Bug 515019

While I like the template function in general, it’s pretty frustrating not being able to overwrite their according fields in the Information View panel, like I can do it e. g. in the Description panel inputs.

Firstly, it contradicts the expected convention of being presented with input fields that work in fact like read-only output fields; secondly, the design is often simply impractical. Let me illustrate this with two examples:

Coming back from travelling and importing a few hundred photos to metatag them after is straightforward, except for several fields like XMP:CountryCode, XMP:Country, XMP:State, XMP:City and XMP:Location, as they are only accessible by templates. So if there are several cities with dozens of locations, you have to either create many of them or edit them one by one before you attach the data to the according images. While fields like XMP:Creator will seldomly change very much and are therefore particularly suitable for templates, the opposite is true for the aforementioned location fields.

Or I realize I’ve made a typo in a template. To correct it, I have to change and reassign the template, instead of simply being able to overwrite it in the input field.

It would be better to view templates more as fill-in aids, allowing us to quickly and consistently fill in fields, but to overwrite the content for one or more photos at any time, as it is easily possible in Description panel.