5.6: Reviewing Assigned Metadata

Sometimes you need to see the metadata assigned to many files at once -- for instance, to determine how many files are left to work on, or to get some idea of the spread of dates.

Select the files in the Collection Tree you wish to examine, then right-click and choose "Assigned Metadata...". A window called "All Metadata", dominated by a large table with many columns, appears. The first column shows file names; the rows show all metadata values assigned to those files.

Drawing the table can take some time if many files are selected. You can continue to use the Librarian Interface while the "All Metadata" window is open.

When it gets too large, you can filter the "All Metadata" table by applying filters to the columns. As new filters are added, only those rows that match them remain visible. To set, modify or clear a filter, click on the "funnel" icon at the top of a column. You are prompted for information about the filter. Once a filter is set, the column header changes colour.

The filter prompt has a "Simple" and an "Advanced" tab. The Simple version filters columns so that they only show rows that contain a certain metadata value ("*" matches all values). You can select metadata values from the pull-down list. The Advanced version allows different matching operations: must start with, does not contain, alphabetically less than and is equal to. The value to be matched can be edited to be any string (including "*"), and you can choose whether the matching should be case insensitive. Finally, you can specify a second matching condition that you can use to specify a range of values (by selecting AND) or alternative values (by selecting OR). Below this area is a box that allows you to change the sort order (ascending or descending). Once you have finished, click "Set Filter" to apply the new filter to the column. Click "Clear Filter" to remove a current filter. Note that the filter details are retained even when the filter is cleared.

For example, to sort the "All Metadata" table, choose a column, select the default filter setting (a Simple filter on "*"), and choose ascending or descending ordering.