# Partially edit the "OPC Item Path" for multiple tags at the same time

**URL:** <https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/partially-edit-the-opc-item-path-for-multiple-tags-at-the-same-time/19039>\
**Category:** Ignition\
**Created:** [July 31, 2018, 10:19pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/partially-edit-the-opc-item-path-for-multiple-tags-at-the-same-time/19039 "2018-07-31T22:19:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GreggCava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@GreggCava](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/GreggCava)\
**Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 10:19pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/partially-edit-the-opc-item-path-for-multiple-tags-at-the-same-time/19039/1 "2018-07-31T22:19:01Z")

</div>

Is there a quick way to partially edit the “OPC Item Path” for multiple tags at the same time?

We have multiple similar machines, for some tag properties, such as, “OPC Server” or “Scan class” you select multiple tags, open the Tag Editor, select the new property and hit OK and Done, all tags are updated with the new setting.

However if you want to only partially edit a property, in our case the “OPC Item Path” we need to do it manually one by one, for example a tag has this path “ns=1;s=[DeviceName]PLC\_Tag\_Address”, is there a way to replace only the “DeviceName” for multiple tags at the same time.

Thanks and Regards,

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![0sm0](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/0sm0/32/15228_2.png) [@0sm0](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/0sm0)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 1:39am UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/partially-edit-the-opc-item-path-for-multiple-tags-at-the-same-time/19039/2 "2018-08-01T01:39:34Z")

</div>

Export the tags to XML,  
Open XML in Notepad etc…  
Find/Replace  
Import back in

Very quick, I do this when moving from a test bench using Rslinx OPC DA (due to using an emulator) to production setup using the Ignition OPC UA

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GreggCava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@GreggCava](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/GreggCava)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 12:11pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/partially-edit-the-opc-item-path-for-multiple-tags-at-the-same-time/19039/3 "2018-08-01T12:11:58Z")

</div>

I will try that, I assume when importing the XML file, the tags will be overwritten instead of duplicated?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![0sm0](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/0sm0/32/15228_2.png) [@0sm0](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/0sm0)\
**Post date:** [August 1, 2018, 9:40pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/partially-edit-the-opc-item-path-for-multiple-tags-at-the-same-time/19039/4 "2018-08-01T21:40:58Z")

</div>

Yeh they will be overwritten unless you change the tags name.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![GreggCava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@GreggCava](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/GreggCava)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/partially-edit-the-opc-item-path-for-multiple-tags-at-the-same-time/19039/5 "2018-08-02T15:19:39Z")

</div>

> Yeh they will be overwritten unless you change the tags name.

It worked like as desired. For some things, I've been using the export/import functions, but using CSV files to be able to easily edit PLC addresses in excel, but doing it this way you loose part of the tag configuration. I knew there was the XML option, but never explored that much, for some reason my brain don't like editing XML files in a text editor.

Thank you!