Please, give us back old metadata tab!

[semsaudade]

I had to go back to version 0.93, because new Metadata Tab is almost unusable. It is very difficult to read values in fields and change them. Old version was perfect! Why did you change it?

[DiapDealer]

Please, give us back old metadata tab!

The short answer is no. Get used to the new or stay with the old. We changed it because it the old couldn't work with EPUB3.

This is not up for debate; there will be no going back.

[KevinH]

IMO, The new metadata tab is very useable. In many ways for epub2 it is similar to what was there previously. Both the old version and new version are resizeable tables. The fields themselves as the same size as on the older table aporoach (same font size used, etc).

In the old version, all properties of a metadata tab were fixed into columns but that limited things in many ways. In the new version, you add the tag and then add any properties you want as its children.

To help speed things up there are simple ways to add an Author, title and language in one step (just as before) since those are common operations. You can also add empty tags and properties and type in anything you like. Again, just as before.

So what exactly do you find unusable about it? Is it that you are unfamiliar with the tag and property names? Most of these are identical to the previous way.

Either way, the current metadata tool is here to stay. When, epub 3.1s start being asked for by users, a third metadata entry mode can then easily be supported.

[Toxaris]

It is usable, but it might be a tad more friendly/helpful perhaps with some hints/tips with regards to often used metadata. It is not as newbie friendly as the original one was. It is much more powerful though. Always a difficult trade-off.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

It is usable, but it might be a tad more friendly/helpful perhaps with some hints/tips with regards to often used metadata. It is not as newbie friendly as the original one was. It is much more powerful though. Always a difficult trade-off.

That reminds me that an edit plugin that allows newbies to enter/modify to the bare-minimum metadata wouldn't be all that hard to put together.

[Turtle91]

Start with basic options, then have an "advanced options" button??

Just brainstorming - I don't have a dog in this fight because I add metadata manually (mostly)...

[BetterRed]

I can't remember what the old one was like. My niggles with the current one are:

• I can't select and delete multiple items.
• I have to use Ctrl+Del to delete an item, why not plain Del. If you think it is necessary, with an 'R U Sure', providing it has a 'Don't show this again' checkbox.
• I can't tab from the Name to the Value, I have to use the right arrow key.
• If there are veeeeerry long values anywhere (e.g. calibre custom columns) a right arrow to the Value cell hides the Name cell - would be nice if the Name column was locked in place - a'la Excel's Freeze first column.

But I can get by with none of the above

BR

[A1_Priest]

Originally Posted by semsaudade

I had to go back to version 0.93, because new Metadata Tab is almost unusable. It is very difficult to read values in fields and change them. Old version was perfect! Why did you change it?

Under Windows7 Ultimate, Metadata cannot be edited at all!

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by A1_Priest

Under Windows7 Ultimate, Metadata cannot be edited at all!

Not true. I edit metadata with Windows 7 Ultimate all the time.

I also can't see your image with my browser.

[Cyberseeker]

When I click 'Edit' there is no Meta Editor in the menu.

When I click the Meta Editor icon in the menu top bar I get a strange window as shown. What to do with it I have no idea. It doesnt look like whats in the tutorial.

[Toxaris]

That is the metadata editor. The values under name are the metadata names and the value the actual values. With the buttons on the right you can add metadata. To edit the current metadata, you can double click on the values.

The tutorial is out of date. It will be updated, but it takes time.

[JustinThought]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

//snip!!//

Just brainstorming - I don't have a dog in this fight because I add metadata manually (mostly)...

Me too. I tend to be a bit OC about the metadata, so I just use a "fill in the blanks" template and edit directly--using Windows 7 Ultimate, I might add.

[Cyberseeker]

Originally Posted by Toxaris

... To edit the current metadata, you can double click on the values.

Thanks. May I suggest to the developers that the editable values be placed in something more obvious than brackets? A box maybe? Or a popup instruction when moused over?

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Cyberseeker

Thanks. May I suggest to the developers that the editable values be placed in something more obvious than brackets? A box maybe? Or a popup instruction when moused over?

The brackets aren't being used to indicate editability. ALL entries in the metadata editor are editable by double-clicking on their values. The brackets are merely being used to indicate dummy data that needs to be replace with real data.

On a new Epub, Sigil uses the language setting to prepopulate the mandatory Language metadata, but it doesn't know what to put in the mandatory Title metadata, so it prepopulates it with the dummy "[no data]" value.

[exaltedwombat]

We have quite a few users who are scared of code, and prefer to edit their ebooks in Book view. OK, ultimately they're doomed :-) But perhaps make life easier for them by making the dummy data something like 'insert book name'? Similarly for other required fields.