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Tag Editor

The Tag Editor is the primary tag editor in Helium Music Manager which enables you to quickly edit multiple files at once using an easy to use spreadsheet user interface.

The major benefit with this tag editor is that it shows a great overview of all your files' tags at once, as opposed to the Tag Editor (advanced) where instead you work with one file at a time.

Using the Tag Editor

Starting the Tag Editor

The Tag Editor can be used as a separate tool, but is also embedded in several other tools. The following tools use the embedded Tag Editor embedded:

Browse for some tracks using any of the views, select the ones you want to edit and start the Tag Editor using any of the methods below:

Click on Edit > Tags... from the main menu.
Press CTRL+E on your keyboard.
Right click the selected tracks and select the Edit > Tags... option.

Tag Editor

Depending on your selection of input files, the Tag Editor will be started in either Album Mode or Track Mode.

When all files in your selection comes from the same album (Album Name and Helium Music Managers database ID), the Tag Editor will be started in Album Mode. When album mode is active, an extra pane, Album Information, will be shown to the right of the spreadsheet.

Read more about this control below in this document, under the section Album Information Pane.

Modifying Tracks

Tagging tracks is the procedure of adding or updating information for the tracks on your computer. Each type of information you add to a track is called a tag field (or just field). Some examples of tag fields are shown below:

Artist
Album
Track Number
Biography
Lyrics
Title

Each type of tag field in the Tag Editor is equal to one of the available columns. You can customize which tag fields (columns) should be shown by clicking the Advanced > Columns > Customize... menu item. Click here to read more about customizing the Tag Editor.

When the Tag Editor is started, tags will automatically be loaded for the selected files. Each line in the spreadsheet represents one file (you can see the filename of the selected file in the edit control, just below the spreadsheet).

Tag Editor Controls

To start editing a specific tag field for a file, select the cell containing the value and then do one of the following operations:

Double/single click the field.
Press F2 on your keyboard
Press Enter on your keyboard

Depending on the tag field that's been selected, different input controls will be shown. All the different input controls are listed and explained below:

Textual input control

The textual input control field is used for many different tag fields and is the most common input field in the Tag Editor. It enables you to enter text as well as to reuse a previously entered text. This input field will auto-complete any text you enter. You can paste text from the clipboard to this input control using CTRL+V without the need to enter edit mode.

Numerical input control

The numerical input control only allows you to enter numerical values. You can increase/decrease the current value by using the spin control or pressing the Up/Down keys on your keyboard.

Artist input control

This input control is only used for the artist tag field. By default it works just as a textual input control, but if you click the Edit button to the right, the Multiple Artists Editor will be opened. When the selected file contains multiple artists, the field will be read only. You must then edit the field by clicking the Edit button in the Multiple Artists Editor.

Rating input control

The rating control enables you to set a rating for the selected track. Select the desired rating from the drop-down list. You cannot enter any values in this field.

Release Type, Popularity and Quality

The release type control enables you to set the Release Type for the selected file. Select the desired Release Type from the drop-down list.
This type of control is also used for setting Popularity and Quality.

Time input control

The time input control is used in the Subtrack Editor, when you add Custom Items or when you manually add Audio CDs to your database. This input control only allows you to enter properly formatted times.

Album Information Pane

When the Tag Editor starts in Album Mode, this pane will be shown to the right of the spreadsheet control. The spreadsheet will be load with a specific set of columns, optimized for this mode. Working with the Album Information will reduce several typing operations for you and allow you to tag your albums more quickly.

The Album Information pane contains the following controls (from top to bottom):

Album picture control.
This control enables you to add, update, remove and download an album picture for the selected album.
Hover over the control to gain access to these functions.

Album
When filling in a value in this field, it will be automatically applied to the album fields for all files loaded into the Tag Editor.

Album Subtitle
When filling in a value in this field, it will be automatically applied to the album subtile fields for all files loaded into the Tag Editor.

Album Artist
When filling in a value in this field, it will be automatically applied to the album artist fields for all files loaded into the Tag Editor.

Genre
When filling in a value in this field, it will be automatically applied to the genre fields for all files loaded into the Tag Editor.

Publisher
When filling in a value in this field, it will be automatically applied to the publisher fields for all files loaded into the Tag Editor.

Release Type
When filling in a value in this field, it will be automatically applied to the release type fields for all files loaded into the Tag Editor.

Catalog Number
When filling in a value in this field, it will be automatically applied to the catalog number fields for all files loaded into the Tag Editor.

Release Year
When filling in a value in this field, it will be automatically applied to the release year fields for all files loaded into the Tag Editor.

Album Review
Click the ellipsis button to open up the Edit Album Review tool and edit the album review for this album. The content will be stored in Helium Music Managers database.
Album Sort Order
When filling in a value in this field, it will be automatically applied to the album sort order fields for all files loaded into the Tag Editor.
Album Artist Sort Order
When filling in a value in this field, it will be automatically applied to the album artist sort order fields for all files loaded to the Tag Editor.

Note:
If you manually enable the album field for editing (by customising the columns) and enter values that will result in more than one unique album being edited, the album picture cannot be applied to the albums currently being edited.

Downloading Information

You can take advantage of plug-ins to download track information from the Tag Editor.

Click the Download button and a drop-down menu will appear which enables you to choose what information should be downloaded:

Track information (full album)
This option will download album information for the selected tracks. All tracks in the selection will be treated as one album.
If you have loaded a multi-CD album, select the tracks from one CD at a time when using this option.

