Thank you for MP3Tag, I've only recently started using it after using Tag&Rename for years, and it's already proven a productivity booster and a pleasant experience!
Suggestion: please consider visualizing the standard MP3 tag fields distinctly from the custom fields that were added by the 3rd party author. My understanding is that the Extended Tags window is the one place where this applies.
Context
Many 3rd party authors add many custom tag fields to the MP3s. Thing is, the Extended Tags window doesn't make it easy to visually distinct between the standard and custom fields. This makes it quite time-consuming for me to go over each field and try to remember if the field is standard or custom. Other apps like Foobar2000 offer this, but I'd prefer MP3Tag to offer this, so I can just use one app for all tagging instead of two.
User story
As somebody that wants to remove all unwanted/unnecessary custom fields from MP3s, I want to be able to more easily get instant overview into what custom fields are present in the MP3s, versus which fields are the standard ones, so that I can decide if I'd like to delete some custom fields and which ones.
Example
Personally, I like the way Foobar2000 makes it instantly clear to me, by 1) showing all standard fields, even if they're empty 2) grouping all custom fields at the bottom below the standard fields, and 3) formatting the custom field names differently from the standard ones. See the screenshot below for a comparison.
Foobar does not show real standard fields as it also shows absolutely standard fields as apparently custom ones:
BPM, LANGUAGE, ORIGYEAR, RATING and UNSYNCEDLYRICS are standard fields IMHO - only that they are not widely used in FOOBAR.
So if you take the listing and formatting in Foobar as a rule, you may experience suprises.
Also, I would like to add that there are a lot of fields that are no standard field for other tag versions, e.g. ALBUMARTIST does not exists in V1 tags.
Also, not all tag formats for all file formats support all the fields - so how should that be represented in the list?
A complete reference which tag fields can be found in the documentation:
Which all in all does not mean that your's is a bad idea - it only means that there could be a reason why it has not been implemented.
If you want to keep a certain set of tag fields, then have a look at the action of the types
2 - How do you define "standard"?
Are this tags listed here "standard"?
I'd define 'standard' as the fields that MP3Tag decided to show in the main window's left panel by default, as in the below screenshot. That'd serve all my needs.
1 - There are no empty fields. Not as standard not as custom.
A tag is there if filled or the tag does not exist in the selected file.
I'm aware, I didn't explain myself properly - allow me to rephrase: always show the MP3Tag 'standard' fields as defined above, even if they're not defined in the MP3's tag; in that case, show them as e.g. "missing"or "empty".
So if you take the listing and formatting in Foobar as a rule, you may experience suprises.
Also, I would like to add that there are a lot of fields that are no standard field for other tag versions, e.g. ALBUMARTIST does not exists in V1 tags.
I'd suggest MP3Tag would treat this dilemma consistently with how it's implemented fields to show in the in the main window's left panel by default, as in the above screenshot. That'd serve all my needs.
Also, I would like to add that there are a lot of fields that are no standard field for other tag versions, e.g. ALBUMARTIST does not exists in V1 tags.
Also, not all tag formats for all file formats support all the fields - so how should that be represented in the list?
Seeing that ALBUMARTIST does not exist in V1 tags, but MP3Tag does show in the main window's left panel by default, I have no opinion on this question's answer - I don't use V1 and know too little about it.
Thanks for those links, have bookmarked, might come in handy some day. Thanks both for your thoughts.
The default tag-panel does not show standard fields but it shoes a selection of the probaly most used fields by customers.
Custom fields are fields that are not in the list of the fields that MP3Tag supports. In these cases MP3Tag has to create user-defined tag-fields (TXXX-frames).
Personally I think that in reality there is no view of extended Tags but an extended view of tags and that view simply shows all tag-fields that are in a file and that MP3Tag supports. Mp3Tag is not so clear in these cases. It uses "Extended Fields" and "Information Fields" in the list of fields you can select for the filter. So you could get the idea that the fields that show at the top of this list are "Standard". But this top-list is simply a list of tag-fields that are defined in the tag-panel, user-defined and extended too.
So to my opionion you don't mean "standard fields" and "extended fields" but instead "fields you want to use" and "fields you don't want to use". It's simply a personal decision and has nothing to do with "standard" or "not standard".
The only place to get rid of unwanted fields that makes sense is the extended-view or (as already mentioned by ohrenkino) an action of the type "Remove fields execpt".
Nicely put, Poster. That is the heart of the matter.
With all due respect I think Stijneman is making the unwanted tag removal task more complicated than it needs to be. Normally I use twelve tags. After applying and/or editing them I view the Extended dialog after a Select All. It is then immediately obvious if there are any intruders or holdovers from a previous owner. I simply click the red X for each of those and then click OK on the dialog. That removes all unwanted tags from the selected files. Done! Why should I care if some of the intruders are custom tags or not? The only custom tag in my files was created by me for a specific purpose and only after careful deliberation.
What @Stijneman calls standard fields, are in fact, what he himself has provided here: Foobar2000 >> File >> Preferences >> Advanced >> Display >> Properties dialog >> Standard fields. There is a basic fill-in (as far, as i know), but anybody can modify and extend it, as he like. Format (for example): My_individual_name_for _composer_field=COMPOSER;My_individual_name_for _arranger_field=ARRANGER; and so on.
