Quickstart

Using Tag Clinic is quite simple, but how to go about it may seem unclear at first because it's not like other taggers.

Here's a couple of example operations. One extracts data from file names into tags. The other renames some files using existing tag data.

Extracting a "Title" into five consecutive tags:

1. Select the five tags: Highlight files 140 through 144 by depressing the left mouse button while it's over number "140," then drag the mouse down through number "144."
2. Extract title text: Move the mouse over to the "Title" column, right-click it anywhere on this column, then choose "Extract 2nd" from the popup menu that appears, as shown above. The second, hyphen-separated block of text in the selected file names is extracted into the Title column. You can define where blocks of text begin and end in the extraction process by choosing a specific "Separator." The "hyphen" is being used as the Separator in the example above, but there are others you can use. To choose another one, select "Separator" from the popup menu shown in the picture, or right-click on the Separator symbol in the Status Bar (at the "big arrow" in the picture), choose another one at Main Menu > Separator, select one on the Separator Toolbar, or you can go to the Rename Page <Alt+R> and select one there.

Once you get familiar with how the extraction process behaves, and how Separators work, you can move on to using the "Auto Extract" option on the popup menu, which allows extraction of data into multiple tag fields at one time. See Name-to-Tag Extractions for a detailed explanation of the extraction process and all of its features.

Renaming three files using existing tag data:

1. Select the three files: Highlight files 2, 3, and 5 by clicking the mouse on each of their three respective row numbers.
2. Extract title text: Right-click anywhere on the editor's surface and choose "Rename" on the popup menu that appears to display a list of available renaming templates. In the picture above, the template "Title - Artist.mp3" has been chosen and the files at rows 2, 3, and 5 have all been renamed from their original "Artist - Title" format to the "Title - Artist" name format.

Don't like the way they came out? Click the Undo Button on the Center Toolbar.

You can create your own renaming templates on the Rename Page <Alt + R>. Templates created there appear as selections on the popup menu above.

Directory Restructuring as you rename:

Want to create new folders from specific tag data, and move your files there as you rename them? Use the Backslash Button as you build the naming template you want on the Rename Page.

As an example, say you want to rename files by Artist - Title, then place them all in subfolders with folder names created from the Genre names contained in their tags. First, clear the Selected Template box with the Clear Button, then select "Genre" from the Build Template drop-list and hit the Add Button. Now append a backslash after "Genre" by clicking the Backslash Button. Next select "Artist" from the drop-list and hit "Add," and then "Title" from the list and hit "Add" again. Now click the Preview Button to see what your new file names will look like, and where they're going to go. You can manually edit previewed names, if desired, by right clicking files on the preview list to bring up a popup menu. Once satisfied, you're ready to rename files by pressing the Rename Button.