How to Replace Smart Quotes With Straight Quotes
To replace smart quotes, paste your text into the Replace Smart Quotes tool, choose the straighten direction, and it instantly converts curly double quotes, curly apostrophes and long em or en dashes into plain straight ASCII quotes and simple hyphens. No settings to learn, no upload, and the result is ready to copy in seconds.
This tutorial explains what the tool does, walks through each step, and shows how to run it in reverse when you actually want typographic quotes. Everything happens locally in your browser, so your text stays private.
What smart quotes are and why straighten them
Word processors and web editors automatically replace typed straight quotes with curly "smart" versions — different Unicode characters that look nicer in prose but are not plain ASCII. When that text lands in code, JSON, CSV or a terminal, the curly characters break string literals and cause parsing errors. Straightening converts them back to the simple " and ' that machines expect, along with turning em and en dashes into ordinary hyphens.
Step-by-step: straightening your text
- Paste your text into the input box — for example a paragraph copied from Word or Google Docs.
- Choose the direction — keep it on straighten smart quotes to convert curly characters to plain ASCII.
- Watch the live preview update instantly as the converted text appears.
- Copy or download the cleaned-up result and paste it wherever you need clean plain text.
That is the whole flow. Because the preview is live, you can paste, glance at the result and copy without clicking through any menus.
Running it in reverse to add curly quotes
The tool also works the other way. Switch to the reverse mode and it turns straight quotes and dashes into their typographic curly equivalents — useful when you are moving plain text into polished prose, a design layout or a document that should look professionally typeset. The same live preview and copy or download flow applies.
| Direction | Input example | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Straighten | curly double and single quotes | plain straight quotes |
| Straighten | em and en dashes | simple hyphens |
| Reverse (curl) | straight quotes and dashes | typographic curly quotes |
Try the Replace Smart Quotes — free and 100% in your browser.
Frequently asked questions
Which characters exactly get converted?
In straighten mode it converts curly single and double quotes, the typographic apostrophe, and em and en dashes into straight quotes and simple hyphens. In reverse mode it does the opposite, adding typographic curly characters.
Do I need to install anything?
No. It runs entirely in your browser with no install, no account and no upload. Once the page has loaded it even works offline.
Will it change letters or accented characters?
No. It targets quotes, apostrophes and dashes only. If you also need to strip accents, use a dedicated accent remover afterward.
Is my text sent to a server?
No. All conversion happens on your own device, so your text is never uploaded and stays completely private.
Related free tools
- Wrap Text in Quotes — add quotes around each line.
- Find and Replace Text — swap any characters or words in bulk.
- Remove Accents — strip diacritics for plain ASCII.
- Remove Punctuation — clean punctuation from text.
Built by ByteVancer
ByteTools is a free product of ByteVancer, a software and web development studio building web apps, SaaS and custom software. If fast, private text utilities help your workflow, explore what ByteVancer can build for you.
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