diff --git a/docs/faq.rst b/docs/faq.rst
index e36b589bb..db1a00e59 100644
--- a/docs/faq.rst
+++ b/docs/faq.rst
@@ -225,6 +225,61 @@ If you've already moved your music *outside* of beets, you have a few options:
 - Resort to manually modifying the SQLite database (not recommended).
 
 
+.. _modify-selected:
+
+…modify a couple of songs without difficult query?
+--------------------------------------------------
+
+If you want to modify some items in your library but do not want to spend much time
+on a query matching all but not more than those songs, you can create a simple query
+and select the items afterwards.
+
+Let's say you want to tag all your songs of the album "Conspiracy of One" with some
+self-defined field but you do not like the intro. With
+``beet modify -w mysongs=true Conspiracy of one`` will print::
+
+        Modifying 14 items.
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Intro
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Come Out Swinging
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Original Prankster
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Want You Bad
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Million Miles Away
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Dammit, I Changed Again
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Living \in Chaos
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Special Delivery
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - One Fine Day
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - All Along
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Denial, Revisited
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Vultures
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Conspiracy of One
+          mysongs: true
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - Huck It
+          mysongs: true
+        Really modify, move and write tags? (Yes/no/select) 
+
+If you hit ``s`` beet will ask you for each item in the list whether
+you want to apply changes::
+
+        The Offspring - Conspiracy of One - All Along
+          mysongs: true
+        Really modify, move and write tags? (yes/no)
+
+If you now say ``y`` to all items but for Intro you will modify all
+songs in the list but Intro.
+
+
 Why does beets…
 ===============
 
diff --git a/docs/reference/cli.rst b/docs/reference/cli.rst
index b2683cd86..f558deb8c 100644
--- a/docs/reference/cli.rst
+++ b/docs/reference/cli.rst
@@ -227,7 +227,8 @@ modify
 ``````
 ::
 
-    beet modify [-MWay] QUERY [FIELD=VALUE...] [FIELD!...]
+    beet modify [-MWay] [-f FORMAT] QUERY [FIELD=VALUE...] [FIELD!...]
+    beet mod [-MWay] [-f FORMAT] QUERY [FIELD=VALUE...] [FIELD!...]
 
 Change the metadata for items or albums in the database.
 
@@ -242,8 +243,11 @@ individual tracks. Items will automatically be moved around when necessary if
 they're in your library directory, but you can disable that with ``-M``. Tags
 will be written to the files according to the settings you have for imports,
 but these can be overridden with ``-w`` (write tags, the default) and ``-W``
-(don't write tags).  Finally, this command politely asks for your permission
-before making any changes, but you can skip that prompt with the ``-y`` switch.
+(don't write tags).  Finally, this command politely prints a list of all
+affected items in the library and asks for your permission before making any
+changes. You can then select if you want to abort the change with n, confirm
+with y or you can select items to apply the changes with s (see 
+:ref:`modify-selected`). But you can skip that prompt with the ``-y`` switch.
 
 .. _move-cmd: