Special Characters

Q. Is there a standard for replacing an expletive with special $%!# characters?

Q. My question has to do with the direction of an apostrophe at the beginning of shortened versions of longer words. For example, “’zine” for “magazine” or “’cause” for “because.” In transcribed interviews, I sometimes run into this. Should the apostrophe close toward the word or away from it? Thanks.

Q. When and how often is it appropriate to use the slash (/) character that delineates terms of similar meaning?

Q. What is the rule for placing accents over capital letters in Romance languages? Is it the same for French, Spanish, and Italian, or does each language have different requirements?

Q. Can you tell me the CMOS preferred style for printed quotation marks: typographer’s marks or the default straight-line marks?

Q. We’ve been having a discussion in the office about whether to continue using diacritical marks on words such as decor and applique. The arguments turn on whether we consider them to be proper English words instead of imports, due to their familiarity to English speakers and the length of time that they’ve been part of the language. We couldn’t find a place where the editors addressed this issue in CMOS. Could you give us an opinion, please?