How to Review & Edit Metadata
Audience: Archivists — people reviewing, correcting, and curating the structured metadata that Zeuge extracts from contributor responses.
The Metadata tab is where you turn raw contributor responses into a clean, structured, and verified record for each item in your batch. This is the core curation step in the Zeuge workflow.
What Is "Curated Metadata"?
After contributors submit their responses, Zeuge uses AI to extract structured fields from their words:
- Date — when the photo was taken (e.g., "Summer 1989")
- Location — where it was taken (e.g., "Maine beach house")
- People — names of people in or mentioned in the photo
- Tags — themes, objects, or topics (e.g., "beach," "vacation")
- Description — a short factual description of what's shown
- Stories — anecdotes, memories, or narrative context
These automatically extracted values are called "auto" fields. You can review them and override any with your own corrected value — those become "manual" fields and are preserved even if you recompute metadata from scratch.
Step 1 — Open the Metadata Tab
From your batch detail page, click the "Metadata" tab.
📸 [SCREENSHOT: Batch detail page with "Metadata" tab selected — showing the item grid and a selected item's editor panel on the right]
Step 2 — The Metadata View
The Metadata tab has two main areas:
| Area | What It Shows |
|---|---|
| Item grid (left/center) | All items in the batch as thumbnail cards with a brief metadata summary |
| Item editor panel (right) | Full detail view and edit controls for the currently selected item |
Each item card in the grid shows:
- The item thumbnail
- A completeness indicator — how much of the core metadata (date, location, people) has been filled in
- Conflict indicator — if multiple contributors gave conflicting information
- Review status — Unreviewed, Reviewed ✅, or Flagged 🚩
📸 [SCREENSHOT: The metadata grid — showing multiple item cards with completeness indicators and review status badges]
Step 3 — Open an Item for Editing
Click any item thumbnail to open it in the Item Editor Panel on the right side.
The editor shows all six metadata fields. For each field:
- The current value is displayed (if available)
- A source badge shows whether it's "auto" (AI-generated) or "manual" (you edited it)
- An edit button (pencil icon) lets you change the value
📸 [SCREENSHOT: The Item Editor Panel open — showing date, location, people, tags, description, and stories fields with their source badges]
Step 4 — Edit a Field
- Click the pencil icon next to any field.
- An input appears in place of the display value:
- Date, Location, Description, Stories — text input field
- People, Tags — chip input where you type a name/tag and press Enter to add it; click the × to remove one
- Make your changes.
- Click "Save".
The field's source badge will change from "auto" to "manual", and your value is locked in — it won't be overwritten when metadata is recomputed.
📸 [SCREENSHOT: A field in edit mode — showing the text input with current value and the Save button]
Step 5 — Mark Items as Reviewed or Flagged
Once you've verified or corrected an item's metadata:
- Click "Mark reviewed" → the item shows a green ✅ badge. This means you've signed off on it.
- Click "Flag for review" → the item shows a red 🚩 badge. Use this to mark items that need more work, have unresolved conflicts, or require more contributor input.
📸 [SCREENSHOT: The editor panel showing "Mark reviewed" and "Flag for review" buttons]
Step 6 — Resolve Conflicts
If two or more contributors gave different values for the same field (e.g., one says "1985" and another says "1987"), Zeuge flags the item with a conflict indicator and shows the detail in the editor panel.
To resolve a conflict:
- Look for the conflict alert near the affected field (e.g., "⚠️ 2 contributors gave different dates").
- Click "View details" — a breakdown appears showing each contributor's value.
- Choose the value you believe is correct by clicking it, or type your own correct value.
- Save — the field switches to "manual" with your chosen value.
📸 [SCREENSHOT: Conflict alert on the "Date" field, showing two contributor values with "Choose" buttons next to each]
Step 7 — Bulk Actions
To process multiple items at once, use the checkboxes in the item grid:
- Check the box on each item you want to act on (or use "Select all").
- The Bulk Action Bar appears at the top.
- Choose an action:
- Mark as reviewed — marks all selected items as reviewed
- Flag for review — flags all selected items
- Recompute metadata — re-runs the auto-merge algorithm for all selected items (overwrites "auto" fields only; "manual" fields are preserved)
📸 [SCREENSHOT: Bulk action bar appearing with multiple items checked — showing the available actions]
Understanding "Recompute Metadata"
When you click "Recompute metadata" (bulk or full batch), Zeuge re-merges all contributor responses for each item:
- Auto fields — overwritten with the latest merged value
- Manual fields — untouched (your edits are preserved)
This is useful after a new contributor submits responses, or after you've deleted an incorrect response. Recompute ensures the "auto" values reflect the most current data.
Completeness Score
Each item has a completeness score (shown as a progress bar or fraction) based on how many of the three core fields — date, location, and people — are filled in.
| Score | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 / 3 | No metadata at all — consider inviting more contributors |
| 1 / 3 | Minimal — one field present |
| 2 / 3 | Partial — two fields present |
| 3 / 3 | Complete ✅ |
Items with low completeness scores are good candidates for additional contributor outreach.
Common Questions
I edited a field manually but the recompute button overwrote it. Why? "Manual" fields are never overwritten by recompute — only "auto" fields are. If a field was reset, it may have still been set to "auto" at the time. Make sure to click "Save" after editing a field so it's marked "manual" before running recompute.
The AI extracted the wrong name. Can I fix it? Yes — edit the People field manually and save. This marks it "manual" and it will persist through any future recomputes.
Can I see the original transcript that produced these metadata values? Yes — go to the Responses tab to read the full transcript for each contributor's response.
What if a photo has no responses at all? Items with zero responses will have empty metadata. You can type in the metadata manually using the editor, or invite more contributors.
Next Steps
→ Normalize Names & Tags → Use Visual Similarity to Group Duplicate Photos