How to dynamically choose smart or non-smart quotes

I don't have this issue, pressing the enter key also works instead of space.

I created a custom Text Substitution in Language & Text, then opened TextEdit and it worked on any key press, not just space or enter.

You could use launchd.

launchd lets you manage daemons and agents according to certain conditions.

What are daemons and agents?

From man launchd:

A "daemon" is, by definition, a system-wide service of which there is one instance for all clients. An "agent" is a service that runs on a per-user basis. Daemons should not attempt to display UI or interact directly with a user's login session. Any and all work that involves interacting with a user should be done through agents.

From http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#technotes/tn2083/_index.html:

Daemons and agents, collectively known as background programs, are programs that operate without any graphical user interface. As a developer, you can use background programs to perform actions without user interaction, and also to manage a shared state between multiple other programs.

The difference between an agent and a daemon is that an agent can display GUI if it wants to, while a daemon can't. The difference between an agent and a regular application is that an agent typically displays no GUI (or a very limited GUI).

The daemon/agent is described in an XML file with extension plist. One of the conditions that can be monitored is changes in a folder. This will come in handy.

OK, let's get our hands dirty:

Let's say these are the 2 folders where you and your friend keep your files:

/tmp/folderstuart
/tmp/folderstuartsfriend

and this is the common folder for the application:

/tmp/folder

We want to monitor the two paths above and synchronize their contents with /tmp/folder.

This is the plist that does what we need:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>notesfoldersync</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/usr/bin/rsync</string>
        <string>-aE</string>
        <string>--delete</string>
        <string>--exclude='.*'</string>
        <string>/tmp/folderstuart/</string>
        <string>/tmp/folderstuartsfriend/</string>
        <string>/tmp/folder</string>
    </array>
    <key>WatchPaths</key>
    <array>
        <string>/tmp/folderstuart</string>
        <string>/tmp/folderstuartsfriend</string>
    </array>
    <key>ThrottleInterval</key>
        <integer>10</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

The plist monitors the two folders with key WatchPaths (see http://developer.apple.com/library/mac/#documentation/MacOSX/Conceptual/BPSystemStartup/Chapters/CreatingLaunchdJobs.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/10000172i-SW7-SW8).

I suggest the program rsync for synchronizing folders. Option --delete ensures that files deleted in the monitored folders are also deleted in /tmp/folder. Other options are -aE to copy standard and extended HFS+ attributes, and --exclude='.*' to skip .localized, .DS_Store and other hidden files.

I added ThrottleInterval in case you want to set the minimum interval a job can be spawned. Default value is 10 s, that is, jobs will not be spawned more than once every 10 seconds.

Save the plist (see man launchd for a list of possible paths) as:

 /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/notesfoldersync.plist

Create:

/tmp/folderstuart
/tmp/folderstuartsfriend
/tmp/folder

and load (that is, enable) the plist:

sudo launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/notesfoldersync.plist

Now create a file in /tmp/folderstuart:

touch /tmp/folderstuart/file.txt

and watch the magic happen: file.txt will be created within seconds in /tmp/folder. Delete it and it will disappear from /tmp/folder. It will also synchronize files created or deleted in /tmp/folderstuartsfriend.

Notice that this solution doesn't handle name collisions! If you can't ensure that files will be named differently substitute rsync with a script that rsyncs and does file name checking to avoid data loss.

If copying files is not an option, substitute rsync with a script that creates hardlinks (if both files are in the same filesystem I'd recommend hardlinks instead of symlinks). Before changing the plist unload it:

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/notesfoldersync.plist

When you're done, load it again.