jquery-smartChars

A jQuery plugin to automatically convert characters as you type.

Usage

$('textarea').smartChars();

You can optionally pass an object mapping literal characters to replace to their replacement instructions. These instructions take the form of a function, called in the context of the textfield, that returns an object with two parameters:

• replacement: an expression evaluating to a string to replace the input character with
• swallow: a boolean expression instructing the plugin to consume the preceding character during replacement

Example

$('textarea').smartChars({
	's': function() {
		return {
			replacement: this.value.charAt(this.selectionStart - 1) === 's' ? 'ß' : false,
			swallow: true
		};
	}
});

will convert 'ss' to 'ß' on the fly.

Defaults

Passed no arguments, smartChars will automatically convert

• two consecutive hyphens (--) to an em dash (—)
• a double quote (") to an opening double quote (“) when directly preceded by the field boundary or a space
• a double quote (") to a closing double quote (”) in all other cases
• a single quote (') to an opening single quote (‘) when directly preceded by the field boundary, a space or “ (for nested quotations)
• a single quote (') to a closing single quote (’) in all other cases
• an opening single quote (‘) to a closing single quote (’) when immediately followed by a single quote ('), to accommodate cases like Class of ’09

Dependencies

1. jQuery 1.7+
2. Underscore 1.2+