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In Mac Outlook 2011, when I type a message that contains an apostrophe or a quotation mark, Outlook corrects it to a "smart" apostrophe or a "smart" quotation mark, and I'd rather it didn't.

Is there any way to disable this feature? So far, I've unchecked all the autocorrect and autoformat preferences, and I've set my composition settings to plain text and my encoding settings to UTF-8 (two suggestions I saw elsewhere). None of those worked.

What else should I try?

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  • I think the only encoding which could stop smart quotes would be ascii.
    – Tom Gewecke
    Commented Jan 14, 2014 at 22:15

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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You can turn Smart Quotes off by unchecking "Smart Quotes" under Edit > Substitutions > Smart Quotes

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    Worked - thanks! I did have to start editing an email before it let me modify the settings, but the change seems to stick across emails.
    – drew
    Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 16:45
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    also, from the finder, system-preferences > keyboard > text has pertinent options. When I poked Edit > Show Substitutions > Text Preferences with an open email message and cursor in the body of the email in Outlook, it took me to the global system-preferences > keyboard > text box.
    – Reb.Cabin
    Commented Mar 27, 2014 at 16:01
  • @Reb.Cabin: You should make your comment a separate answer, this was super helpful to know and fixed the issue for me!
    – calvinf
    Commented Jul 2, 2014 at 16:07
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The Mac has global settings for smart quotes. Even if you click them off in Outlook's Edit > Substitutions menu, you may still get them in your email.

With an email open, go

Edit > Substitutions > Show Substitutions > Text Preferences

that takes you straight to the global

System Preferences > Keyboard > Text

where there is a global option to turn smarties off. You may also be able to go directly to System Prefs from the Finder, and they may stick in Outlook. I am hedging because I remember doing this a while back, but I just checked and they're magically turned back on. I don't know when or how that might have happened. One must be ever-vigilant against attacks of the Zombie Smart Quotes!

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  • Almost a year later - this also works! I've moved from Outlook to Mac Mail, and this was the fix for me.
    – drew
    Commented May 12, 2015 at 23:08
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The latest version of Outlook now overrides the system default mentioned above. In the Outlook Preferences / AutoCorrect settings (shown below), uncheck the "Straight Quotation marks" with "smart quotation marks" option.

AutoCorrect settings pane

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