Quotes Substitutions

The replacement of the formatting markup on inline elements is called the quotes substitution step.

Example 1. Syntax input

Happy werewolves are *really* slobbery.

For instance, when a document containing the markup in Example 1 is converted to HTML, any asterisks enclosing text are replaced with the start and end tags of the <strong> element. The resulting HTML can be seen in Example 2 below.

Example 2. HTML output

Happy werewolves are <strong>really</strong> slobbery.

Table 1 shows the HTML source code that is generated by the quotes substitution step.

Table 1. HTML source code generated from AsciiDoc formatting syntax
Name	AsciiDoc	HTML
emphasis	_word_	<em>word</em>
strong	word	<strong>word</strong>
monospace	`word`	<code>word</code>
superscript	^word^	<sup>word</sup>
subscript	~word~	<sub>word</sub>
double curved quotes	"`word`"	“word”
single curved quotes	'`word`'	‘word’

Default quotes substitution

Table 2 lists the specific blocks and inline elements the quotes substitution step applies to automatically.

Table 2. Blocks and inline elements subject to the quotes substitution
Blocks and elements	Substitution step applied by default
Attribute entry values	No
Comments	No
Examples	Yes
Literal, listings, and source	No
Macros	Yes (except passthrough macros)
Open	Yes
Paragraphs	Yes
Passthrough blocks	No
Quotes and verses	Yes
Sidebars	Yes
Tables	Varies
Titles	Yes

quotes substitution value

The quotes substitution step can be modified on blocks and inline elements. For blocks, the step’s name, quotes, can be assigned to the subs attribute. For inline elements, the built-in values q or quotes can be applied to inline text to add the quotes substitution step.