Why won’t the next sentense start with a capital letter after quote marks?
Probably because according to grammar rules there shouldn’t be one.
I assume that you are using autocorrection to help you capitalize the beginning of every sentence. A quote within a sentence typically constitutes a direct (or sometimes indirect) object. Consider:
- I heard what you said this morning.
… similar to … - I heard you say “Hello! Where are you going?” this morning.
In neither case the word “this” should be capitalized.
Rather than have us guessing, please provide a sample of what you write, what behavior you expect, and what you get.
The only case where I think that Writer does it wrong is when you have a full paragraph quote (aka. block quote). A paragraph break marks the end of a sentence, just like period, exclamation point and question mark does, so capitalization should follow.
I think it is more complicated than that, see quotation marks " ", Grammar, punctuation and general style, Writing Style Guide | University of Otago
It seems Writer would have to interpret all the nuances before deciding whether or not the quotation marks were really the end of the sentence or part of it. For example, “It’s a fire!” he yelled. We don’t want the he capitalised but He yelled “It’s a fire!” He yelled once more. we do want He capitalised. No easy algorithm I’m afraid.
Thanks, I see what you mean, but here’s an example of what Writer does:
James said, “I’m not going.” we all went without him.
James said, “I’m not going.”
we all went by ourselves.
It looks to me that the first word after the quotes should be capitalized. Especially starting a new paragraph. What do you think?
Thanks for your help.
Hawk
Don’t rely too much on AutoCorrect. It gives satisfactory results for everyday letters but when it comes to a more elaborate document like a novel or literary paper with style effects and special grammar rules usage, it is much better to switch to manual drive.
@keme1 exemplified one of the possible variations of quoted material. Even with a complex semantic algorithm (supposing that such an algorithm can analyse subtle nuances) capitalising decision remains very difficult.
And what about other languages than English? For instance, in French, punctuation position relative to quotation mark depends on the “extent” of the citation (whether it covers a part of a sentence or the whole sentence). Perhaps, this could help solve the issue for 50% of the cases, but surely not 100%.
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You are quite right. My punctuation habits and preferences do not correspond as well to the proper/recommended punctuation styles as I imagined. I stand corrected.
I vote +1 on that.
My dislike for autocorrect (or autocorrupt) in general, and autocaps in particular, is perhaps the most important reason why I prefer LibreOffice for everyday use.
My workplace standardized on MS Office, and for some reason the autocorrect settings seem to be governed by group policy. I can switch them off, but they are back at next login. My LibreOffice settings in this respect remain in effect through logout/login and reboot.
I wonder if there is a way in Writer, to automatically capitalize the first word after a period and quote mark. (.")
Thank You very much for help
Use the Shift key. This is not automatic, indeed, but very easy.