Single quotes to double quotes?

[lunixer]

Does anybody know of a way that I can take an ebook and convert all of the single quotes in it to double quotes, while leaving the apostrophes alone, and converting what were previously double quotes to single? For example:

Jane said, 'Bob said, "I heard you" when we went to John's house'
Should be: "Bob said, 'I heard you' when we went to John's house"

I can't do a find replace in word because that messes up all of the apostrophes and whatnot. Thanks.

Somewhere on MobileRead is a recent answer to this. It involved using regular expressions to convert apostrophes between letters to another character then bulk converting the remaining apostrophes to double quotes then converting the other character back to apostrophes. There was, I believe another step to deal with possessive apostrophes that follow s (as in "the Jones' house")

[lunixer]

Originally Posted by shall1028

Somewhere on MobileRead is a recent answer to this. It involved using regular expressions to convert apostrophes between letters to another character then bulk converting the remaining apostrophes to double quotes then converting the other character back to apostrophes. There was, I believe another step to deal with possessive apostrophes that follow s (as in "the Jones' house")

Thanks! Any idea where I might find it? I have been looking around for a while (actually, before you mentioned this) and I can't seem to find the solution. I've got this copy of Alice in Wonderland from Gutenberg ... and it's all single quotes. Most of the Gutenberg stuff is.

[lunixer]

Simplest solution that I have ever seen to this on another forum I frequent:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1589696

[Adjust]

I do a search for [space]" and change them to something like %% same for "[space]

Then search for [space]' and change to [space]" same for the other side '[space]

Then search and replace for %% to '

A search for "typographic quotes" yielded this thread.

Of interest in that thread is a link to GutenMarks.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by lunixer

Thanks! Any idea where I might find it? I have been looking around for a while (actually, before you mentioned this) and I can't seem to find the solution. I've got this copy of Alice in Wonderland from Gutenberg ... and it's all single quotes. Most of the Gutenberg stuff is.

Get the books from these forums (here and here), and exchange[*] "’" and "”", and "‘" and "“", the apostrophes are left unchanged, because I coded them with "&# 8217;"[**]. If you find an error after this, please tell me and I'll correct it.

* You can use Sigil to edit the ePUB, and Calibre to convert it to other formats if you need it.

** This works for the books I create, because I take the trouble to manually replace every " and ' with the correct codes.

[lunixer]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Get the books from these forums (here and here), and exchange[*] "’" and "”", and "‘" and "“", the apostrophes are left unchanged, because I coded them with "&# 8217;"[**]. If you find an error after this, please tell me and I'll correct it.

* You can use Sigil to edit the ePUB, and Calibre to convert it to other formats if you need it.

** This works for the books I create, because I take the trouble to manually replace every " and ' with the correct codes.

Thank you so much! Karma at you!

[lunixer]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Get the books from these forums (here and here), and exchange[*] "’" and "”", and "‘" and "“", the apostrophes are left unchanged, because I coded them with "&# 8217;"[**]. If you find an error after this, please tell me and I'll correct it.

* You can use Sigil to edit the ePUB, and Calibre to convert it to other formats if you need it.

** This works for the books I create, because I take the trouble to manually replace every " and ' with the correct codes.

Chapter 2 didn't work in the first one. (The chapter that begins with "curiouser and curiouser")

[GraceKrispy]

I was thinking the same as some- I just do (space)" and "(space) and replace as needed. Has always worked for me for similar issues.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by lunixer

Does anybody know of a way that I can take an ebook and convert all of the single quotes in it to double quotes, while leaving the apostrophes alone, and converting what were previously double quotes to single?

Can I ask, if I may, why you would bother? I have lots of print books from the UK and commonwealth which use single quotes where US books use double quotes. It makes so little difference to me that I had to go to the books to check whether they used single or double quotes.

Regards, Alex

[Adjust]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Can I ask, if I may, why you would bother? I have lots of print books from the UK and commonwealth which use single quotes where US books use double quotes. It makes so little difference to me that I had to go to the books to check whether they used single or double quotes.

Regards, Alex

For example, If you are doing a commonwealth edition, maybe due to region restrictions, hence changing all the lack of vowels in words. removing all the silly "z"s in words then you would also need to change the quote marks.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by Adjust

For example, If you are doing a commonwealth edition, maybe due to region restrictions, hence changing all the lack of vowels in words. removing all the silly "z"s in words then you would also need to change the quote marks.

I'm sorry, you still haven't convinced me. Again, I read lots of books and ebooks from both traditions, and after a few words rarely if ever even notice whether it's 'recognise' or "recognize". I still don't see the point of going to all the trouble.

Regards, Alex

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I'm sorry, you still haven't convinced me. Again, I read lots of books and ebooks from both traditions, and after a few words rarely if ever even notice whether it's 'recognise' or "recognize". I still don't see the point of going to all the trouble.

Regards, Alex

I entirely agree.

[GeoffC]

nothing wrong with the "z" ....