# MP3TAG to organize my collection
**URL:** https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-to-organize-my-collection/4488
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [February 19, 2007, 3:54pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-to-organize-my-collection/4488 "2007-02-19T15:54:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kmiecikj](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/kmiecikj)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2007, 3:54pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-to-organize-my-collection/4488/1 "2007-02-19T15:54:48Z")
Hello everyone.
First, let me start by saying that I used to use MP3TAG a long time ago. I switched to ID3TagIt because it offered an easy way to organize my MP3s by a specific function. However I have recently switched to Mac. I run Parallels which is a virtual machine for Windows within OS X. ID3TagIt was and still is a poorly written program, and for some reason would not run in Parallels.
So imagine my excitement when I found out my old standby program, MP3TAG, ran just fine!
I have also delved into MP3TAG to help achieve the ultimate goal of organizing my MP3 collection. The one thing I can't find, however, is a script/string to pull out the first letter of the artist. For example, if I had the song 2266 Cambridge by Cut Chemist off of the album The Audience's Listening, I'd want my final directory structure to look like this:
/C/Cut Chemist/The Audience's Listening/09-cut\_chemist-2266\_cambridge.mp3
I have seen how to script/string from the Cut Chemist directory through the filename. I can't quite figure out, however, the trick to get the first letter of the artist name.
Can anyone shed some light?
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### Author:  [@DetlevD](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/DetlevD)
#### Post date: [February 19, 2007, 4:21pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-to-organize-my-collection/4488/2 "2007-02-19T16:21:20Z")
> [@Big John](#):
>
> ... I'd want my final directory structure to look like this:
> /C/Cut Chemist/The Audience's Listening/09-cut\_chemist-2266\_cambridge.mp3
> I have seen how to script/string from the Cut Chemist directory through the filename. I can't quite figure out, however, the trick to get the first letter of the artist name.
> Can anyone shed some light?
Whats about **$left(%artist%,1)**?
DD.20070219.1820
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### Author:  [@kmiecikj](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/kmiecikj)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2007, 4:53pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-to-organize-my-collection/4488/3 "2007-02-26T16:53:39Z")
> [@DetlevD](#):
>
> Whats about **$left(%artist%,1)**?
>
> DD.20070219.1820
Works perfectly. Thanks!
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### Author:  [@system](https://community.mp3tag.de/u/system)
#### Post date: [February 9, 2026, 12:20pm UTC](https://community.mp3tag.de/t/mp3tag-to-organize-my-collection/4488/4 "2026-02-09T12:20:10Z")