The easiest way to clean up the files is to start by going to System --> Preferences--> Keyboard and adding the "US International Engish (with dead keys)" layout on the Layout tab. Next, add the Keyboard Indicator applet to the panel. This will enable you to switch between the dead keys on and off with the click of a mouse. (You can also leave it enabled permanently, but then you have to learn to hit the space bar if you want to type " ' ~ ` by themselves. Now, you can enter characters like ë, ñ, à and é by typing first the accent, then the letter. Cleaning up these kinds of long filenames (often with spaces) on the command line in a terminal window can tedious. Your best bet is to open the folder in a Nautilus window and fixing them there. (you'll also have to remove the "contains invalid character" string manually too.) It is indeed a lot of work if you have a lot of files. Of course, it would be nice if one didn't have to do this in the first place, but it happens because the cddb records upon which Grip et al depend for artist, track, etc, info are alas nearly all encoded an MS character set, not in UTF8, which Gnome uses. :( However, that shouldn't prevent you from uploading UTF8 encoded track info to cddb with Grip. :) HTH -- Colin Brace Amsterdam