[Jellby]

Originally Posted by lindsayw

Left double-quotes can occur only at the start of a line or after a space.

Or after a dash, or after an opening parenthesis

Right double-quotes can occur only before a space or at the end of a line.

Or before a punctuation, can't you imagine a sentence ending "thus"?

In html, the start or end of a line can be determined by > or < characters.

But those characters appear also elsewhere, like the start and end of italics.

Citations, the only occurrence of left single-quotes, can start only after a space.

Or after a dash or parenthesis too. There can also be apostrophes after a space, 'tis possible to find 'em.

1. Search-&-replace for >&quot; – replace these left double-quotes with >&ldquo;

Not all " are &quot;, actually, I never find &quot; in my files, and there are many " that must not be replaced.

Note also that "things like <em>this</em>" are possible

4. Search-&-replace for &quot;< – replace these right double-quotes with &rdquo;<

And—"<em>this</em> is possible" too.

7. Now you need to find and replace the left-sloping ones. Search-&-replace for (space)&rsquo; – replace these with (space)&lsquo;

Replace 'em all...