# Mac: Copy/pasting from app to text editor pastes all lines, but Excel only the first line
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407
**Category:** Mac
**Created:** [December 24, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407 "2025-12-24T17:54:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@godzfire](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/godzfire)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 5:54pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407/1 "2025-12-24T17:54:16Z")
This has been present in multiple versions. Load up like 30 files in the main window. Select all and copy. Go to a text editor and paste. It will paste all the lines with each column separated by a tab.
However, trying to do the same thing in Excel only pastes the first line, even though that single line is formatted correctly. If you copy the stuff you pasted into the text editor first into Excel, it works just fine.
Any way to fix it so it pastes in Excel fully right away?
---
### Author:  [@godzfire](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/godzfire)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 8:08pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407/3 "2025-12-24T20:08:41Z")
This is on a Mac. What I mean is doing a simple select all (or however many you want) and keyboard shortcut Copy, go to Excel and then Paste.
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### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2025, 8:27pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407/4 "2025-12-24T20:27:35Z")
See the documentation on how to export text to the clipboard:
> [@Export Tags to Text Files](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/export-tags-to-text-files/70192):
>
> Export to Text Files Mp3tag lets you export tag and file information to text-based formats via File → Export or ⌘E. You can use any text along with the available [placeholders](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/51688) and [scripting functions](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/51689) to define the export format. Mp3tag applies this format to each selected file, generating a textual representation for each one. The resulting export file contains one line of output per file. You can define a format string used to create the export filename at Preferences → Export. Export to Clip…
Check which format string you have there and whether the output format is supported by the Excel import functions.
Perhaps the tab character ($char(9)) is a better separator.
---
### Author:  [@godzfire](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/godzfire)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2025, 6:57pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407/5 "2025-12-27T18:57:12Z")
There’s some misunderstanding here. I’m not using File \> Export that spits out a txt file. I don’t want to do that. I am selecting all the ones i want in that list, going Copy / Cmd-C going to Excel and doing Paste / Cmd-V.
It SHOULD paste in all of the rows, as it does when pasting into TextEdit or BBEdit or any text editor. It’s not, it’s only pasting in the first row. So I’m having to first paste stuff into textedit, then immediately copy/paste into Excel.
It doesn’t sound like a lot, but when you’re constantly doing this for my workflow it becomes tedious. The fact it works just fine in a text editor points me to this being a bug.
---
### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2025, 7:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407/6 "2025-12-27T19:21:11Z")
I don't have Excel, but as with any other spreadsheet-based app, it's trying to divide the contents from the clipboard into the individual cells. This is the difference to a plain text editor, which just takes the text.
Can you share the format string you're using at **Settings → Export → Copy Format**? It's possible that if you adjust it to what @ohrenkino suggested (using `$char(9)` as separator character) improves the automatic column detection when pasting to Excel.
---
### Author:  [@godzfire](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/godzfire)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2025, 7:42pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407/7 "2025-12-27T19:42:47Z")
Original format:
```auto
%TRACK% %TITLE% %ARTIST% %ALBUM% %ALBUMARTIST% %YEAR% %GENRE% %LENGTH% %COMMENT%
```
Attempted to use: `%TRACK%$char(9)%TITLE%$char(9)%ARTIST%$char(9)%ALBUM%$char(9)%ALBUMARTIST%$char(9)%YEAR%$char(9)%GENRE%$char(9)%LENGTH%$char(9)%COMMENT%`
Results correct and the same both options when pasting into Textedit:
Results when pasting into Excel, no difference:
Results if taking what was pasted into Textedit, copying, and pasting into Excel:
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407/8 "2025-12-27T21:02:11Z")
Please see this page from Microsoft about pasting into Excel on a Mac:
> **[Copy and paste specific cell content in Excel for Mac - Microsoft Support](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/copy-and-paste-specific-cell-content-in-excel-for-mac-a956b1c3-cd5a-4245-852c-42e8f83ffe71)**
and see if one of the options help
---
### Author:  [@godzfire](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/godzfire)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2025, 11:47pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407/9 "2025-12-27T23:47:29Z")
When pasting these are the options:
- Paste is just paste
- Keep Source Column Widths and Values & Source Formatting both do literally nothing
- Paste Picture makes a white box with just the single row
- Paste Special
- Unicode does the same thing as regular, single row
- **Text actually does it correctly**
So hopefully that helps trying to figure out what’s going on.
---
### Author:  [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 8:02am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407/10 "2025-12-28T08:02:02Z")
> [@godzfire](#):
>
> Text actually does it correctly
So it means that you found a way to get the data into Excel as you prefer?
---
### Author:  [@Florian](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/Florian)
#### Post date: [December 28, 2025, 9:45am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407/11 "2025-12-28T09:45:02Z")
> [@Florian](#):
>
> I don't have Excel, but as with any other spreadsheet-based app, it's trying to divide the contents from the clipboard into the individual cells. This is the difference to a plain text editor, which just takes the text.
It looks like Excel doesn't read and combine multiple items from the macOS clipboard. Mp3tag copies one item of type `public.utf8-plain-text` per selected file to the clipboard and other apps like TextEdit or BBEdit are reading them just fine.
Excel however only reads one item from the clipboard, so you'd need to either use intermediate flattening via your text editor of choice, running `pbpaste | pbcopy` on Terminal.app (which does the same), or **Paste Special → As Text** from within Excel.
---
### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [January 27, 2026, 9:45am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mac-copy-pasting-from-app-to-text-editor-pastes-all-lines-but-excel-only-the-first-line/70407/12 "2026-01-27T09:45:59Z")
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