This is a collection of Regular Expressions to be used before publishing a document in order to find wrong punctuation. I recommend using them in the order shown here.
Be careful! Markdown removes trailing spaces in code, so the “replace with” is sometimes not displayed correctly. I use
·as a symbol for one space in the replace section.
If you are not writing in Markdown there should be no empty lines in your text. Instead your paragraphs should have some spacing underneith them.
Search for \n{2,}
Replace with \n
Search for \r{2,}
Replace with \r
Sometimes one accidentally types two spaces instead of one.
Search for [ ]{2,}
Replace with ·
Within a word there should be a hypen, not a dash.
Search for ([\S])[–—]([\S])
Replace with $1-$2
Check to make sure it’s not a range where you forgot the spaces before and after the en-dash.
To set off parenthetical statements – or to show a range – a dash is the right choice, not a hyphen.
Search for ([ ])[-–—]([ ])
Replace with ·–· (if you want an en-dash)
Replace with — (if you want an em-dash)
An ellipses is a single character, not three periods.
Search for [.]{3}
Replace with …
After punctuation there should be a space.
Search for [,;:…!?](?!\d)\w
Replace with $1·
Search for [.]\w
Check those by hand, as URLs may be selected as well.
Using multiple punctuation is bad style!!!
Search for ([.,;…!?]){2,}
Replace with $1
Replaces a dumb quote within a word with a real apostrophe.
Search for ([\w])['‘]
Replace with $1’
Replaces single and double dumb quotes with proper English quotation marks.
Search for (\s)["„”](\w)
Replace with $1“$2
Search for (\w)["“„](\s)
Replace with $1”$2
Search for (\s)['‚’](\w)
Replace with $1‘$2
Search for (\w)['‘‚](\s)
Replace with $1’$2
Experimental: finds double quotes within other double quotes and replaces them with single quotes.
Search for (?<=“[^”]*)(“) (not supported in JavaScript)
Replace with ‘
Search for (”)(?=[^“]*”)
Replace with ’
Replaces single and double dumb quotes with proper German quotation marks.
Search for (\s)["”“](\w)
Replace with $1„$2
Search for (\w)["”„](\s)
Replace with $1“$2
Search for (\s)['‘’](\w)
Replace with $1‚$2
Search for (\w)['’‚](\s) — check to make sure it’s not an apostrophe at the end of a word!
Replace with $1‘$2
Experimental: finds German double quotes within other double quotes and replaces them with German single quotes.
Search for (?<=„[^“]*)(„) (not supported in JavaScript)
Replace with ‚
Search for (“)(?=[^„]*“)
Replace with ‘