# changing only part of a tag
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-only-part-of-a-tag/3909
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [October 17, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-only-part-of-a-tag/3909 "2006-10-17T03:39:30Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@pintree3](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/pintree3)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-only-part-of-a-tag/3909/1 "2006-10-17T03:39:30Z")
Hi
I was wondering if it is possible to change only part of a tag but not the whole tag.
BY this I mean the following:
I have a list of files where by each song tile is a different Artist. Since it comes from a compilation I do not want to put various for "artist" but I would like to place before each file artist name something like 'BB". SO I would get something that looks like te following:
BB This Singer
BB That singer
BB This DJ
BB That DJ
NOte that 'BB" is what i would like to add to all the files.Up to now the only way I know to do this is by doing so one by one-a very long process. Is there a way to automate this?
Thank you
---
### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2006, 6:50am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-only-part-of-a-tag/3909/2 "2006-10-17T06:50:29Z")
[Actions](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/967/1)
---
### Author:  [@pintree3](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/pintree3)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2006, 3:19am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-only-part-of-a-tag/3909/3 "2006-10-18T03:19:30Z")
Thanks
I'm not that tag litearate. The one thing that seems to apply to me is:
> [@](#):
>
> How do I append the string " xyz" to the content of a tag-field?
>
> ```
> "Create a new action in an existing action group and choose Format value as action type.
>
> ```
>
> In Field you can choose to which part of the tag the formatting rule should be applied.
> In Formatstring enter the placeholder for the field selected above and the string which should be appended.
> Example: If you want to append the string " xyz" to the current value of the comment field, select COMMENT at Field and give a formatstring like %comment% xyz.
> Of course you can use this also to add "xyz " in front of the tag value or to copy one value to another field."
I did that and replaced "xyz" with 'BB' and I got the BB in my comments field. In having understood this I then changed the COMMENT field to Artist and it replaced what was already there ( an irreverceable action BTW) In my case with the letters BB. which is not what I want. One does not need to create a new action to do this. SO obviously I either misunderstood what i read or did something wrong somwhere.
or perhaps I did not exaplin myself well. So I will try again
In one action/command I have files named:
This Singer
That singer
This DJ
That DJ
and I want to change them to (Including the space after BB):
BB This Singer
BB That singer
BB This DJ
BB That DJ
So that the title remains but the letters BB and the space are added before each of these.
What do I do?
Thanks again
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### Author:  [@dano](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/dano)
#### Post date: [October 18, 2006, 10:06am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-only-part-of-a-tag/3909/4 "2006-10-18T10:06:22Z")
_Action type:_ **Format value**
_Field:_ **ARTIST**
_Format string:_ **BB %artist%**
I think this is derivable from the comment example.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:19pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/changing-only-part-of-a-tag/3909/5 "2026-02-09T12:19:56Z")