# Import tags from text file

**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/import-tags-from-text-file/8093
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [March 17, 2009, 11:02am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/import-tags-from-text-file/8093 "2009-03-17T11:02:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 14

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### Author: ![Peter1](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/a587f6/32.png) [@Peter1](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Peter1)
#### Post date: [January 12, 2017, 10:43am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/import-tags-from-text-file/8093/14 "2017-01-12T10:43:30Z")

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I am reviving an old thread, but my question seems trivial, so not sure it warrants a new post.  
And maybe the info I have found only apply to older versions (before v2.62??), and things have changed in the meantime.  
Having said that, I just want to make sure ...

Regarding import from text file, I had read this :

> [@DetlevD](#):
>
> - No empty lines in the textfile.
> - Identical amount of lines in textfile and selected tracks within Mp3tag.
> - Each line in the textfile must have an absolute filepath entry.
> - Import tag mask must have a "%\_path%" entry.
> - The binding relation is the absolute filepath.
> 
> DD.20090317.1556.CET

But until now, I have always used a much simpler way. I just selected a bunch of songs in the navigation window, and I changed tags based on a text file:

- with the same number of lines as the songs selected
- the order of the lines/info in the text file is the same as the the order you see in the navigation window

Are there any other conditions I have to be aware of ?

Is it still better / more stable / more robust to use "%\_path%" to match records?  
Please say "no", because in my personal, not-too-technically-inclined, opinion, it seems a lot simpler and less error-prone to just use navigation window ... 😛

Maybe I'll quickly explain what I want to do, and you can advise whether my workflow will work.

I need excel to do some re-naming that MP3Tag apparently cannot do ([thread](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/18602/1)), but not just for a few songs, but an entire subset of my library (about 10k songs).  
So what I want to do is :

- select all songs in the navigation window (and I make sure that MP3Tag points to the directory that contains only the songs I want to change);
- export to CSV (actually I'll use pipe | character instead of , or ; as I am sure it is easy, visible, well supported by Excel and MP3Tag)
- import in Excel (check of course that # of rows correspond with # of songs in navigation window of MP3Tag)
- do my hocus-pocus in Excel, delete all stuff I don't need, and export (the two columns I changed) again as a CSV (with | delimiter), and check with Notepad++ that the output file still has the same number of lines
- txt\>tag conversion in MP3Tag (%album%|%compilation%)  
For the last step, my MP3Tag still has the same navigation window as before (I did not touch MP3Tag between the export and txt\>tag actions), and all songs are still selected.

So I don't see the need to work with a %\_path% entry in export and import. But maybe I am wrong, and my method will not work because there are too many files or other constraints that I am not aware of?

Thank you for your help

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