[Tex/LaTex] n alternative way to double quote in Latex

punctuation

I am editing my Latex code using MS Word. Before you get any ideas (I know it's weird) please refer How to run Latex from Word?

Having found myself in this unusual predicament, I also have to use double quotes quite often. So what is ’’ becomes ’’ which is correct, but what I really want is ''. To make it clear, I am trying to end the double quotes with the aforementioned two characters, but word modifies the standard apostrophe.

So is there a different way to double quote a "phrase" in Latex? I was looking for something similar to \dbquote{phrase}.

P.S.: Needless to add, the modification that MS Word does on '' results in an incorrect output. For example, "phrase" is rendered with just the initial double quotes like "phrase.

Best Answer

LaTeX provides:

\textquotedblleft for “,
\textquotedblright for ”,
\textquoteleft for ‘ and
\textquoteright for ’.

You can define your own macro:

\newcommand\dblquote[1]{\textquotedblleft #1\textquotedblright}
\newcommand\sglquote[1]{\textquoteleft #1\textquoteright}

Or you use the csquotes package that provides nested language sensitive quote enclosing:

\enquote{Phrase\enquote{inner quote}}

For single quotes:

\enquote*{Phrase}

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Isn’t there any other way of doing double quotes in LaTeX besides “ + ”

You can just define your own macro:

\newcommand{\quotes}[1]{``#1''}
...
\quotes{Hello World!}

[Tex/LaTex] Redefining quote environment with tiny font and double quote signs

This is the original definition of the quote environment from article:

\newenvironment{quote}
               {\list{}{\rightmargin\leftmargin}%
                \item\relax}
               {\endlist}

Here is a redefined one using your requirements in the form of an MWE:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum
\renewenvironment{quote}
               {\list{}{\rightmargin\leftmargin}%
                \item\relax\tiny\textquotedblleft\ignorespaces}
               {\unskip\unskip\textquotedblright\endlist}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\begin{quote}
\lipsum*[2]
\end{quote}
\lipsum[3]
\end{document}

The correction of \ignorespaces at \begin{quote} is to remove any spaces between at the start, while \unskip\unskip does the same at \end{quote}. Also, don't wrap the contents in a group { }, which provide the unwanted spacing.

Note that this will replace the existing quote environment. If you're planning on using the original format, it is best to define a new (say) altquote environment for this purpose.

An updated version of quote allows for an optional argument [name] which prepends "name said:" before adding the quote. If no name is supplied, the default quote (above) is set:

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}% http://ctan.org/pkg/lipsum
\usepackage{ifmtarg}% http://ctan.org/pkg/ifmtarg
\makeatletter
\renewenvironment{quote}[1][]
               {\list{}{\rightmargin\leftmargin}%
                \item\relax\tiny\@ifmtarg{#1}{\relax}
                  {\textbf{#1}~said:~}\textquotedblleft\ignorespaces}
               {\unskip\unskip\textquotedblright\endlist}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]
\begin{quote}
\lipsum*[2]
\end{quote}
\lipsum[3]
\begin{quote}[bkarpuz]
\lipsum*[4]
\end{quote}
\end{document}

Testing for empty arguments is supplied by the ifmtarg package's conditional

\@ifmtarg{<arg>}
  {<Code for arg empty>}
  {<Code for arg not empty>}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Isn’t there any other way of doing double quotes in LaTeX besides “ + ”

[Tex/LaTex] Redefining quote environment with tiny font and double quote signs

Related Question