The traditional way to type an em dash is "--"; back in the days when the typesetter was almost certainly going to be a specialist, and not the author, that was the accepted symbol for an em dash, and it's mostly stuck. It's the same way that underlining is really a symbol for emphasis, and when typeset underlined phrases become italics--one never underlines in actual typesetting. (This is an argument I tried to have with Floki over 'World Tree,' when he insisted in having the spells underlined, since it's a distinction from normal emphasized text. I understand his position, but were I the typesetter for the second edition, I would... well, vehemently suggest that a way of setting them off that doesn't violate good typography be found, such as putting them in small caps.)
As for straight quotes versus "curly quotes," in word processors I always turn off the smart quote option, because word processors are not typesetting programs despite their occasional delusions to the contrary. More often than not, text from editors like that is going to be shuffled through multiple forms--which means the problem you noted about the quotes changing to other strange characters has a good chance of happening. (HTML actually has entities for the open and close quotes, both single and double, but I doubt anyone actually types them--I have some scripts which automatically put them in when I really want them.)
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2003-09-12 10:27 (UTC)the typesetter was almost certainly going to be a specialist, and not
the author, that was the accepted symbol for an em dash, and it's mostly
stuck. It's the same way that underlining is really a symbol for
emphasis, and when typeset underlined phrases become italics--one never
underlines in actual typesetting. (This is an argument I tried to have
with Floki over 'World Tree,' when he insisted in having the spells
underlined, since it's a distinction from normal emphasized text. I
understand his position, but were I the typesetter for the second
edition, I would... well, vehemently suggest that a way of setting them
off that doesn't violate good typography be found, such as putting them
in small caps.)
As for straight quotes versus "curly quotes," in word processors I
always turn off the smart quote option, because word processors are not
typesetting programs despite their occasional delusions to the contrary.
More often than not, text from editors like that is going to be shuffled
through multiple forms--which means the problem you noted about the
quotes changing to other strange characters has a good chance of
happening. (HTML actually has entities for the open and close quotes,
both single and double, but I doubt anyone actually types them--I have
some scripts which automatically put them in when I really want them.)