Tags to metadata

Is there a way to convert nested tags to metadata fields? For example, if I have a top-level tag called “People” that includes 100 nested tags with Joe, Ed, John, Susie, etc. Could I create a custom metadata category called “people” and via smartrule copy the nested tags to the metadata category? So for document A, metadata “People” would now say “Joe, Susie” if that document had been tagged with those names? Basically I’m trying to find out if there’s a way to automatically pull tag data into custom metadata.

I’m tempted to say “you can script that”, but I’m sure @BLUEFROG or @cgrunenberg will come up with a smart rule that does just what you want.

I’m also tempted to ask why you’d want to duplicate metadata (and tags are metadata, too) that way.

i’d prefer to just have the metadata and not the tags, but the tags are easier - i.e. i highlight a word, press a shortcut, and it automatically tags every document w/ that term. also, not every program will have custom metadata so tags would be a good backup if i ever needed to use something else.

Although a smart rule can be used to assign the tags to custom metadata, this would include the top level tag too and the tags are sorted. Therefore the result would like like Joe, People or People, Susie. Therefore scripting is probably the best option.