diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 25b514a..ada2f84 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -19,12 +19,22 @@ installation
 usage
 -----
 
-assuming you have a file named ``episode_42.mp3``, ``mp3chaps`` looks for a chapter marks file called ``episode_42.chapters.txt`` in the same directory::
+assuming you have a file named ``episode_42.mp3``, ``mp3chaps`` looks for a chapter marks file called ``episode_42.chapters.txt`` in the same directory.
+
+**Important**: File must be encoded in your system default file format, e.g. ANSI for Windows and UTF-8 for Unix
+
+either::
 
     00:00:00.000 Introduction
     00:02:00.000 Chapter Title
     00:42:24.123 Chapter Title
 
+or (Audacity export format, separated by tab, contains 2x start time in seconds of the chapter)::
+
+    0.000000	0.000000	Chapter 1
+    85.180378	85.180378	Chapter 2
+    543.822379	543.822379	Chapter 3 - spaces are allowed as you like
+
 add chapter marks
 -----------------
 add (import) chapter marks from text file (unexpected results may occur if chapters already exist, for best results remove chapters first with -r)
diff --git a/mp3chaps.py b/mp3chaps.py
index 328ed98..9511bb2 100755
--- a/mp3chaps.py
+++ b/mp3chaps.py
@@ -37,8 +37,18 @@ def parse_chapters_file(fname):
   chaps = []
   with open(chapters_fname, "r") as f:
     for line in f.readlines():
-      time, title = line.split()[0], " ".join(line.split()[1:])
-      chaps.append((to_millisecs(time), title))
+      if '\t' in line:
+        #assume we have audacity format
+        # e.g. "85.180378<\t>85.180378<\t>Chapter 1"
+        # (<time in seconds> <tab> <time in seconds> <tab> <chapter name>
+        time, title = line.split('\t')[0], line.split('\t')[2].strip()
+        chaps.append((float(time) * 1000, title))
+      else:
+        #previous format
+        # e.g. 00:15:00.000 Chapter 1
+        # (<hh:mm:ss.ms> <Chapter name>)
+        time, title = line.split()[0], " ".join(line.split()[1:])
+        chaps.append((to_millisecs(time), title))
   return chaps
 
 def add_chapters(tag, fname):