Law 29, Designate Feet and Inches with Prime Symbols.
So what are prime symbols?
This is what a single prime symbol looks like
and this is what a double prime symbol looks like.
These character are different than
curly quotes, which look like this.
And they're also different from straight
quotes which look like this.
So, let's briefly discuss each of
these characters and their uses.
Straight quotes are a hold-over from the
days of the typewriter, and should not be used for anything.
In fact, modern word processors and page layout programs
will automatically use curly quotes as you type.
There's usually a setting somewhere in
the software preferences, and the setting
is almost always automatically turned on
and that tells the software to use
curly quotes instead of straight.
And this is a really good thing
because curly quotes are prettier than straight quotes,
and curly quotes have been designed
by the typeface's designer to flow with the
letters on the page and in your documents.
Curly quotes have always been used
in professional typography and should
always be used in your documents as well.
So, when is that?
When should you use curly quotes, and maybe
more importantly, when should you not use them?
Curly quotes should always be used when quoting material.
And in America, we use double quotes
to open and close quotations.
We use single opening and closing quotes
when we're quoting material that
appears inside other quoted material,
and these are called nested quotes
because one quote is nested inside another.
Single closing quotes are also used as apostrophes.
So, make sure your software is correctly
using curly quotes for these symbols.
Remember, you don't ever need to use straight quotes.
But, curly quotes are not always correct, either.
If you are working with information
that contains measurements with feet and inches,
then you need to be using prime symbols, not curly quotes.
This is not correct.
Single prime symbols are used to show feet measurements,
and double prime symbols are used to show inch measurements.
The prime symbol has other uses,
in math, music, linguistics, and a bunch of other fields.
So, if you are a designer who works
with documents that cover these topics,
then you should definitely become familiar
with prime symbols and how to use them.
Earlier, we talked about the fact
that modern word processing and desktop
publishing software automatically creates
curly quotes when you type a quote symbol on your keyboard.
If you're using a piece of software
that's not automatically inserting curly quotes,
you can always access these characters
through special key combinations.
So, if you're on a Macintosh computer,
you would hold down the option key and type
a closing square bracket for an opening single curly quote.
Hold down the option and shift keys and type
a closing square bracket for a closing single curly quote.
Hold down the option key and type
an opening square bracket for an opening double curly quote,
and hold down the option and shift keys
and type an opening square bracket
for a closing double curly quote.
If you're on a computer that uses the
Windows operating system, you would hold down
the alt key and type the numbers
zero, one, four, five for an opening single curly quote,
hold down the alt key and type
zero, one, four, six for a closing single curly quote,
hold down the alt key and type
zero, one, four, seven for an opening double curly quote,
and hold down the alt key and type
zero, one, four, eight for a closing double curly quote.
What do you do if you don't want curly quotes
but instead, you need to use prime symbols?
Well, prime symbols are special characters,
and that means that they're not
directly accessible from your keyboard on your computer.
There are different ways, a lot of different ways,
that you can display prime symbols, and you can always
do a web search to learn more and find out more
about the different ways, but here are some
simple ways that'll at least help you get started.
If you are using a Macintosh computer,
you can create a single prime symbol by holding down
the option and shift keys and typing the letter E.
You can create a double prime symbol by holding down
the option and shift keys and typing the letter G.
If you're on a computer that's using the
Windows operating system, you create a
single prime symbol by holding down the alt key
and typing the numbers eight, two, four, two.
You can create a double prime symbol in a
Windows operating system by holding down the alt key
and typing the numbers eight, two, four, three.
Now, if you are a web designer, curly quotes
may not be automatically generated like they are
in word processing programs, and so, for the web,
here are some different character entities
for the characters we've been talking about.
For your curly quotes, for opening double quotation marks
that are curly, use this character entity.
For closing double quotation marks
that are curly, use this character entity.
For curly opening single quotes, use this character entity,
and for closing single quotes, and also
for apostrophes, use this character entity.
So, for a single prime symbol, if you're
working on a website, you would use this character entity,
and for a double prime symbol, use this character entity.
So, let's summarize.
Do not use straight quotes in your documents.
Instead, you are going to need to use
curly quotes or prime symbols.
And it's really important to know when it's correct
to use each of these different characters.
Curly quotes are used for quotations and apostrophes.
Prime symbols are used for measurements,
like feet and inches, and prime symbols
also have other applications in fields like mathematics,
music, linguistics, and other fields as well.
That's law 29, Designate Feet and Inches
with Prime Symbols.