Editing HTML using TextEdit

Some of you have had problems with unexpected garbage characters appearing when you view your HTML files (e.g., “Ted’s” instead of “Ted’s”). The reason for this is that TextEdit uses smart quotes by default, and you have to explicitly turn off this feature. Open TextEdit and go to Preferences (click on the image below to enlarge). Under Format (at the top), make sure to check the radio button for Plain text instead of Rich text. Under Options (at the bottom), make sure to uncheck the checkboxes for Smart quotes and Smart dashes. Close and reopen TextEdit for your changes to take effect. You will then have to re-edit your file so that all of the single and double quotes are the plain old vanilla single and double quote characters. (You’ll know you’ve got the correct ones when the open quote and close quote characters look exactly the same.)