How to use the correct apostrophes in HTML instead of "silent quotes"?

Question

The Best Web Typography article in a few easy steps says

Speaking of apostrophes, the right sign for them is the correct single quotation mark. The dead end for an amateur typography is the presence of direct quotes, also called "dumb quotes" by type-oriented designers.

I use these "silent quotes" all the time!

Now that you are writing plain HTML (and not Markdown, which automatically creates apostrophes), how should the correct apostrophes be written correctly? I just have to embed ’ back to where you used to be? Is there a program that does this automatically?

How do professional web designers take care of this issue?

Answer 1

You have a couple of options:

• As stated earlier, use either numeric or named HTML objects.
• Write your HTML with a single apostrophe, then search and replace before posting. This works, but can lead to unexpected replacements if you are not careful.
• Paste the actual single quote using the appropriate key sequence for your operating system: option-shift-] on a Mac or alt-0146 on a PC, and be sure to save and show your HTML in UTF-8 encoding. Thus, you do not need to hang with entity names, but requires a clean UTF-8 workflow.