# Bulk Editing of Metadata and Custom Metadata
**URL:** https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/bulk-editing-of-metadata-and-custom-metadata/55064
**Category:** DEVONthink
**Created:** [April 21, 2020, 1:23pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/bulk-editing-of-metadata-and-custom-metadata/55064 "2020-04-21T13:23:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/rkaplan)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2020, 4:52pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/bulk-editing-of-metadata-and-custom-metadata/55064/21 "2020-04-25T16:52:17Z")
I have tried lots of responses which work from the clipboard but not from a dialog bog. One example is here where the input is acknowledged in the debug output code but still no vales are updated in the custom metadata fields:
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### Author:  [@BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/BLUEFROG)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2020, 5:47pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/bulk-editing-of-metadata-and-custom-metadata/55064/22 "2020-04-25T17:47:35Z")
Just a heads-up: User interactions like dialogs aren’t suggested for use in smart rules. This would be better used with a script. In fact, I would test it with a script to see if it works.
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### Author:  [@rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/rkaplan)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2020, 6:08pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/bulk-editing-of-metadata-and-custom-metadata/55064/23 "2020-04-25T18:08:46Z")
Well that is getting us a bit closer due to increased error reporting when running as a script rather than as a smart rule.
Running the script pointed out some quotes I was missing in the last statements.
This is my script now:
When I run it the dialog box output is correct and then I get this error - I get it regardless of whether my input has the slashes or is just straight text.
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### Author:  [@BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/BLUEFROG)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2020, 6:17pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/bulk-editing-of-metadata-and-custom-metadata/55064/24 "2020-04-25T18:17:46Z")
Why are you entering `text theDateEntered` ? `text` is not a parameter for that command in the dictionary.
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### Author:  [@rkaplan](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/rkaplan)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2020, 6:35pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/bulk-editing-of-metadata-and-custom-metadata/55064/25 "2020-04-25T18:35:00Z")
OK that solves - it - I had put the text in as I was debugging the syntax for entering dates. The main issue had been the lack of quotes at the end.
I appreciate your response in the other thread about Dark Mode and editing embedded scripts - that will make it much easier to find stuff like this when fixed.
Anyway this works now and opens up all sorts of options for working with custom metadata. Thanks you @BLUEFROG and @ryanjamurphy for your help.
The final script (which does also work as a smartrule by tweaking the first line) is:
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### Author:  [@BLUEFROG](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/u/BLUEFROG)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2020, 7:11pm UTC](https://discourse.devontechnologies.com/t/bulk-editing-of-metadata-and-custom-metadata/55064/26 "2020-04-25T19:11:42Z")
No problem _(and again it’s best used as a script due to the user interaction)_.
Cheers!
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