“CURLY QUOTES” and other useful tips to make your website look more professional

Taking care of the details projects a more professional presentation. However, don’t let perfection make you delay your projects and miss out on opportunities. Getting used to noticing these details takes time. We hope these quick tips will be a good reference for you.

CURLY & STRAIGHT QUOTES

Let’s start with the difference between straight quotes and curly quotes:

Straight quotes are for dimensions. Example: 2' 5" H x 3' W

Curly quotes are for, well, quoting text, apostrophes and contractions. A quote within a quote gets a single curly quote. Example: Simon says “please use the ‘correct’ quotes”.

Use a single curly quote for contractions. Example: This is Jane’s car.

💡 You can type the correct quote marks using keyboard short cuts but this doesn’t always work when adding copy to your website. Andy’s tip: copy and paste from the chart below:

	
			Name
			Windows
			Mac OS
			HTML
		
				'
			
			straight single quote
			
				'
			
				'
			
				'
			
				"
			
			straight double quote
			
				"
			
				"
			
				"
			
				‘
			
			opening single quote
			alt 0145
			option + ]
			
				&lsquo;
			
				’
			
			closing single quote
			alt 0146
			option + shift + ]
			
				&rsquo;
			
				“
			
			opening double quote
			alt 0147
			option + [
			
				&ldquo;
			
				”
			
			closing double quote
			alt 0148
			option + shift + [
			
				&rdquo;

source and further learning: PracticalTypography.com

BEAUTIFUL FRACTIONS

Smart fractions are special characters called glyphs created by the font designer to tidy up fractions and make them more legible.

Instead of typing two numbers separated by a slash: 1/2, use a smart fraction: ½
Not all fonts have glyphs for eighths fractions. In most cases it’s fine to round up.
When you must be precise, you can always use decimal dimensions: 0.125 instead of ⅛
When showing multiple dimensions, choose fractions OR decimals for clarity. Do not combine them.
Correct: 1.25"W x 2.5"H
Correct: 1¼"W x 1½"H
Wrong: 1.25"W x 2½"H

💡 If accessing your font’s glyphs gets too complicated, copy and paste the fraction you need from the chart below:

	
			Name
			Glyph
		
			one quarter
			
				¼
			
			one half
			
				½
			
			three quarters
			
				¾
			
			one eighth
			
				⅛
			
				three eighths
				
					⅜
				
					five eighths
					
						⅝
					
						seven eighths
						
							⅞

SOFT VS HARD RETURNS

When you finish a paragraph, you want a little extra space before you start a new one. This is called a hard return and all you do is hit the RETURN key.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Sometimes you won’t want too much space between the lines like when you share a funny haiku you came across:

Space is limited
In a haiku, so it's hard
To finish what you

To keep the space between the lines the same as the lines within a paragraph, type SHIFT + RETURN on your keyboard, called a soft return.

Soft returns let you start on the next line without adding a bullet point:

This is the first item on my list.
With a second line that is part of the first bullet point.
Use a hard return to start the next bullet point.