Contents
Overview
UTagIt is a utility for editing the ID3v1 tags on your MP3 files. It can be used to edit or view the tags on individual files, or to replace selected tags on whole groups of files at once. A unique auto-increment feature allows a numeric field in the tag to be incremented each time the tag is saved to a file. For example, the title can be assigned sequential values such as "Track #1", Track #2", "Track #3", etc. without having to edit the title for each file. The drag-and-drop file editing feature makes it extremely easy to assign the same (or sequential) tags to whole groups of files at once by dragging and dropping the whole group of files onto the UTagIt window, or by dropping the files one at a time in the order desired. UTagIt will add ID3v1 tags to the file if they do not already exist.
Main Screen
The UTagIt main screen is shown below.
The title bar will display the name of the currently open MP3 file, if any.
The radio buttons along the top select one of four modes of operation. These modes are described in detail below.
The track, genre, title, artist, album, year, and comment fields are for editing the MP3 tags.
The Update check boxes next to each edit field enable the corresponding edit fields when in Edit, Update, or Auto Update modes.
The Inc check boxes enable auto incrementing of numeric fields in the corresponding edit fields when in Update or Auto Update modes.
The Update button is used to save changes to the MP3 tags. The Update button is not used in View mode because no changes can be made to tags in view mode. The Update button is not needed in Auto Update mode, unless changes to the MP3 tags are made after opening a file. See the detailed description under Modes of Operation.
The On Top check box makes the UTagIt window stay on top of other windows on your screen.
While files can be opened by selecting File|Open from the menu, it is usually easier to simply drag-and-drop the file(s) onto the UTagIt window from Windows Explorer, or your Linux file manager.
Modes of Operation
UTagIt supports four modes of operation. Edit is used to edit the tags of one file at a time. View is used to view the current tags, but they cannot be changed. Update is used to replace one or more specified tags in a single file with new values. The new values may be fixed or can be auto-incremented. Auto Update is used to replace one or more specified tags in a whole group of files with new values.
Edit
In Edit mode the current values of the tags will be displayed when the file is opened. Only tags with the Update check box checked may be changed. This protects the other tags from being changed by mistake, and makes it quicker to use the Tab key to move to the fields that are to be changed. Auto Increment is disabled in Edit mode. After changing the tags, the new tags must be saved by clicking the Update button.
View
In View mode the current values of the tags will be displayed when the file is opened. However, all edit fields are disabled, and nothing can be changed. The Update button is disabled in View mode.Update
In Update mode the tags with the Update boxes checked will be replaced with the new tags as entered. When a file is opened in Update mode, the tags with the Update boxes unchecked will show the current tags. They will, however, be grayed out indicating that they cannot be changed. The tags with the Update boxes checked will retain the new tags as entered by the user. Clicking the Update button will save the new tags. Update mode is useful for replacing specified tags with new values on several files without having to type the new values in more than once.
Also, in Update mode the Auto Increment feature is enabled. The rightmost numeric field in a tag will be incremented after saving the tag to a file if the Inc box is checked. For example, a comment of "Jazz file 1" will increment to "Jazz file 2", "Jazz file 3", ... "Jazz file 100" (adding as many digits as necessary). This makes it easy to assign sequential track numbers, or sequentially numbered titles or comments. Note that the Genre and Year cannot be auto incremented.
Auto Update
Auto Update mode is very similar to Update mode. There are only two differences. First, in Auto Update mode a file is saved (updated) with the new tag values immediately after it is opened. This makes it unnecessary to click the Update button, provided the new tags were entered properly before the file was opened. Of course if you change the new tags after opening the file, you still have to click Update. Second, Auto Update mode allows updating multiple files at once by dragging and dropping groups of files onto the UTagIt window (or selecting multiple files in the File|Open dialog box). This makes it very easy, for example, to assign the Artist, Album, and Year tags to a whole group of files at once.
The Auto Increment feature is enabled in Auto Update mode as well. Please note that when dragging and dropping multiple files, there is no way to predict the order in which the files will be processed. It is impossible to know, for example, in what order sequential track numbers will be assigned. However, by dragging and dropping the files one at a time the track numbers will be assigned in the desired order. Auto Update is still the fastest way to accomplish this task because you don't need to click the Update button to save the new tags.
Examples
Simple Editing
To simply edit the tags of an MP3 file, use edit mode. Drag-and-drop the file onto the UTagIt window, or open the file with the File|Open menu. Check all the Update boxes to enable editing of all tags, or check the Update boxes for only the tag(s) you want to change. This makes it quicker to Tab from field to field. Click Update to save the changes.
View Tags
Use View mode to view the tags without any danger of changing them accidentally. The tags will be displayed, but cannot be changed.Replace Selected Tags
To replace selected tags on several files, enable Update mode. Check the Update boxes only for the tags to be replaced (for example Genre, Artist, Album, and Year). Enter the new tag data. Then drag-and-drop files one by one onto the UTagIt window, and click Update to confirm the change. Or enable Auto Update and drag-and-drop files one by one, or whole groups of files at once. But be careful. The tags are updated immediately with no need to click Update to confirm the change.
Assign Tags and Sequential Track Numbers
To assign new tags and sequential track numbers to a set of files, select Auto Update mode. Check the Update boxes only for the tags to be replaced (for example Genre, Artist, Album, Year, and Track). Check the Auto Increment box for the Track tag to be assigned sequential numbers. Enter the new tag data for all tags to be changed. For the Track, enter the first track number (probably "1"). Then drag-and-drop the MP3 files one at a time onto the UTagIt window in the order in which you want the track numbers assigned. There is no need to click Update in Auto Update mode, and the track number (or other auto incrementing tag) will be assigned sequential numbers in the order in which you drop the files.
Copy SelectedTags from one MP3 file to another
To copy selected ID3v1 tags from one MP3 file to another, first select View mode. Open the MP3 file with the tags you want to copy by dragging and dropping the file onto the UTagIt window. Then select Update mode, and check the Update boxes only on the tags you want to copy. Then drag-and drop the file you want to copy the selected tags to onto the UTagIt window and click Update. Of course you can also use Auto Update mode, in which case you do not need to click Update.