# Backticks and apostrophes changes **URL:** \ **Category:** MusicBrainz Picard\ **Tags:** unicode, ascii, punctuation\ **Created:** [February 20, 2023, 6:47pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687 "2023-02-20T18:47:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/4af34b/32.png) [@winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/winston79)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 6:47pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/1 "2023-02-20T18:47:24Z")
When using Music Brainz to organise my tracks I’ve noticed it uses a backtick (`) as opposed to an apostrophe ('), it wasn’t like this before. This is a bit of nightmare when it comes to using rekordbox as it does quite display properly, is there a way of changing this? Eg: You`re the one to You’re the one ---
**Author:** ![rhetticent](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/rhetticent/32/50118_2.png) [@rhetticent](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/rhetticent)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 7:30pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/2 "2023-02-20T19:30:56Z")
Sounds like a script or plug-in to me. Which ones do you have enabled/setup? ---
**Author:** ![IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/ivandobsky/32/11785_2.png) [@IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/IvanDobsky)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 7:55pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/3 "2023-02-20T19:55:30Z")
Check the source data… some database entries have some funky apostrophe’s in error. Nothing should be using a backtick In the database it should either be a typographical apostrophe or the keyboard (ASCII) apostrophe. ---
**Author:** ![winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/4af34b/32.png) [@winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/winston79)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/4 "2023-02-20T22:07:08Z")
> [@rhetticent](#): > > Sounds like a script or plug-in to me. Which ones do you have enabled/setu I’m using this one. It makes the format similar to how it would be if I had ripped from a cd. %albumartist%/%album%/$if($gt(%totaldiscs%,1),CD%discnumber%/,)$num(%tracknumber%,2) %title% ---
**Author:** ![winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/4af34b/32.png) [@winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/winston79)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:09pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/5 "2023-02-20T22:09:15Z")
Where would I find this please? ---
**Author:** ![IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/ivandobsky/32/11785_2.png) [@IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/IvanDobsky)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:23pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/6 "2023-02-20T22:23:41Z")
In Picard, click on “lookup in Browser” on the toolbar. Then let us know the URL and we can help check. ---
**Author:** ![IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/ivandobsky/32/11785_2.png) [@IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/IvanDobsky)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:32pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/7 "2023-02-20T22:32:09Z")
This forum does not let us easily type the various variations of apostrophes. Are you sure it is a backtick? Is “rekordbox” just after plain keyboard style ASCII? In Picard, Check OPTIONS \ Metadata Look for “Convert Unicode punctuation characters to ASCII” to keep it all clean and simple. ---
**Author:** ![winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/4af34b/32.png) [@winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/winston79)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:42pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/8 "2023-02-20T22:42:46Z")
Hope this is what you meant. [https://musicbrainz.org/release/9d9d8864-51c4-4114-af8b-9ff5eb096bf3?tport=8000](https://musicbrainz.org/release/9d9d8864-51c4-4114-af8b-9ff5eb096bf3?tport=8000) The album name uses back tick (`) and the track I’ll be there also uses it. ---
**Author:** ![winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/4af34b/32.png) [@winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/winston79)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:46pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/9 "2023-02-20T22:46:07Z")
This has worked!!! Thank you. I’ve had to use powershell to find all the back ticks and convert them then re-analyse etc, been pretty painful. ---
**Author:** ![IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/ivandobsky/32/11785_2.png) [@IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/IvanDobsky)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:46pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/10 "2023-02-20T22:46:32Z")
That is a standard apostrophe. Or “Typographical Apostrophe” as they get called. It’s a Unicode thing. So change it all to old fashioned ASCII which matches your keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/ivandobsky/32/11785_2.png) [@IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/IvanDobsky)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:48pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/11 "2023-02-20T22:48:41Z")
There are dozens of variations of this stuff. > **[User:Jacobbrett/English Punctuation Guide - MusicBrainz Wiki](https://wiki.musicbrainz.org/User:Jacobbrett/English_Punctuation_Guide)** _(None of these things are on your standard keyboard…)_ The perfectionists love it and have to put them into place “because the keyboard is limited”. Personally I am like you and wipe them out of my filenames and tags and wrote my own plugin to go further. It is especially confusing if you have folders with three different types of dashes\hyphens side by side… it also confuses searches on a computer… ---
