Audacity Forum

How do I change the order of the metadata tags?

I realize that I cannot delete or in some other fashion manipulate the standard tag. I also realize that they appear on top of the tags I create myself. (However, I would really prefer if I could get rid of them, but that's another discussion).

When I create new tags they will arrange themselves in an order I do not understand (some are alphabetically ordered, but some are not). Moreover, I do not understand how to change the order of these tags.

Attached is a print screen of how the tags are ordered to me (my tags are in Swedish). As could be seen the standard tags are on top, thereafter my tags are listed, ordered in some peculiar way.

The custom tags may not be relevant. Do they appear at all in your media player when you open the exported file?

No they do not appear. But that's not my purpose with the tags. My aim is to use the tags for my own database, i.e. as information in a private archive. I record bird sounds and use Audacity for editing. I also use Audacity when listening to the sounds, since I then simultaneously are able to study the sonagram. It is helpful to access the metadata information when editing and listening and to also be able to customize the order of the tags.

But there's maybe better ideas on how to save metadata?

Something similar that I've done in the past: Given that an Audacity project has multiple parts (the .aup file and the _data folder), I'd put the entire project (both parts) into a folder and add a text file with relevant information about the project. This has the benefit that the information is available without having to load the project into Audacity. It is also easier to transfer data from a plain text file into other apps (such as a database) than from Metadata, and there is no limit on the amount (or type) of data that is included if you just bundle the whole lot into a folder.

Thanks for the suggestion on how to arrange for metadata registration! However, I have not up until, now used projects in Audacity, so I guess I have to look into that.

It looks like if you open the .aup file with Notepad, all of the tags you gave values to are listed at the top. You can copy and paste into another document as Steve suggested instead of re-typing. Just be sure not to change the .aup file.

That's right! Very helpful! Thanks for pointing that out.