Project Metadata, like projecttitle and author name can be accessed for compile time inclusion with a syntax like <$projecttitle>. Is there any way to do something similar with Custom Metadata? So, I would like to insert the value of a custom metadata field, for example, StartDate, into the text at compile time. <$StartDate> just gets printed out as is.
On a similar note, is there anyway to search for a particular value of a custom metadata field? I have a custom metadata field called POV. Can I somehow search for a specific value in that field? This would be cool, since I could then search for POV value ‘Karus’ and find all the files that have Karus as the POV character and put them in a collection. The best I can come up with for this is to use outline mode and sort on the POV field. I know I can search for ‘Karus’ in metadata only, but that doesn’t restrict the search to only the POV field.
The formation for custom meta-data is <$custom:fieldName>, however as with all of the meta-data fields, such as <$label> and <$keywords>, they pull their information from the current document. There is no way to store this information globally, in the same fashion that <$projecttitle> is. This excludes its usage from areas of the compiler that aren’t printing item specific information, such as page headers & footers and separators.
But, if what you want is something that would or could be located in one of the files set to compile, then yes, you could type <$custom:startDate> into the document and then set the meta-data for that document to the date that should be printed.
By the way the placeholders are documented in the “Placeholder tags list” in the Help menu.
The latter tool you describe is the only one that exists. There is no per field custom meta-data searching at this time. As you note, sorting can be a valuable tool for narrowing down search results for the time being. There are a few things in the upcoming upgrade that may help as well (including dramatically improved sorting times).
On a Windows installation, I’m not getting the content of my tag, only my tagname… i.e., <$custom:mytagname>
Here is what I’m doing:
I created a custom metadata field called “chapnum” that I give to my Folder elements (which represent my chapters)
I number these in order
When I want to output a particular chapter for workshop review, I select to include the Folder element and the sub documents (scenes).
In the compiler settings, I go to Formatting, then click on the “Level 1+” row, then choose “Section Layout…”
In the box, I type:
Chapter <$custom:chapnum>
But the tag does not replace/compile down to the content of the metadata.
NOTE: I know this a terribly static way to codify the chapter order, so if there is a better way to do it, please tell me. What I am trying to do is to retain the proper numbering of my chapters if I output a single chapter from later in the project. If I output only chapter 22, for instance, I want the heading to read “Chapter Twenty-Two” instead of “Chapter One”. I know the <$w> and <$W> placeholders are supposed to do this, but they reset to “1” if I’m only compiling a single chapter. It seems there is maybe a way to do this with the <$hn> placeholder, but I’m not seeing it.
Sorry… just realized I posed a Windows question in the Mac forum. (And in the meanwhile, also found a large portion of the answer I needed.) I will move the rest of what I am trying to do into a new thread on the Windows forum.
Tim, did you ever get an answer to your question? I’m trying to achieve something similar in Windows Scrivener – custom chapter headings – and I’m afraid it may not be available in the Windows version. The user manual doesn’t list either the <$img> or <$custom> Placeholder Tags.