**Author:** ![winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/4af34b/32.png) [@winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/winston79)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:52pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/12 "2023-02-20T22:52:08Z")
![image](https://community.metabrainz.org/uploads/default/original/3X/9/e/9e8a6778f0ed5d7ca8654179484ec855551c89b6.png) It makes the file name look like this and it’s horrible as you think there’s some kind of spacing error but it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/4af34b/32.png) [@winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/winston79)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:53pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/13 "2023-02-20T22:53:59Z")
![image](https://community.metabrainz.org/uploads/default/original/3X/9/f/9f560fdf0344e1e231c4da22314676ed7e6763f3.png) This looks much better. Once again thanks for you help. Cheers ---
**Author:** ![IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/ivandobsky/32/11785_2.png) [@IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/IvanDobsky)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2023, 10:54pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/14 "2023-02-20T22:54:49Z")
It is the font being chosen on your device that make it look funky like that. The device is expecting plain ASCII I expect. Use a more common font and you will not get the problem. Like in this forum, you don’t see them change. But it is not “as you type”. (Compare the right window to the left window and you’ll see it) ![image](https://community.metabrainz.org/uploads/default/original/3X/1/f/1f9ed3ecb0b23325c64b0e2815466a0fdb72b2d0.png) Speechmarks, Apostrophe’s and hypens all get “the treatment”. Yeah - you may want to get that powershell script out on your hyphens too… otherwise any sub-folder with a dash in it will now be different to sub-folders you tag in future… first time that happened to me it confused me as to what was happen-ing! 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/aerozol/32/116_2.png) [@aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/aerozol)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 6:18pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/15 "2023-02-21T18:18:06Z")
> [@winston79](#): > > I’ve had to use powershell to find all the back ticks and convert them then re-analyse etc, been pretty painful. Maybe I’m missing something, but why PowerShell and then re-analyse? Wouldn’t you let the Picard plugin do it for you? ---
**Author:** ![IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/ivandobsky/32/11785_2.png) [@IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/IvanDobsky)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 6:24pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/16 "2023-02-21T18:24:54Z")
> [@aerozol](#): > > Wouldn’t you let the Picard plugin do it for you? Picard couldn’t go back and fix the already tagged files. Much quicker to write an OS repair script. Especially as they had not spotted the “Convert Unicode punctuation characters to ASCII” option. All Picard would do it keep the Unicode stuff from the database. (Yes, I know, pedant hat on… now they have ticked the option Picard can correct everything… but powershell is quicker) ---
**Author:** ![aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/aerozol/32/116_2.png) [@aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/aerozol)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 6:29pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/17 "2023-02-21T18:29:04Z")
> [@IvanDobsky](#): > > Picard couldn’t go back and fix the already tagged files. I’m not sure I follow - If the files are already tagged (including MBID tags) it’s just as matter of dragging into Picard and hitting ‘save’. ---
**Author:** ![winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/4af34b/32.png) [@winston79](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/winston79)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 6:34pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/18 "2023-02-21T18:34:14Z")
> [@aerozol](#): > > Wouldn’t you let the Picard plugin do it for you? Yes, that would have been easier but I didn’t have the reason why it was putting in that particular symbol, the 2nd headache I had was that the metatag had them too but I was able to use another problem to eliminate them manually/painfully till again I found that there was a quicker way, all a learning curve for me, these programs are very powerful when you know how. Thanks to @IvanDobsky the remaining ones I did drop back into Pickard and it sorted them. ---
**Author:** ![IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/ivandobsky/32/11785_2.png) [@IvanDobsky](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/IvanDobsky)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 6:37pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/19 "2023-02-21T18:37:20Z")
> [@aerozol](#): > > I’m not sure I follow - If the files are already tagged (including MBID tags) it’s just as matter of dragging into Picard and hitting ‘save’. And Picard would have just put all the Unicode punctuation back. @winston79 had not spotted the option to turn that off so had to resort to external means. When you are an old hand with Picard, you know of “Convert Unicode punctuation characters to ASCII”. But when just trying to quickly tag some files the whole thing is a huge complex mystery of options. ---
**Author:** ![aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/user_avatar/community.metabrainz.org/aerozol/32/116_2.png) [@aerozol](https://community.metabrainz.org/u/aerozol)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2023, 7:52pm UTC](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687/20 "2023-02-21T19:52:01Z")
> [@IvanDobsky](#): > > And Picard would have just put all the Unicode punctuation back. I must be missing something… change the setting (obviously), drag all the files in, and hit save again, done. Unicode gone. If the files have been previously tagged there are no other steps? [Next page](https://community.metabrainz.org/t/backticks-and-apostrophes-changes/624687.md?page=2)