Templates are a means of streamlining the .tmm metadata file creation process and avoiding redundant data entry. For any given user, large sections of metadata (in particular, DC metadata) will remain the same across a series of .tmm metadata files. Templates allow the user to store those sections and instantly splice them into metadata files.
For example, at the University of Sydney's Archaeological Computing Laboratory, .tmm metadata files are often associated with large sets of scanned historic maps of Sydney. Across dozens of metadata files, the structure of metadata elements and the content of the Value cells is exactly the same. Instead of manually adding elements to the worksheet and entering the values for each, the following template is constructed...
... and simply inserted into each new .tmm metadata file that refers to a historic map of Sydney. The user then only needs to fill in detail specific to that map, such as the title. If some maps have a larger coverage that just Sydney -- the whole of New South Wales, for example -- another template with different dc.coverage values can be spliced into this worksheet if required.
There is no restriction on the size or content of templates -- they can consist of one element or a complete set of metadata (both DC and TM), with or without Values. Because template files are identical to regular .tmm metadata files, only common restrictions (like being constrained by dropdowns for some values) will apply.
Templates can be inserted over the top of one another freely: if a user inserts a template which will overwrite elements that already appear in the Worksheet, an "Overwrite?" dialogue will appear.
There is no restriction on the size, content or number of templates -- they can consist of one element or a complete set of metadata (both DC and TM), with or without Values.
In the example above, the template files in the DC.Coverage Bounding Boxes directory have the folowing contents, and no more:
