What if we did go to a two-stage approach with a scrolling form style interface with pulldowns with just the most used and basic set of metadata on the first stage and an advanced button to load the current metadata editor, updated with any changes on the first form.
If we did that, then what information should appear on the first form (it could even be an html form that is create on the fly and loaded in a Preview-like tool).
book main title
book secondary title
book series number
book series title
primary language pulldown
secondary language pulldown
author1 with file-as
author2 with file-as
author3 with file-as
contributor1 with associated role pulldown
contributor2 with associated role pulldown
contributor3 with associated role pulldown
subject
keywords
description bigger box supporting html markup
identifier1 with pull down for identification type
identifier2 with pull down for identification type
publication date
and what else?
How about that approach?
Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
I like the table-based metadata editor more, as well. But I also understand (and agree with) the reasons it is the way it is now. It's just a bit unfortunate that the metadata editor is a bit of a catch-22 in its current state. It offers a way to edit metadata in a wysiwyg manner, but using it effectively means that a fairly thorough understanding of metadata specifications and their various hierarchies is sort of a pre-requisite. And having a fairly thorough understanding of metadata specifications and their various hierarchies can mean that manually editing the opf to add metadata might actually be simpler.
But the bottom line for me is that I don't think there's a solution for a wysiwyg metadata editor for epub3 that would appeal to those already knowledgeable and would also be intuitive enough for a novice to navigate.
In other words: the easier it is, the less it can do; and the more it can do, the less useful it becomes to those who understand its use. *shrug*
That's not meant to dismiss the suggestion at all. But then I don't use the new metadata editor any more than (or less) than I did the previous one.  |