Add Multiple Select Option to Multiple Records

[Meredith_Winner]

Hi there,
I’m new to airtable! I have a huge list of contacts that I need to categorize. I am using the drop down Multiple Select Field tool to create “Tags.”

I have over 2,000 contact and airtable is only allowing me to select one contact at a time. Is there a way to select 100s of contacts and batch them all as the same tag?

Thanks!
Meredith

[Olly_L]

There are a couple of options for this.

You can select a set of options and then Copy/Paste them into multiple contacts at once. This can be useful but will “Overwrite” any previous options.

You can also use a formula to create a comma separated list, paste this in and it will select the appropriate options.

So:

• Let’s say you have 1000 records, with a Multiple select field called Multiple with a bunch of options already selected.
• Identify 30 that you want to add a new “Tag” to in the Multiple select field.
• Create a new Single line text field called ‘Tag to be added’, add the “Tag” as text into the field for the 30 records
• Create a Formula field with the formula: {Multiple} & ", " & {Tag to be added}
• Copy and paste the result of the Formula field into the Multiple select field…

Does that work?

[Meredith_Winner]

Thanks Olly_L!

So I already have all of these contacts into a base and have about 400 of the 2,000+ tagged.

Would option 2 make the tags I’ve already done disappear?

Ie: I need to select 600 records and use the Multiple select field option of “Videographer” - I need to select 400 more that should be labeled “Corporate Clients” - I just want to make sure I understand this all correctly. My tags in the multiple select tool are already set up?

[Olly_L]

Option 2 (the bullet pointed list) is a way to add tags to a bunch of records without overriding the previous tags.

The formula would create a new comma separated list, something like old tag 1, old tag 2, new tag.

When you paste this into the multiple select field it will paste in each comma separated item as a tag, which will be all the old tags and the new one.

[Nick_Cochran]

This is one of those archaic things in Airtable that should be fixed. Something as simple as a special paste.

For the interim, piggybacking off Olly's answer from 2 years ago, if you don't have any tags in the field then you're left with a comma.

To fix that:

IF({Tags}="", 
      {Tags to add},
      IF({Tags to add}, {Tags} & ", " & {Tags to add})
)

[Carla_Gonzalez1]

@dashler78 please know that this feature not being easily available is the reason our company won't use Airtable for our database. You should be able to add a tag in multiple selected records in one easy click!

[julienava]

The easiest formula is this one: 

IF({Tags}="", {Tags to add}, {Tags} & ", " & {Tags to add})

so to resume :

1. Create single text field "Tags to add"
2. Create formula field "XXX" with formula written above
3. Write your tags to add in "Tags to add"
4. Now paste the formula field into the Tags field, overwriting it