# Custom export file with Mendeley tags?

**URL:** <https://discourse.jabref.org/t/custom-export-file-with-mendeley-tags/2112>\
**Category:** Help\
**Created:** [May 20, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/custom-export-file-with-mendeley-tags/2112 "2020-05-20T13:31:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Sophie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@Sophie](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Sophie)\
**Post date:** [May 20, 2020, 1:31pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/custom-export-file-with-mendeley-tags/2112/1 "2020-05-20T13:31:07Z")

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I am having trouble exporting a specific field (Mendeley tags) from my Jabref library.

Following the link below, I exported from Mendeley to Bibtex and imported into Jabref. The Mendeley tags field shows up in my library fine:

> **[exporting Mendeley tags to csv or xls](https://cynthiadangelo.com/2012/10/22/exporting-mendeley-tags/?unapproved=17631&moderation-hash=45db3316a0636c996e7ded377fd2e578#comment-17631)**
>
> I recently was struggling with a data problem, one that I hadn’t anticipated being so … annoying. I eventually found a solution, and thought I would share it so others wouldn’t ha…

I have created a custom export file as follows to try to extract details including Mendeley tags from my Jabref library:

\format[GetOpenOfficeType]{\bibtextype},"\begin{isbn}\isbn\end{isbn}","\bibtexkey","\format[AuthorLastFirst,AuthorAndsReplacer]{\author}","\format[RemoveBrackets,RemoveWhitespace]{\title}","\journal",\volume,\number,"\month","\pages",\year,"\booktitle","\chapter","\edition","\series","\format[AuthorLastFirst,AuthorAndsReplacer]{\editor}","\publisher","\Annote", “\mendeley-tags”

However, the “\mendeley-tags” doesn’t seem to be working - the exported file is complete except data from the tags field is missing: excel shows “=-tags” in most columns. I’ve also tried “\mendeleytags” which results in a completely empty column.

The Mendeley-tags field in Jabref contains commas - perhaps this could be the issue? Does anyone have any suggestions?

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**Author:** ![Siedlerchr](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/siedlerchr/32/216_2.png) [@Siedlerchr](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/Siedlerchr)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/custom-export-file-with-mendeley-tags/2112/2 "2020-05-21T18:41:03Z")

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Hi,

thanks for reporting that issue, you found a bug in JabRef. I could reproduce this myself. Apparently fields with a minus sign e.g. mendeley-tags will not be recgonized correctly.

Edit// After investigating further, I found that the minus behavior is used used formatting edition field like 2-th edition.

As a workaround, I found out that underscore works.  
In your layout file change `mendeley-tags` to `mendeley_tags`  
Now open your bib file with a text editor and do a search and replace from `mendeley-tags` to `mendeley_tags`  
Then the next time you export, it will work correctly.

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**Author:** ![k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.jabref.org/k3kaw8pnf7mkmdsmphz2/32/1116_2.png) [@k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2](https://discourse.jabref.org/u/k3KAW8Pnf7mkmdSMPHz2)\
**Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 2:00pm UTC](https://discourse.jabref.org/t/custom-export-file-with-mendeley-tags/2112/3 "2021-05-28T14:00:19Z")

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@Siedlerchr in case someone else (re-)encounters this topic.  
“formatters” allow more characters in the field name. The example with `mendeley-tags` can be “solved” using the `Default` formattor with an empty argument

```auto
\format[Default()]{\mendeley-tags}

```