# BibTeX Key Generator not ignoring all special characters, leaving dollars signs ($) and underscores

**URL:** <https://discourse.jabref.org/t/bibtex-key-generator-not-ignoring-all-special-characters-leaving-dollars-signs-and-underscores/2431>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [November 25, 2020, 1:34pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/bibtex-key-generator-not-ignoring-all-special-characters-leaving-dollars-signs-and-underscores/2431 "2020-11-25T13:34:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tony\_S.F](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/tony_s.f/32/817_2.png) [@Tony\_S.F](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Tony_S.F)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2020, 1:34pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/bibtex-key-generator-not-ignoring-all-special-characters-leaving-dollars-signs-and-underscores/2431/1 "2020-11-25T13:34:57Z")

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I am using Jabref 5.0 on Ubuntu. When I generated bibtex keys, i use [auth][year][veryshorttitle]. Some titles have dollar signs in them, I want these removed as it’s very ugly in the tex when you have \cite{smith2020$$} because the special characters inside were removed but not the dollar signs. When I go to the settings/patterns for the bibtex key generator, there is nothing to address this. There is a spot for regex shit but it’s useless as even if I enter a regex pattern nothing happens.

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**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [November 25, 2020, 5:23pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/bibtex-key-generator-not-ignoring-all-special-characters-leaving-dollars-signs-and-underscores/2431/2 "2020-11-25T17:23:23Z")

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Hi,

I sugget you try out the latest development version (5.2, as there have been some fixes and improvements to the keygenerator)

> **[index - powered by h5ai v0.29.0 (https://larsjung.de/h5ai/)](https://builds.jabref.org/master/)**

It is recommended to make a backup of your libary before trying out the new version.

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**Author:** ![k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/k3kaw8pnf7mkmdsmphz2/32/1116_2.png) [@k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2020, 6:48pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/bibtex-key-generator-not-ignoring-all-special-characters-leaving-dollars-signs-and-underscores/2431/3 "2020-11-26T18:48:11Z")

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@Tony_S.F please only post in one thread. You can remove characters in more recent versions of JabRef, see screenshot from JabRef 5.1–2020-08-30–e023aa0

 ![Skärmavbild 2020-11-26 kl. 13.27.49](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/uploads/jabref/original/1X/0d6910982ae6631008582543e5029b5ed6ccc273.jpeg)