn’t know how? What would you like to be able to do in Word? You might find the option exists, but you didn’t know about it. Now is the time to ask me. Really – don’t be shy!

Links to Previous Word Tips

• Tip 1: A Matter of Style
  About heading styles.
• Tip 2: Make Your Novel a Trampoline
  How to jump swiftly and gracefully between chapters.
• Tip 3: That’s Not What I Wrote
  How to stop Word making changes you don’t want.
• Tip 4: How Not to Jump to a New Page
  Press Enter until a new page appears? Please don’t.
• Tip 5: How Not to Indent a Line
  The space bar is not for indentation.
• Tip 6: Track and Compare
  About Track Changes, Compare and Combine.
• Tip 7: Replacement Operation
  Pitfalls of find and replace.
• Tip 8: Automatic Saves
  The different ways of saving a document