Hi Florian, might be a good idea to add the possibility of predefined list for composers as already existing for genres
See e.g. here:
(How many different entries would you expect? Up to 20?)
Only a composer list would be fine. I'm thinking of a lot more than 20 even up to 200 
please, use the search function in this forum and see the numerous threads on this topic, e.g. this one:
You can see from the numbers and lengths of the various threads that this discussion has been around for a while.
And quite honestly, I don't think that you get too many names together of composers that have published a lot of tracks and are still productive today.
Or the other way round: for those who are still productive, the intervals between releases are usually a year or so and during all that time of silence the entries for them clog up the list of the active ones - which would be a few.
If you already have a track by a certain composer, use that as a template, select it together with the files that need tagging and select the right name from the drop-down list in the tag panel composer field (it you have added that field there).
Or use the way of the "Format value" actions.
I am talking about classical composer like Beethoven and the like, drop down list would be very helpful when tagging classical music
I would assume that there is a rather limited list of composers.
So it should be easy to create a number of actions of the type "Format value" to fill the composer field.
BTW: as the contents of the field is by no means standardized, it is very much down to personal taste what to enter in such a field - and that can be achieved easiest with the aforementioned actions.
E.g. some just want Grieg, some Edvard Grieg, some like Edvard Hagerup Grieg, some see Edvard Grieg (composer) as input.
Or Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethoven or Beethoven, Ludiwg van ...
(and why should I get a predefined list with classical music composers, when my prime music interest lies in Chinese traditional music?)
So far the recommendation is: create a couple of actions for the recurring names.
I think the suggestion is just to allow adding custom entries to the Composer drop-down list on the Tag Panel to choose from. Similar as with custom Genres.
It's probably a little bit more comfortable as going the route via dedicated actions (and right there when you fill in the field).
I've moved the post to #general and made a note regarding your interest in this feature.
It is not the intention to get a list predefined by mp3tag, but a list to be completed yourself, just like you can fill in anything on the genre list. If the user prefers to use Ludwig van Beethoven instead of simply Beethoven then this is his own choice just as you decide how to name a genre. Currently I enter composer via an excel list and copy/paste, it would be very useful if I could do it from a dropdown list
In principle, I have nothing against such predefined lists, whose workflow is made easier by them should perhaps have this option.
However, this approach does not correspond at all to my own workflow. I don't even choose the entries from the genre list but type in the genres myself, which is done quickly thanks to the auto-completion. However, I've always been bothered by the fact that I can't see the genres in a file selection and possibly equate them in the tag panel, as is usual with other fields. Instead I have to create a genre column to see them.
For a while there was an unofficial and actually not intended workaround in Mp3Tag to create the genre field in the tag panel twice, 1x as a predefined list, 1x like the usual tag fields. This workaround, which was actually not intended, was then dropped at some point.
I wouldn't like it if a core feature of the tag panel was left behind for other fields as well.
The desire for a click list in the tag panel for all possible fields is sometimes written here. Most of the time you can see that the wish has not been properly thought through and only arises from one's own needs. Requests for a shortlist for ARTIST had already been expressed. I have the impression that such wishes are generally expressed by users who perhaps only collect music from a maximum of 100 artists or have files in the four-digit range to edit.
While I can understand a classical music collector's desire for a composer pick list, what about the users who also use the COMPOSER tag field and collect pop/rock/jazz/folk etc.
I've only filled the COMPOSER field for an estimated 40% of my music collection for theses genres and I think that there are already more than 1000 different composers included. What's the point of a selection list, especially since more than 90% of such content is filled by web source scripts.
In summary:
Nothing against selection lists for the click-mad, but please not at the expense of an existing and beloved feature of MP3Tag.
So if a solution is found in which both - a selection list and the usual tag panel solution - can coexist side by side without interference, go for it. Personally, I can only really imagine this with an option-solution depending on your wishes: choose between pick-list and "classic" tagpanel.
I think I've found a solution that works for both, the suggested feature of having a list of predefined composers, and the existing behavior of listing all the different values that are available in the select files.
The new version Mp3tag v3.17b allows for adding custom list values when configuring a field via Options → Tag Panel. These values are then available in the drop-down list of the respective field on the Tag Panel.
If the option Prefer values from tags in list at Tag Panel is enabled (it's by default), the previous behavior of only listing the values from selected files is used. If the selected files have no value stored for the field in question, the custom values are also available to choose from.
