Smart Punctuation Integration Guide

Learn how to prevent unexpected whitespace from being added in your text when smart punctuation is supported by the editor

Speech to text can be used to create a verbatim transcript of the audio; however, punctuation is essential for coherent documentation. Two settings are available for users to control how punctuation is added during dictation/transcription: spokenPunctuation and automaticPunctuation. These settings are mutually exclusive, and when both are set to true in the configuration, spokenPunctuation will take precedence over automaticPunctuation.

Some applications provide support for “smart punctuation”: Transformation of plain ASCII characters to look nicer and be more readable in modern text editors. Such smart transformations, however, can cause issues with speech-to-text integrations. This guide will explain how to render punctuation correctly so that extra whitespace is not unexpectedly added into the text.

The goal of this guide is to ensure text from Corti speech to text presents consistently across all applications, without unwanted substitutions, spacing, or character transformations.

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Core Principal

• Insert plain Unicode punctuation exactly as received from STT (e.g., U+0022 for ", U+0027 for ', U+000A for line breaks, etc.)
• Disable or bypass any “smart punctuation” or auto-formatting features in the target editor when possible

Recommendations for Correct Handling of Smart Punctuation

Punctuation	”Smart” form	Risk	Correct Handling
Quotes (", ')	“ ” ‘ ’	Adds spaces or mis-guesses direction	Disable smart quotes; trim spaces before/after
Apostrophes (')	’	Curly apostrophe may break contractions	Keep ’; use U+2019 only if deliberate typography
New line (\n)		Some editors auto-convert to paragraph breaks or ignore	Preserve \n as single line break; map explicitly to platform’s line-separator rule
New paragraph (\n\n)		May collapse or double-space inconsistently	Treat as paragraph boundary; insert exactly two newlines unless target API defines separate paragraph insertion
Hyphens or Dashes (-)	—	Converts to en/em dash; may add or remove spaces	STT should output only the hyphen U+002D; disable dash substitution; define spacing manually
Ellipsis (...)	…	Single-character ellipsis affects truncation logic	Keep ...; insert U+2026 only for typographic output
Fractions or Symbols (1/2, %, (tm))	½ % ©	Encoding or semantic changes	Insert literal ASCII; disable replacements
Non-breaking space	U+00A0	Alters spacing, wrapping, or copy/paste	Normalize to standard space U+0020

Specific Handling for the Most Common Edit Controls

Environment	Behavior	Integration Recommendation
Windows (Edit, TextBox, RichEdit, WPF TextBox)	Generally plain text; some intercept key events	Insert text directly via API, not simulated typing
macOS or iOS (NSTextView, UITextView)	Smart punctuation enabled by default	Set smartQuotesType = .no, smartDashesType = .no, smartInsertDeleteType = .no
Web (<input>, <textarea>, contentEditable)	Plugins may alter punctuation	Disable plugins or escape entities (&quot;, &#39;)
PowerBuilder / TX / TE Edit	Uses OS substitution rules	Insert via API; trim spaces post-insert
EHRs or other native applications	Proprietary editors	Insert via official text APIs; never simulate typing; normalize spaces after insertion
Microsoft Word / Office	AutoCorrect substitutions	Turn off “Smart Quotes,” “Hyphens with Dash,” and “Replace three dots with ellipsis”
Apple Pages / TextEdit	Substitutions per document	Turn off substitutions: Edit → Substitutions → disable Smart Quotes/Dashes

Normalizing Spacing and Hidden Characters

Problem	Regex Correction
Space after opening quote	([“‘])\s+ → \1
Space before closing quote	\s+([”’]) → \1
Extra space around hyphen/dash	\s*-\s* → -
Non-breaking space	\u00A0 →
Redundant newlines	\n{3,} → \n\n

Recap / Integration Checklist

Step	Action
1	Insert STT text via API (no keystroke simulation)
2	Disable smart punctuation features per control
3	Escape text when passing through HTML or CMS layers
4	Normalize spaces, hyphens, and line breaks post-insert
5	Test standard and edge cases to ensure comprehensive coverage of expected punctuation use
	Result: All punctuation (quotes, apostrophes, dashes, ellipses, spaces, and line breaks) renders consistently across editors and applications, with no hidden formatting or spacing artifacts.

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