[digiKam-users] Continuing with metadata templates

[James Orr]

I've seldom used metadata templates. It has always appeared to me that I 
could enter data and modify data from the INFORMATION tab in the 
CAPTIONS option on the rights side panel. Based on recent discussions, 
I've been surprised to learn that this is not so.

Apparently, DigiKam is following advice like this from Carl Siebert:

    ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS use your template! DO NOT try to type
    repetitive values. I don’t care how well you type. The photographer
    who can type his or her name 100,000 times in a row with perfect
    consistency hasn’t been born yet.

        https://www.carlseibert.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/iptc_fields_for_photographers_download_V1.1.pdf

(BTW, this is a useful summary of important fields that DigiKam includes 
and nowhere that I could find describes either clearly or succinctly, 
assuming perhaps that it common knowledge what they all mean.)

I have used a template to annotate photos taken in Greece, for example. 
I was able to select a large group and apply the template to all of them 
in a few clicks (open the list of templates, select the one I wanted, 
populate the universe, then APPLY.) I would very much have liked after 
this to modify subgroups with the specific location, for example, some 
Athens, some Thessaloniki and so on. I found that I had to go to the 
METADATA TEMPLATES list, find the one for Greece and edit it. The press 
REPLACE. Then press OK (otherwise, no save). Then apply that template 
within the INFORMATION tab. Although effective, this seemed to me to 
carry the ALWAYS USE THE TEMPLATE to extremes. Enabling on-the-fly 
editing within the INFORMATION tab seems to be a useful feature to 
augment the use of templates.
-- 
James M. Orr 2705 E Sussex Way Fresno, CA 93726
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