Really hope that this is a solution which is beneficial for everyone 
3 Likes
A little help for beginners: it is easier to enter existing long lists this way.
- Use the EditPad Pro application. (OR: the attached below ZIP archive contains the natur + the converted text file -- of classical composers. OR: see LyricsLover's free solution below. By the way, you can even use his solution with the free version of EditPad. Simply, i like this great app.)
- Open your existing list of values for the given field (for example, Composer).
- Menu>>>Convert>>>Characters to
u\FFFF(because of non-ASCII characters). - Replace line breaks to \u000b.^^^
- Copy the whole thing.
- Open the c:\Users\ItIsYou\AppData\Roaming\Mp3tag\data\usrfields.ini file (if Win7; if other OP, search for it).
- Find the right field.
- Add two more lines to the field attributes: custom_values= and prefer_tag=1 (or 0, according to your choice -- see settings).
- After custom_values= (without spaces), paste the ones copied above.
^^^ = (In EditPad...) Open the multi-line replace panel below. Insert a line break into the field with Ctrl+Enter. See the attached image.
Example
Existing list of composers:
Albéniz y Pascual, Isaac Manuel Francisco
Dvořák, Antonín Leopold
Händel, Georg Friedrich
This should be added to the composer field properties
custom_values=Alb\u00E9niz y Pascual, Isaac Manuel Francisco\u000bDvo\u0159\u00E1k, Anton\u00EDn Leopold\u000bH\u00E4ndel, Georg Friedrich
prefer_tag=1
Ready-made list for classical composers: my actual list, 310 composers. May come in handy.
http://users.atw.hu/robotok/classical_composers_list.zip
At the end of the list, you can transcribe the russian composers into latin letters, if you can not read cyrillic letters. The transcription will be different for english, german, hungarian and so on users. Use simply the google translator, from russian to your language. Check the result!
A bit confusing, maybe worth thinking about? The entered listes are only valid in c:\Users\ItIsMe\AppData\Roaming\Mp3tag\data\usrfields.ini, they are not automatically transferred from there to the saved c:\Users\ItIsMe\AppData\Roaming\Mp3tag\data\panels\mypanel1, mypanel2... files. Or, may be, that is just great? Considerable.
LATER
For me, it seems, it is just great.
This following 9 steps are no more necessary, since
Old answer:
This seems the only replacement you have to do.
Please ensure, that Mp3tag is closed before you follow these steps.
You can try it with the freeware editor Notepad++.
-
Open your text list (with all your composers for example) in Notepad++
-
Open the search & replace box in Notepad++ with CTRL + H and
Enter\r\nas "find what" and\u000bas "replace with" text -
Ensure that the selected search mode is "Extended"
-
Click on the button Replace all
The text should look similar to this (VT instead of CRLF):
(if you don't see the "invisible" VT or CRLF characters, click on the "Show All Characters" button
in the toolbar 
)
Close the search & replace box
-
Copy this entire text from the first to the last character into the clipboard with CTRL + C
-
Open the Mp3tag configuration file
%appdata%\Mp3tag\data\usrfields.iniin Notepad++ too -
Search the tag panel field with the
value=where you want to add all this entries to the drop down box. For example the manually in Mp3tag added COMPOSER field (the #number may vary!):
-
Paste the entire content from 5. after
custom_values=with CTRL + V -
Save the configuration file
%appdata%\Mp3tag\data\usrfields.ini
Now open Mp3tag and have look if all your new added entries appears in the drop-down box of your selected tag panel field.
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It is great -- Mp3tag does the conversion itself. Thank you, @LyricsLover. I was just looking for a free solution. I could not find an online solution, i just wanted to update my 7-year-old PSPad.
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Thanks.
Yes Mp3tag does the conversion by itself, but not until you open the tag panel field
and press the OK Button once
Surprisingly, the list itself seems to work fine even without the conversion.
Hmm... 310 times, this is quite time consuming. I shall look at PSPad and Notepad++.
(Maybe, as a suggestion to Florian -- a built-in solution...?)
Not 310 times/clicks, ONE (1 x) only 
ALL 310 entries will be converted with 1 click.
Just have a look at your %appdata%\Mp3tag\data\usrfields.ini
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Ohh! So this IS a solution. Great.