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# Configuration > Actions

Mp3tag provides a variety of actions, which can be applied to filenames and tags. The actions are grouped together into named sets (action groups), which can be applied independently via Actions Alt+6. If you do not want to create a reusable action group for applying one single action, the Actions (Quick) toolbar button or keyboard shortcut Shift+Alt+6can be used.

You can create, edit, duplicate, and delete action groups using the buttons on the right or the context menu.
The up/down arrow buttons allow for rearranging the order of the selected action group. If you're pressing the Alt key while moving actions, the selected action group is moved to the top/bottom.

The button Utils allows for saving the current selection state to a file using the Save selection... menu item. These are then listed in the menu and can be later restored by clicking on the configuration name. The Save menu item saves the current selection state directly (this is only necessary if you choose to not exit the dialog via the OK button).

## Keyboard shortcuts

F2 | Rename action group
F4 | Edit action (group)
Insert | New action (group)
Delete | Delete action (group)
Space | Enable action group
Ctrl+A | Select all action groups
Ctrl+Shift+A | Invert selection of action groups
Ctrl+E | Enable all action groups
Ctrl+D | Disable all action groups
Ctrl+S | Save current order and enabled state of action groups
Alt+Up | Move action group up
Alt+Down | Move action group down
Alt+Page Up | Move action group to beginning of list
Alt+Page Down | Move action group to end of list

- Adjust cover
- Case conversion
- Convert codepage
- Export
- Export cover to file
- Format value
- Guess values
- Import cover from file
- Import text file
- Merge duplicate fields
- Remove duplicate fields
- Remove fields
- Remove fields except
- Replace
- Replace with regular expression
- Set cover properties
- Split field by separator

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# Adjust cover

Allows for resizing and/or changing the image format of embedded cover art. You can choose between Original, JPEG, and PNG image formats where Original just keeps the image format of the embedded cover.

Max. Size is the maximum width and height in pixels of the embedded cover image. If the cover is smaller than the size provided, the size of the cover is not changed. Resizing the image keeps the aspect ratio.

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# Case conversion

Changes upper and lower case of selected tag fields (ARTIST, TITLE, ...) or the filename (_FILENAME) or even field names (_FIELDNAME).

## Examples:

## UPPER case

AIR - MOON SAFARI - 03 - ALL I NEED.MP3

## lower case

air - moon safari - 03 - all i need.mp3

## Mixed Case

Air - Moon Safari - 03 - All I Need.mp3

## Sentence

Air - moon safari - 03 - all i need.mp3

The field Words begin after any of specifies some characters which are marking the beginning of a new word.

_FIELDNAME applies the case conversion settings to the field names of the files (which of course makes only sense with APEv2 or VorbisComments).

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# Convert codepage

If you have problems displaying tags with characters from other charsets (like Cyrillic) in Mp3tag, the tags are probably stored in a system codepage instead of Unicode or ISO-8859-1. To convert these tags from a specific codepage to Unicode, simply create a new action Convert codepage, select the appropriate tag field(s) and choose the codepage from the drop-down list.

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# Export

Please see Options > Export

Important note: Export actions are always executed after all other actions regardless of their position in the actions list.

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# Export cover to file

Exports the cover art from the tag of the file to the relative or absolute filename specified by the format string. You can use placeholders like %artist% and %album% in the format string.

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# Format value

Formats tag fields by other fields content, i.e., this action can also be used for copying the content of one tag field to another tag field.
You can use placeholders for any tag field and scripting functions as format string to format the content of the field specified.
Example: to copy the content of the comment field to the encodedby field, set the field to ENCODEDBY and the format string to %comment%.

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# Guess values

Imports tag fields from a specified source format string.
This action type is useful if you want to split the content of one tag field to multiple other fields (e.g. the title "Artist / Title" to the appropriate fields using %title% as source format and %artist% / %title% as guessing pattern.

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# Import cover from file

Imports the cover art specified by the absolute or relative filename into the tag of the file. You can use placeholders like %artist% or %album%.

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# Import text file

Imports the contents of the text file specified by the absolute or relative filename into the specified tag field. You can use placeholders like %artist% or %album% within file name.
Example: to copy the content of the file lyrics.txt to the lyrics field, set the field to UNSYNCEDLYRICS and the format string to lyrics.txt.

