Metadata Overview is an interesting feature. It gives a lot more info than table of contents - which is nice - but perhaps not always organized ideally for a given use.
Is there any way that the MetaOverview could reflect the choice of displayed columns and column order as shown on the page where the MetadataOverview was derived from?
Currently, no.
In the future? Maybe.
I would suggest that you please give it some really serious thought. It seems at first like a minor niche request but in fact I think it brings together so many features you have added in DT3 and could integrate many of them.
So you realize what/why I am suggesting this - if the Metadata Overview could reflect the existing customized columns that a user can set up, then the ultimate next step would be to automate the process to create such a document daily or at whatever frequency.
If you did this, then DT3 would basically prepare a one page, custom, hyperlinked summary of everything important in my world today (or this week, this month). It would be a great way to bring information from many sources into a regular “summary sheet” with the key items important to each user.
hyperlinked summary of everything important in my world today (or this week, this month)
Why would a user want a “hyperlinked summary of everything important” in your world ?? 
(Couldn’t resist.)
The request is noted, but Development would have to assess the feasibility as well as how broadly this would be desirable in our user base.
Also realize getting metadata, including custom metadata, from files is already possible via scripting.
Noted - but that would mean editing the script every time one changes the format of the report.
And might mean multiple scripts if one would want reports from multiple groups
If it were part of the Metadata summary feature, then all that would automatically work for every group
Unless you are telling me there is a a way to write a script that would not only retrieve the metadata but also retrieve the column headings for a given group. Is that possible? I don’t think so.
I sense a wider idea behind the request. Could you give a more specific illustration or application context behind your idea of one page, custom, hyperlinked summary of everything important in your world today (or this week, this month) ? I interpret it along the lines of the Scrivener Outline mode which allows you to follow the status of different documents within a larger project (e.g. columns with labels, status etc… also using user defined metadata).
Stimulated by the request yesterday, I explored the Metadata summary feature this morning and can definitely see the potential in terms of managing documents at a higher level. The selection of Metadata and sequence of each Metadata summary column seems to be hard-coded by DT3 at this point in time.
I agree that it would be good if the user could specify both the columns of the summary and the order of the columns in the report to ensure that the report is tuned to user needs for the summary. Fingers crossed that development can respond positively to this request.
“Everything in my world” was just meant as a way to suggest that the result would be something highly customizable and thus likely useful to many DT3 users.
As an example, part of my work involves detailed surveys of academic literature in medicine. The new custom metadata fields are great for tracking various characteristics or arguments which apply to each article - For or Against a given hypothesis, quality of the study, ideas to follow up, related links, etc.
But the catch is - for now, the custom metadata is basically for my use only. I cannot use it to create reports for me to share with clients or with the public.
Changing the fields and field order on the Metadata Overview would allow me to create custom reports of this nature.
And as best I can figure out so far, this cannot be done with scripting or at least not very easily.
Is it possible via scripting to retrieve the column headings for a given group so I could do what I am proposing via Applescript?
While it is theoretically possible, it wouldn’t be a trivial thing to do.
OK - thus would it not make sense for a “metadata overview” to include the metadata a user has chosen for a given view? Especially since custom metadata is a major addition to DT3 (and a very nice one), wouldn’t it naturally follow that having the metadata overview match the fields in the current view would be a great way to utilize that custom metadata?
This would be a terrific customizable reporting feature with that one tweak.
I don’t know if it naturally follows, but the request has been noted.
As I said previously: Development would have to assess the feasibility as well as how broadly this would be desirable in our user base.
I can’t speak with any authority on if this would or wouldn’t happen.
One clarification while we wait for Developments assessment of a user-defined Metadata summary - how are the current metadata columns selected (hard coded, based on view) ? An AppleScript generating a summary sheet would be a good start to the wider possibilities (with the limitations of hard coding the MetaData ahead of time as pointed out above).
My understanding (and I would be glad to be wrong) is that they are fixed and cannot be changed by the user - that is exactly the point of my request.