Edit tags with the Tag Editor
Introduction
The Tag Editor in Helium Music Manager works a little differently to the Tag Editor (Spreadsheet mode). Instead of working with several files and having the capability to see all the contents at the same time, the Tag Editor works with a selection of files, where you edit one file at a time. This allows you to edit each file in a very detailed fashion.
Tasks
- Locating the files you would like to adjust tags for
- Visual Appearance
- Working with the input controls
- Capitalization and word replacing
- Generating tag information from filenames
- Downloading tag information, pictures, lyrics and biography
- Tips and tricks
- Recommended tag fields
Locating the files you would like to adjust tags for
Locate all the tracks you would like to edit tags for from any of the browsing views available. Select the tracks you would like to adjust tags for from the Track List and start the Tag Editor by clicking the Tools | Edit Tags... from the Main Menu or press the keystroke CTRL+E.
It is not strictly necessary to have your files sorted in the same order
as they are on the original album (e.g. track1, track2, track3...), but
when you are working with complete albums we do recommend that you do
sort your files in the track list into their correct order.
This will help simplify tasks such as auto-numbering and track information
downloading from CDDB, FreeDB
or similar internet data sources.
The picture to the left shows 15 files from one and the same album presented in the Track List. The files have been sorted based on their track number so that they are in the same order as they appear on the original album. You can quickly sort the items in track number order by clicking the Track column. You can also drag 'n' move the items in the Track List to quickly move one or more selected files to a specific position. It's important that the files are in this order if you are planning to use Internet information-lookup sources such as CDDB and FreeDB. These services depend on the files being in the original album order. |
Visual Appearance
The Tag Editor is divided into three main sections which
always are visible.
These sections are the following:
The Tab List which shows the available tabs.
If no tabs are defined in the selected template, the tab list will not be visible.The Work Area which contains the input controls for the selected tab.
The work area contains the input controls in which you will enter tag information.The Command Toolbar which is located at the bottom of the dialog.
The command toolbar contains several commands and options related to the Tag Editor.
Clicking on a tab in the tab list will display the input fields for the selected tab in the work area.
The tabs, the order of the input controls for each tab as well as which tab an input control is placed on, can be changed by modifying the active template.
Working with the input controls
The Tag Editor uses several different types of input controls.
They are described in detail in the help files. There are a few things
worth to mention here though;
You can lock a field by clicking the checkbox to the left of the input
field. (or above for some controls)
After clicking the checkbox, the color of the input field will change to
a bright yellow color, so that you can easily see which fields are locked.
When you advance to the next file by pressing Next
> the input controls contents will be kept as they were before.
Locking fields is a good way to reduce typing.
Capitalization and word replacing
Helium Music Manager uses a unique system of auto correcting rules,
defined in the Options under the Word/Text Replacer and Capitalizer.
If you have Auto Correction active, all textual information that you enter
in any field in the Tag Editor will be formatted using these rules.
You can toggle Auto Correction on/off by clicking the 
button
in the control toolbar or by pressing the keystroke CTRL+U.
Capitalization means that entered text will be case-formatted using
the selected rules. For example, you can choose between automatic uppercase
or lowercase conversion as well as custom capitalization. We recommend
that you use custom capitalization for the most readable results. Custom
capitalization will convert the character following a special character
defined in the customized capitalization list to Uppercase.
Custom capitalization also takes advantage of a user defined list of words
which always will be capitalized as they are entered in the list. For
example if you have entered dj in a tag field, the basic capitalization
will convert it to Dj. If you define DJ in the custom capitalization word
list it will always be capitalized to DJ.
Word/Text replacer is another part of the auto correction which simply replaces a defined text with another, either as whole words or as a part of another text.
Generating tag information from filenames
The Tag Editor has the built in functionality to generate tags from
filename. This functionality is named Filename To Tag
and is by default turned off.
You can activate it by clicking the 
button in the control
toolbar.
When Filename To Tag is enabled you will see an extra panel with several controls just above the command toolbar. (See the image below).
"Filename To Tag" can work in either automatic or manual lookup
mode.
Automatic mode is for the most part enough, but if for some reason the
filename cannot be properly converted to tag parts, you can switch to
manual mode.
When Filename To Tag cannot
match the current filename with a template or the current manual expression,
a red flag 
will be shown to the left of the template combobox.
If a filename is properly matched with a template a green flag 
will be shown in the same place.
Entering manual "Filename To Tag" expressions is a larger topic which is covered in the help files, but basically it works like this:
- Select that you will work with "Filename To
Tag" in manual mode by clicking the
button. - Enter a match expression in the Template combobox.
- When you edit the template the changes will be immediately
tested to see if they were successful or not.
This will be indicated with the flag to the left of the template combobox as described above.
Example:
You have a file named "14 - Faithless - Reasons(Sunday Night).mp3"
Enter a template like this "%ctr - %art - %tit(%sti)".
The following tag fields will now be filled and highlighted with a light
blue color, indicating that they were modified by "Filename To Tag":
- Current Track: 14
- Artist: Faithless
- Title: Reasons
- Remix: Sunday Night
Downloading tag information, pictures, lyrics and biography
Helium Music Manager has full support for plug-ins, which can help you
to download information to your files.
Plug-ins access online databases and download information for either the
active track or all tracks.
There are different plug-ins available for Helium Music Manager which can
download either:
Track information which will download information from CDDB or FreeDB and apply to all tracks.
Artist Information which will download artist pictures, biographies, relations and discographies
Album Information which will download album pictures and album reviews
Lyrics can download lyrics for the active track
Click the Download 
button to download information using the plug-ins and follow
the on-screen instructions. More information about downloading data can
be found in the help files.
Tips and tricks
- Colors in tag fields have
different meanings:
White (window color) means unchanged, light-green means modified, yellow means locked and light-blue means changed by "Filename To Tag". - CTRL+U toggles Auto Correction on/off
- ALT+L locks/unlocks the current field
- You can see which settings are active on the bottom
toolbar.
They are represented as buttons and located to the right of the text Active Settings. - You can start several other Helium Music Manager
tools from the Tag Editor.
They are started with the file currently selected for editing as a parameter.
The tools available are: Subtrack Editor, MPEG Analyser and the Lyrics3 v2.0 Tag Editor. - You can easily back out all changes for the current
file by pressing the Revert button.
- Using tabs in your templates helps you to quickly navigate to a specific tag field.
- Tags aren't applied to your files until you press
the Finish button.
(The Finish button is shown where the Next > button is located when you are working with the last selected file).
This means that you can always undo all your changes by clicking the Cancel button.
Recommended tag fields
Listed below are the fields that we recommend you use as your tags, to get the most out of Helium Music Manager:
- Artist
- Secondary artist (where applicable)
- Title
- Subtitle (where applicable)
- Album
- Album Subtitle (where applicable)
- Remix (where applicable)
- Genre
- Current Track/Total Tracks
- Current CD/Total CDs (where applicable)
- Rating
- Release Year
- Release Type
- Publisher (where applicable)
- Album Artist (Usable for mixed-CDs, where one artist has mixed the entire album but the tracks themselves comes from various artists)