Finding Wrong Punctuation Before Publishing

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.

No Empty Lines

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

In InDesign

Search for \r{2,}

Replace with \r

No Double Spaces

Sometimes one accidentally types two spaces instead of one.

Search for [ ]{2,}

Replace with ·

No En-Dash Instead of a Hyphen

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.

No Hyphen Instead of a 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)

No Three Periods Instead of an Ellipses

An ellipses is a single character, not three periods.

Search for [.]{3}

Replace with …

Space After Punctuation

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.

No Multiple Punctuation

Using multiple punctuation is bad style!!!

Search for ([.,;…!?]){2,}

Replace with $1

No Wrong Apostrophe

Replaces a dumb quote within a word with a real apostrophe.

Search for ([\w])['‘]

Replace with $1’

English Quotation Marks

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

Find English Double Quotation Marks Within Double Quotation Marks

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 ’

German Quotation Marks

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

Find German Double Quotation Marks Within Double Quotation Marks

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 ‘