Active quotes in macro

Question

I would like to use csquotes to activate quotes. That is, taking

This is a "quote" inside other text.

and turning it into

This is a ``quote'' inside other text.

csquotes makes this possible via

\usepackage{csquotes}% http://ctan.org/pkg/csquotes
\MakeOuterQuote{"}\EnableQuotes

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{csquotes}% http://ctan.org/pkg/csquotes
\begin{document}

This is a "quote" inside other text.

\MakeOuterQuote{"}\EnableQuotes

This is a "quote" inside other text.

\end{document}

However, my workflow writes content into a macro:

\newcommand{\somemacro}{This is a "quote" inside other text.}

This does not allow one to render the quotes automatically:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{csquotes}% http://ctan.org/pkg/csquotes
\newcommand{\somequote}{This is a "quote" inside other text.}
\begin{document}

This is a "quote" inside other text.

\MakeOuterQuote{"}\EnableQuotes

\somequote

\end{document}

How can I fix this?

Answer 1

Your choices include:

1. Adjusting your workflow to set the content as-is rather than inside a macro, since macro arguments are stored using the catcodes at the time of definition.

2. Make sure to write your macro in such a way that the quotes are active at the time of definition, since csquotes issues the activation \EnableQuotes only \AtBeginDocument to avoid problems inside the preamble (from csquotes.sty):

   \newrobustcmd*{\EnableQuotes}{}
   \newrobustcmd*{\DisableQuotes}{}
   \newrobustcmd*{\VerbatimQuotes}{}
   \newrobustcmd*{\DeleteQuotes}{\csq@mkdelete}
   
   \AtBeginDocument{%
     \protected\def\EnableQuotes{\csq@mkenable}%
     \protected\def\DisableQuotes{\csq@mkdisable}%
     \protected\def\VerbatimQuotes{\csq@mkverbatim}}
   

   For example, insert the definition inside the document environment, since then " will be active:

   

   \documentclass{article}
   \usepackage{csquotes}% http://ctan.org/pkg/csquotes
   \MakeOuterQuote{"}\EnableQuotes
   \begin{document}
   
   This is a "quote" inside other text.
   
   \newcommand{\somequote}{This is a "quote" inside other text.}% " is active here
   
   \somequote
   
   \end{document}
   

3. Use the technique described in "Activate" active characters in argument passed as macro to re-activate the made-active quotes ":

   

   \documentclass{article}
   \usepackage{csquotes}% http://ctan.org/pkg/csquotes
   \MakeOuterQuote{"}\EnableQuotes
   \newcommand{\somequote}{This is a "quote" inside other text.}% " is not active here
   \begin{document}
   
   This is a "quote" inside other text.
   
   \begingroup
   \catcode`\"=\active% Re-activate "
   \scantokens\expandafter{\somequote\empty}%
   \endgroup
   
   \end{document}