Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 16:21:59 -0500 From: "Peter N. Schweitzer" Sender: owner-nsdi_l@fgdc.er.usgs.gov Subject: NSDI_L Revising DOCUMENT output To: nsdi_L@fgdc.er.usgs.gov, metadata@geo-www.er.usgs.gov Organization: U.S. Geological Survey X-Accept-Language: en To NSDI-L and others, People often ask me how they should deal with metadata that were created under ARC/INFO with the DOCUMENT AML. After study of many metadata records created with various versions of DOCUMENT I now believe that the best course of action is to rewrite the metadata. For one or two records this is not a difficult job, and the output of DOCUMENT FILE (which looks somewhat like a normal metadata file) can be used as very helpful raw material. For those who have many coverages documented in this way the task is more daunting. Consequently I have worked to provide some detailed advice and procedures that I think can be profitably used to reduce the pain involved. I offer these to the community and invite those who would undertake such a task to try them out. I will be interested to hear of ways these procedures and advice can be improved. The general procedure is to run DOCUMENT FILE for each coverage, edit the files lightly, run cns with a specific set of extensions and aliases, adjust input and re-run cns if necessary, then run mp with a peculiar command-line switch designed specifically for this task (-fixdoc, new in version 2.2.6) to generate text files. These text files can then be edited using xtme or some other general metadata editor to produce proper metadata (and while I'm doing shameless plugs, I'll suggest that "Metadata in Plain Language" could be used as a guide to determine whether the content is sufficiently thorough). As usual I urge all who are using mp and related software to download the latest versions (most recently revised yesterday). The new version of Tkme for Windows has a simpler installation process and doesn't require a separate install of Tcl/Tk. So if you find yourself dealing with many ARC/INFO coverages that have DOCUMENT tables, I invite you to consider my proposed solutions at . Please contact me if I can provide additional information or assistance. Peter -- Peter N. Schweitzer (MS 918, U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA 20192) (703) 648-6533 FAX: (703) 648-6647 email: pschweitzer@usgs.gov <*>