Please note that it is often important that the tracks in your selection appear as in the same order as they are on the original album.
If this condition is not met, you might not get any results.
Track information (single files)
This option will generate unique IDs (PUID) for all files in your selection that do not already contain such an ID and then download information for each track using MusicBrainz.
The tracks do not need to come from the same album, nor appear in the same order as on the original album.
Lyrics
This option will download lyrics for the files in your selection.
The tracks do not need to come from the same album, nor appear in the same order as on the original album.
Album picture
This option will download an album picture using the details (artist and album) from the first file in your selection.
Artist picture
This option will download an artist picture using the details (artist) from the first file in your selection.

Commands

The Tag Editor contains several commands that help speed up and simplify your tagging. These commands are available from right click context menus and some of them are also available from the bottom toolbar. The commands are listed below:

Apply will apply the selected cell value to all cells in the selected column. This command is very useful for quickly copying a value to the entire column e.g. the album name. You can also access the Apply command by pressing CTRL+D.

Apply Down works in the same way as Apply, but Apply Down will only apply the current cell value to the remaining cells in the column. You can also access the Apply Down command by pressing Shift+CTRL+D.

Auto Track will fill the selected column with a value that starts at 1 and is incremented by one for each row. Use the auto track command to qucikly generate track number series for an album. Please note that Auto Track only works in numeric cells.

Auto Track Down works in the same way as Auto Track, but Auto Track Down will only work from the current cell and down to the last cell.

The Extract menu contains the following commands:

Extract Title (Remix) will extract texts inside parentheses and copy the extracted part to the remix column.

Example:
1) The title column contains the text "Got to get it (Club Remix)"
2) After using the Extract Title (Remix) command, the Remix cell will contain "Club Remix" and the title cell will contain "Got to get it"

Extract Title (Subtitle) works in the same way as Extract Title (Remix) but with the subtitle tag field instead of remix.

Extract Artist-Title will try to split the current cell value into Artist and Title strings, using - as a separator. The resulting texts will be copied into the Artist and Title cells.

Example:
1) A cell contains "Madonna - Ray Of Light"
2) After using the Extract Artist-Title command, the Artist cell will contain "Madonna" and the title cell will contain "Ray Of Light"

Extract Artist/Title works in the same way as Extract Artist-Title, but / will be used as separator instead of -.

Extract Title/Artist works in the same way as Extract Artist/Title, but the fields will be extracted in another order. (Title first instead of Artist)

Extract Title-Artist works in the same way as Extract Artist-Title, but the fields will be extracted in another order. (Title first instead of Artist)

Extract Multiple Artists will try to extract multiple artists from an Artist cell text that does not already contain multiple artists. Extract Multiple Artists can also be accessed by pressing Shift+CTRL+A. To read more about multiple artist editing, click this link.
The Switch menu contains the following commands:
- Switch with artist will switch the current field's contents with the Artist field
- Switch with title will switch the current field's contents with the Title field
- Switch with album will switch the current field's contents with the Album field
- Switch with remix will switch the current field's contents with the Remix field
- Switch with subtitle will switch the current field's contents with the Subtitle field
The Filename To Tag button contains the following commands:
- Filename to Tag will start the Filename to Tags tool with your selected files.
- Filename To Tag (Non Verbose) will use the Filename To Tag function to extract tags into the cell names from the selected files filenames.
- Filename To Tag (Verbose) will perform the same command as Filename To Tag (Non Verbose), but if a conflict in the template matching occurs, you will be able to select the correct template visually by yourself.
Advanced > Calculate BPM will calculate the Beats Per Minute (BPM) for the selected files automatically. Please note that this field is only enabled if a BPM cell is selected.
Advanced > Calculate MusicBrainz PUID will calculate a unique ID for the files in your selection which can be used when downloading track information (single files).
Advanced > Columns > Auto-Fit columns will resize the spreadsheet columns to be as small as possible while still showing all contents.
Advanced > Columns > Customize enables you to customize the columns in the Tag Editor. Click here to read more about customizing the Tag Editor.
Advanced > Tools > Edit Subtracks will start the Subtrack Editor for the selected file.
Advanced > Tools > MP3 Analyzer will start the MP3 Analyzer for the selected files.
Advanced > Tools > Examine Tags will start the Tag Examiner for the selected file.
Advanced > Move Up and Advanced > Move Down commands will move the selected entries up/down in the spreadsheet. This can be useful to re-order items quickly before downloading track information (full albums).
The Advanced > Excel menu contains the following commands:
- Paste From Excel will paste a comma separated list from the clipboard into one or more cells. The Tag Editor will paste data into as many cells as possible. This command can also be accessed by pressing Shift+CTRL+V.
- Copy To Excel will copy the selected or all data in the Tag Editor into the clipboard as a comma separated list. This command can also be accessed by pressing Shift+CTRL+C.

Options

On the tagging steps in the Tag Editor, you will find a menu with different settings that can be used. To change the options for the Tag Editor, click the Options button.

The following settings are available from the bottom toolbar for quick access (listed left to right):

Save ID3 v.1 tag will have the Tag Editor to automatically save ID3 v1.1 tags. This setting only applies when editing MP3 files.
Save Lyrics3v2 tag will save lyrics and other information in the Lyrics3v2 tag. We recommend not using this setting, since the ID3 v2 tag includes all information in the Lyrics3 v2 tag.
Auto Assign Sort Order will automatically fill in the sort order field for the following fields:
- Artist
- Album
- Title
- Album Artist
  The information will be copied from the respective non-sort order fields.
Use Auto Correction will format all entered texts using the Auto Correction rules when enabled.
Auto-extract multiple artists will automatically extract multiple artists, similarly to the Extract Multiple Artists, described above.