Smart Quotes: How to Get Them and How to Get Rid of Them

  (defun replace-smart-quotes (beg end)
    "Replace 'smart quotes' in buffer or region with ascii quotes.
      Operates on the entire buffer if no region is selected."
    (interactive
     (if (use-region-p)
   (list (region-beginning) (region-end))
       (list (point-min) (point-max))))
    (format-replace-strings '(("\x201C" . "\"")
            ("\x201D" . "\"")
            ("\x2018" . "'")
            ("\x2019" . "'"))
          nil beg end))

  (global-set-key (kbd "C-c q") 'replace-smart-quotes)

  (defun yank-and-replace-smart-quotes ()
    "Yank (paste) and replace smart quotes from the source with ascii quotes."
    (interactive)
    (yank)
    (replace-smart-quotes (mark) (point)))

  (global-set-key (kbd "C-c y") 'yank-and-replace-smart-quotes)

  ;; Replaces various special or "garbage" characters, such as those commonly found in text copied from Microsoft Word documents, with Latin1 equivalents or other specified replacements within the entire buffer.
  ;; Smart quotes (“ ”) with standard quotes (").
  ;; Apostrophes (’) with standard apostrophes (').
  ;; Em dashes (—) with double hyphens (--).
  ;; Ellipses (…) with three periods (...).

(defun replace-garbage-chars ()
"Replace goofy MS and other garbage characters with latin1 equivalents."
(interactive)
(save-excursion       ;save the current point
  (replace-string "΄" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "“" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "”" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "’" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "“" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "—" "--" nil (point-min) (point-max)) ; multi-byte
  (replace-string "€˜" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "€™" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "€œ" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "€œ" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "€" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "€" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "‘" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "’" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "’¡\"" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "¡­" "..." nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "…" "..." nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "Š" " " nil (point-min) (point-max)) ; M-SPC
  (replace-string "‘" "`" nil (point-min) (point-max))  ; \221
  (replace-string "’" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max))  ; \222
  (replace-string "“" "``" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "”" "''" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "•" "*" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "–" "--" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "—" "--" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string " " " " nil (point-min) (point-max)) ; M-SPC
  (replace-string "¡" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "´" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "»" "<<" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "Ç" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "È" "\"" nil (point-min) (point-max))
  (replace-string "é" "e" nil (point-min) (point-max)) ;; &eacute;
  (replace-string "ó" "-" nil (point-min) (point-max))
))

  (replace-string "\221" "`" nil (point-min) (point-max))  ; opening single quote
  (replace-string "\222" "'" nil (point-min) (point-max))  ; closing single quote

(global-set-key (kbd "C-c g") 'replace-garbage-chars)