If you're choosing a file name using the file open dialog, any characters that have special functionality in Mp3tag's scripting language are automatically escaped. If you're manually entering such file names, you need to take this into account.

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# Merge duplicate fields

This action type merges duplicate tag fields (e.g. three artist fields) to one field.
The contents of the duplicate fields in the new field are separated by the specified separator string.

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# Remove duplicate fields

This action type removes duplicate tag fields (e.g. three artist fields) and leaves the first field from the tag.

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# Remove fields

This action type removes the fields entered in the edit field (e.g. COMMENT;PICTURE).

Removing embedded cover art

Please use PICTURE as field name if you want to remove cover art from the tags.

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# Remove fields except

This action type keeps the fields entered in the edit field and removes all other tag fields from the tag (e.g. ALBUM;ARTIST;COMMENT;GENRE;TRACK;YEAR).

Keeping embedded cover art

Please use PICTURE as field name if you want to preserve embedded cover art.

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# Replace

This action replaces (or removes) a given string from the selected field (e.g., album or filename) by replacing the string specified under Original by the string specified under Replace with.
If only as whole word is enabled, Mp3tag replaces Original only when it is matched as whole word and not as part of a word. In addition to whitespace characters, word boundaries are defined by any of . , ; : ! ?

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# Replace with regular expression

This action uses regular expressions when replacing strings in the specified field. Regular expressions is a formal language that is used to find strings or parts of strings that match a specific pattern. This pattern is defined in the field Regular expression and matches are replaced by the given replacement string. Please note that matches can be referenced (see Parenthesis below).

Examples of regular expressions that are useful in the context of Mp3tag can be found at the Regular Expressions topic on the Mp3tag Forums.

Note: At this action _FILENAME applies to the whole file name including its extension.

## Syntax:

## Literals

All characters except . | * ? + ( ) { } [ ] ^ $.
These characters are literals when preceded by a "\".

## Wildcard

The dot character "." matches any single character.

## Repeats

`*` | repeated any number of times including zero
`+` | repeated any number of times, but at least once
`?` | repeated zero or one times only
`a{n}` | is the letter "a" repeated exactly n times
`a{n,}` | represents the letter "a" repeated at least n times with no upper limit
`a{n,m}` | represents the letter "a" repeated between n and m times

## Non-greedy repeats

Non-greedy repeats are possible by appending a '?' after the repeat; a non-greedy repeat is one which will match the shortest possible string.

## Parenthesis

Parentheses serve two purposes, to group items together into a sub-expression, and to mark what generated the match. $N Expands to the text that matched sub-expression N in Replace matches with.

## Alternatives

Alternatives occur when the expression can match either one sub-expression or another, each alternative is separated by a "|".

## Line anchors

^ | matches the start of a line
$ | matches the end of a line

## Sets

`[abc]` | will match either of "a", "b", or "c"
`[^abc]` | will match any character other than "a", "b", or "c"
`[a-z]` | will match any character in the range "a" to "z"
`[^A-Z]` | will match any character other than those in the range "A" to "Z"
`\w` | Any word character - all alphanumeric characters plus the underscore
`\s` | Any whitespace character.
`\d` | Any digit (0-9)
`\l` | Any lower case character
`\u` | Any upper case character
`\W` | non-word character
`\S` | non-whitespace character
`\D` | no digit
`\L` | non-lower case character
`\U` | non-upper case character
`\t` | Tab
`\n` | New line
`\r` | Carriage Return
`\r\n` | Windows style line break
`\xnn` | char with unicode hex value nn
`\x{nnnn}` | char with unicode hex value nnnn

## Word boundaries

`\b` | matches a word boundary (the start or end of a word)
`\B` | matches only when not at a word boundary

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# Set cover properties

Allows for setting of cover type and/or cover description of embedded cover art. If you remove the content from the description field, the description of embedded cover art will also be removed.

You can choose to apply this action only to covers of a specific type or all covers.

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# Split field by separator

This action type splits the content of a tag field into multiple separate tag fields based on a given separator character.

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