Here is a simple example of what I have been describing. The project has two articles, structured as a folder to represent each article with subdocuments containing the text. The metadata for each article is given to the folder itself, which is responsible for printing the metadata block. I’ve placed keywords and the custom field in the outliner for ease of use and reference. You can also see the blur, as a synopsis, for each folder.
Now in the compile settings, if you click on the “Section” layout at the top of the preview column, you’ll see the two article headings highlighted. These are the items the custom crafted metadata block will be pulling from. In this sense, it is similar to when you went into Section Layouts and ticked the “Metadata” checkbox—those items using this layout will print metadata.
Of course the difference is that instead of using the stock “Metadata” block, we’ve designed our own to look the way we want, to use preferred field names and only those fields we want. To see where this is done, double-click on the “Metadata Example” compile format, and check out the “Heading” layout. In the “Prefix” tab is this block of metadata. Again all of this will be pulled from the binder item that uses this layout directly.
So from your perspective, in terms of usage of the project, you aren’t directly concerning yourself with metadata blocks in the binder—that is a function of how the binder will be exported. You simply use the GUI normally to add metadata as you use it.
The one other notable thing is that in the project’s compile settings itself I removed all metadata fields. Presumably the output will be a series of articles, meant to be split up by the script. Each article has its own metadata—we don’t want a block at the very top of the file.
custom_metadata_block.zip (96.1 KB)