# Manual editing of mta files in Notepad++

**URL:** <https://community.mp3tag.de/t/manual-editing-of-mta-files-in-notepad/42429>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [July 22, 2018, 5:20am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/manual-editing-of-mta-files-in-notepad/42429 "2018-07-22T05:20:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sheepdisease](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@sheepdisease](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/sheepdisease)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 5:20am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/manual-editing-of-mta-files-in-notepad/42429/1 "2018-07-22T05:20:23Z")

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Can someone please tell me whether the numbers contained within mta files are important and whether having numbers in the wrong order makes a difference/whether the numbers can be removed without consequences?

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**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 7:11am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/manual-editing-of-mta-files-in-notepad/42429/2 "2018-07-22T07:11:44Z")

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see here on the editing of mta files:

> [@Scripting: Create Decade from Year / Origyear](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/scripting-create-decade-from-year-origyear/11757):
>
> Are there any good language descriptions for the MTA files? For example, my intention is to create an action to create a Decade tag using the digits from the Year or Original Year tags, if they exist. Otherwise it is filled with "Unknown". I somehow figured out how to cobble together a couple of actions in an action group and then hand edit the MTA file, as below, which does seem to work for at least one scenario, but I do have to test all boundary conditions. [#0] T=5 F=DECADE 1=$if2(%ori…

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**Author:** ![sheepdisease](https://community.mp3tag.de/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/d07c76/32.png) [@sheepdisease](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/sheepdisease)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 7:18am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/manual-editing-of-mta-files-in-notepad/42429/3 "2018-07-22T07:18:42Z")

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Thank you for your reply.

I could not see any reference to the significance of the numbers before each piece of code in actions, do you not know?

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**Author:** ![ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/user_avatar/community.mp3tag.de/ohrenkino/32/4843_2.png) [@ohrenkino](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/ohrenkino)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 7:26am UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/manual-editing-of-mta-files-in-notepad/42429/4 "2018-07-22T07:26:51Z")

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I am not quite sure what cannot be understood by this statement in the link:

> [@Scripting: Create Decade from Year / Origyear](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/scripting-create-decade-from-year-origyear/11757/2):
>
> The MTA file resp. its content is subject of the Mp3tag application system and not subject to the common user.  
> It is not recommended to edit MTA files manually, because of the special sovereign usage by the application itself.  
> A bad formatted MTA file can cause bad behaviour of the application, which can bring harm to the data and to the user.  
> If you want to know how to create an action resp. build a group of actions, then read the help manual, and do all changes to the action definitions by using the user interface of Mp3tag.

In short it means: hands off, use Mp3tag.

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**Author:** ![system](https://community.mp3tag.de/uploads/default/original/2X/c/ce7035d426cb755a7916793326d23b465222a407.png) [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)\
**Post date:** [February 9, 2026, 12:27pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/manual-editing-of-mta-files-in-notepad/42429/5 "2026-02-09T12:27:33Z")

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