Today’s Question: I have keywords on my Keyword List in Lightroom Classic that have a quotation mark at the beginning. How can I remove that quotation mark so the keywords will sort correctly?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You can edit the keywords to remove the quotation mark, unless that would create a duplicate keyword. In the latter case you could assign the correct keyword to the applicable photos and then delete the incorrect keyword.
More Detail: If you have added keywords with the wrong spelling, such as the example in today’s question where a quotation mark was included at the beginning of the keyword, you can edit the keyword on the Keyword List. This will update the Keyword List and also update the keyword for all photos to which the keyword had been applied.
To edit the keyword, simply right-click on it in the Keyword List and choose “Edit Keyword Tag” from the popup menu. Make the appropriate change in the Edit Keyword Tag dialog and click the Save button.
If you receive a message indicating that you can’t make the change because the keyword already exists, the solution is to assign the correct keyword and delete the incorrect keyword. Start by clicking the right-pointing arrow to the right of the incorrect keyword that appears when you hover your mouse pointer over that keyword in the Keyword List. This will set a filter so you’re only viewing photos that have that keyword assigned to them.
Next, select all the photos filtered by keyword by choosing Edit > Select All from the menu. Then go to the Keyword List and click the checkbox to the left of the correct keyword until a checkmark icon appears. This checkbox has three states. It is empty of none of the selected images has that keyword assigned, it shows a dash if some but not all selected photos have that keyword assigned, and it shows a check if all selected photos have the keyword.
Once you’ve assigned the correct keyword to the applicable images, you can right-click on the incorrect keyword in the Keyword List and choose “Delete” from the popup menu.
Repeat the process for all affected keywords, and you’ll have a more tidy Keyword List that sorts in the correct alphabetical order.
