Posts: 7
Threads: 3
Joined: Oct 2020
Reputation:
0
10-31-2020, 04:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-31-2020, 04:33 PM by babahu.)
I have a spreadsheet with all my songs and various data like that stored in the Library. Is there anyway to quickly import all this info?
(I'm able to export a list that I can make into a spreadsheet which gave me the idea how nice it would be to go the other way. The spreadsheet is easy to input, change lots of things, search and replace, etc, and sort by various parameters.)
Posts: 13,303
Threads: 301
Joined: Apr 2012
Reputation:
234
Unfortunately, no, there isn't a way to import data from a spreadsheet at the moment. This is something I will consider supporting in the future, although supporting excel files is very difficult and usually requires expensive third party libraries. I could support a simpler format like CSV though.
Mike
Posts: 1,859
Threads: 287
Joined: Sep 2014
Reputation:
32
CSV to/from Excel can be converted easily in both directions. The main limit of the currently existing CSV features are that every CSV file corresponds only to one single PDF file. CSV import is mainly intended to import PDF fakebooks.
Posts: 13,303
Threads: 301
Joined: Apr 2012
Reputation:
234
That's basically the nature of the change I would need to make - to support a different format for the CSV that allows each song in the CSV to be tied to a specific file instead of just one. I'm not sure if I'll just add a new required column to support this, or modify it so that you can specify a file before each group of songs, and until a new file is encountered in the file, all of those songs will use that same file. Having to specify the file on each line would be more "csv-like", but is extremely redundant if most of the songs are tied to just a few files.
Mike
Posts: 1,046
Threads: 112
Joined: Dec 2015
Reputation:
11
Thanks for considering this long standing request again.
I think a new column is the better way even if it can be redundant. As you said it's more csv-like and you can mix and sort the lines
and always see which one belongs to which pdf.
Posts: 7
Threads: 3
Joined: Oct 2020
Reputation:
0
Actually my original comment had to do with making a "fakebook" compliation where all my many cover songs have been in text format which converts to CSV when imported iinto Excel. Thus if MS allowed using a CSV that would be perfect.
Both the free Libre Office or Open Office can convert back and forth from Excel, CSV and open office format.
My wish is to have the CSV contain all the data for each song (columns) with one row for each song.
Posts: 7
Threads: 3
Joined: Oct 2020
Reputation:
0
That is very helpful for songs already in MS. I'm new to all this but learning fast.
My main interest is to use a laptop generated CSV to enter all the metadata into the MS Library, i.e. import a ton of PDFs and text files and then fill the Library with all the connections, keys, titles, etc. I'm a lot faster using a keyboard on a laptop than tapping on a tablet with rudimentary editing / sorting capabilities.
For instance, the composer and artist on many of my covers is the same but I have to enter the name twice, once for each field. It doesn't pull the name from one field to the other. This is easy to do on a spreadsheet.
Posts: 1,046
Threads: 112
Joined: Dec 2015
Reputation:
11
Nope, read itsme's post again. The csv import *is* for getting new songs/PDF into MSP with your metadata from a spreadsheet. You have to adjust your format of course and you have to put some effort in it (believe me I know; i've spent hours to hone my library) but I'm pretty sure it's what you are looking for. It's a kind of batch import.
It's the other way round: It's not possible (or at least not in a convienient way) to populate existing songs in MSP with metadata from an external spreadsheet.
Posts: 13,303
Threads: 301
Joined: Apr 2012
Reputation:
234
Updating existing songs is something I'm going to have to add support for. I know several users have requested support for that.
Mike