Chapter 4

Tracking Scene Elements with Metadata

In This Chapter

Introducing metadata

Finding your way through the Meta-Data section

Modifying the Label and Status fields

Applying Label and Status values to items

Getting the most out of Label colors

Metadata might sound like a character out of Star Trek, but in Scrivener, it’s the set of data associated with each item you add to your project, whether the item is a document, a folder, an image, or a web archive.

Metadata can be anything. For example, if you were an item in your project’s Binder, some of your metadata might include your birthdate, your phone number, mailing address, hair color, shoe size, or favorite cartoon character.

At the most basic level, metadata includes the title of an item, its Synopsis text, and the associated image, if any. It even includes the word count and word count target (which you can find out how to set in Chapter 14).

In the Inspector, Scrivener provides a default set of fields, of which the first two — Label and Status — can be customized. Beyond that, Scrivener also allows you to create additional fields through custom metadata and keywords (boldly go to Chapter 5 for more on creating fields).

Want to track the revision status for each document in your project? Metadata is the answer. Or maybe you want to track the character’s point of view in which each scene is written. You guessed it: Metadata works for that task, too. In this chapter, you can find out what you need to know to make metadata work for you.