[Feature Request] Human Readable Metadata

[ghost]

At the moment, Manuskript's metadata can be difficult to interpret when opened in another program.

For example, here is a text document with all of the basic fields filled out:

title: First ID: 1 type: md summarySentence:Short summary. summaryFull: Long summary. POV: 0 notes: {W:0:Item}{C:0:John Doe} label: 4 status: 2 compile: 2 setGoal: 500

My concern is with four fields: POV, label, status, and compile. All four of these fields present their information numerically. Manuskript understands this, but when opened in another editor, the context is lost.

In brief, here are what the numbers stand for.

POV: X = {C:X:Character Name}

Label: 1 = Idea 2 = Note 3 = Chapter 4 = Scene 5 = Research X = User created label

Status: 1 = TODO 2 = First draft 3 = Second Draft 4 = Final X = User created status

Compile: 0 = Not included in Compile 2 = Included in Compile

My question is whether it would be possible to render this information in a human readable manner, so instead a document would look something like this this when opened in another editor:

title: First ID: 1 type: md summarySentence:Short summary. summaryFull: Long summary. POV: John Doe notes: {W:0:Item}{C:0:John Doe} label: Scene status: First draft compile: Yes setGoal: 500

Manuskript already has one of the most excellent filing structures for its projects I have ever seen, and as someone whose writing happens all over the place, it is such a pleasure to never have to worry about finding anything.

I understand if this change is not possible, but I thought I would put the request out there.

Thank you.

[worstje]

I had noticed this myself and would not be opposed to see this happen.

But a change like this is likely a breaking change for older versions, so if it is implemented, I reckon it ought to be squashed together with some other changes. (Of which I can think of at least a few.)

If I ever end up undertaking such a project I will keep it in mind. 😄

[TheJackiMonster]

I think the reason for going with numerical IDs instead of readable names is that those identifiers need to be unique to its project and should change as less as possible. IDs will usually generated once during creation of an item and should not change afterwards.

But we could look into it. For example we could also use the file paths of several items instead which are also unique.