How do I get rid of smart quotes in Outlook 2010?

Peter - You were in the right place in your original post, except you have to go to the "AutoFormat As You Type" tab. There is a checkbox on that tab that will turn off the formatting that occurs as you type.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/change-curly-quotes-to-straight-quotes-and-vice-versa-HA010173242.aspx#BM10

To be honest, I am not sure what the effect of the settings on the "AutoFormat" tab is. I always use the "AutoFormat As You Type" tab to turn this feature off.

Hope that helps...

On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options, and then click the AutoFormat As You Type tab. Under Replace as you type, select or clear the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box.