Word Macros won't include smart quotes

In Word (MS 365), which I'm using on my PC laptop, something strange has started happening when I'm dealing with macros: AutoCorrect for "smart quotes" strangely quits working. And as soon as I'm done with the macro, it resumes working again. 

To put it another way: Any time I'm just typing normally, smart quotes work. But whenever I'm either recording or running a macro to insert frequently-used text in a document, the text has straight quotes only. And there's nothing I've tried that will fix it.

FYI, smart quote AutoCorrect is turned ON in my Proofing > AutoCorrect options, which is what I want. I don't want the straight quotes.

Any idea why it's doing this, or how to fix it?

Thanks.