batch-update comments box

[skim1124]

In the Tags tab when editing tracks, is it possible to batch-update comments boxes that already have comments in them?  That is, it says "Mixed" in the box.

For example, I want to add something like "American" to tracks composed by Americans.  But I can't seem to figure out how to do that without either replacing all previous comments with just "American" or making all the tracks have the same comments.

Being able to do this would be very helpful because I use the Comments box as repository for certain tags.

If it possible, or should this also go on the wish list?

[Steven]

this is not possible in MB itself - not sure if the Additional Tag Tools plugin has something. Otherwise would need to be on the wishlist

[hiccup]

Being able to do this would be very helpful because I use the Comments box as repository for certain tags.

It would be much better to use a multivalue tag such as 'keywords' for this.
You can then use the Tag Inspector to add a value to multiple files at once.

Or, for your example 'American', you could use a specific 'Country' tag.
(you could setup a custom tag for this using e.g. 'location' as the source tag)

[The Incredible Boom Boom]

In the Tags tab when editing tracks, is it possible to batch-update comments boxes that already have comments in them?  That is, it says "Mixed" in the box.

For example, I want to add something like "American" to tracks composed by Americans.  But I can't seem to figure out how to do that without either replacing all previous comments with just "American" or making all the tracks have the same comments.

As @hiccup mentioned above, the <Keywords> multi-value tag is a better place for additions such as yours. Even more granular would be using the <Language> tag (which I do and have renamed as "Nationality.") If you'd like to stick to your method (which I wouldn't recommend as you start to mission creep more information in), you can use a regular expression in the Tools -> Tagging Tools -> Search and Replace feature to select all characters in a specific tag, replace it and then add your text.

Code

search for: (.+)
in field: Comment
replace with: $1 American

✓ search criteria is a regular expression

[hiccup]

Even more granular would be using the <Language> tag (which I do and have renamed as "Nationality.")

Just like pretty much every other classification of music is subjective and personal, so is location/country/language.
E.g. some use 'location' being the venue of a performance. Some use it for countries.

If as you, you use 'language' for 'nationality', it will make it difficult (impossible?) to describe an artist singing in a language that is different from what might be considered to be his country's main language.
And there are quite a few multi-lingual countries and artists singing in a language that is not common for their  country.

This is a good example why it can be important to have a plan and think about what you are doing and trying to achieve, before just jumping in, and perhaps at a later moment finding out things are not working as you expected them to, and then needing to fix that.

[skim1124]

No need for it to go on the wish list.  I imagine that there are other higher-priority wishes than this one.  This doesn't come up too often for me, and I think I can add certain tags via other methods mentioned below.

[skim1124]

I'm realizing that I've been underutilizing the Tags(2) tab because I've been too lazy to click on it, too lazy to search for documentation on using the custom tags.

I think I can do what I need to do by renaming one of the custom tag fields as something like Nationality.  I basically want to be able to quickly find classical music written by American composers.  But I don't need to tag all composers by their nationality, which is why I was wanting to just put it in in the comment field rather than as a tag with multiple possible values.

So that brings up perhaps another request: it'd be great if I can add the Nationality field to the Tags tab instead of having it in the Tags (2) tab.  Is there a way to add more fields to the Tags tab?

If that's not possible, I suppose I can use the Grouping field to tag American composers since Grouping is found on the Tags tab.  I'm not sure how Grouping is supposed to be used, but would this be a good use of it?  Never mind.  I just saw that if there's a previous input in Groupings, batch selection shows "Mixed," so that's the same issue I was having with Comments.  I think I'll have to use a custom tag field.