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Copy and paste metadata across shots
When a run of shots shares a value, type it once and paste it. Copy takes the metadata off a shot; paste opens a plan where you choose which of those fields to write, which shots to write them to, and whether anything already there is left alone.
It is free on every plan, and it uses StoryFolder's own clipboard rather than your computer's.
Copy metadata from a shot
- Select the shot you have already got right, in the editor or the library.
- In the inspector, choose Copy notes & metadata.
What gets copied:
- Every field the shot has a value in, its notes included. A field the source left empty is not copied at all — a paste adds what the source has, it never clears what the target has.
- Favorite and Hidden, which are copied but arrive unticked in the paste dialog. They are shot state rather than notes, so spreading them is something you opt into.
- Not the poster frame. A poster time is a point inside one shot's own range; the same value on another shot is meaningless.
A copy lasts until you quit StoryFolder. It is not shared with other applications, and it does not survive a relaunch — a copy that outlived one would be offering to paste fields from a project you may since have deleted.
Paste metadata to shots
- Select the target shot or shots.
- Choose Paste notes & metadata. The action appears only once something has been copied.
- In the Paste metadata dialog, tick the fields you actually want. It says where they came from — Copied from Shot 3.
- Choose the scope: This shot, N selected, or All N shots.
- Choose the write mode.
- Check the count line — N fields · M shots — then click Paste to N shots.
Choose a write mode
Only fill empty fields
The recommended default, and the one the dialog opens on unless you have changed the global rule in Preferences → Notes & Metadata → AI Autofill.
A target field that already holds a value is left alone, whatever it holds. "Empty" is per type: an unticked checkbox, an unrated rating, a tag field with no tags, a blank text or number field. A rating of 0 is unrated; a number of 0 is a value.
Overwrite existing values
Replaces what is in the selected fields, across the selected shots.
Overwriting is counted, and it is not undone by a single press
Choosing it shows a counted warning before you go ahead — will overwrite N filled values across M shots. Check both numbers against what you meant. Because each field is written as its own change, undoing a multi-field paste takes one undo per field, not one for the whole dialog.
Choose which fields to paste
A copy holds everything the source shot had, which is usually more than this particular job needs. Select all and Select none are at the top of the list; ticking individual rows is the point of the dialog.
- Each row shows the field, its type and the value that would be written, so you are choosing values rather than field names.
- A copied field the target project no longer has — archived, or deleted since the copy — is skipped and named: 2 copied fields are not in this project and will be skipped: Location, Camera. Nothing is silently recreated.
- Options that do not exist in the target field are not invented either.
Paste to a large selection safely
- Search or filter the board down to the shots that should share the value.
- Select the results.
- Copy from the one shot you have already got right.
- Compare the dialog's shot count with the number of results your filter showed. If they disagree, stop — the selection is not what you think it is.
- Keep Only fill empty fields on unless replacing is deliberate.
- Spot-check afterwards: the first target, one in the middle, the last, and one that already had a value.
Undo a paste
A paste of one field across any number of shots is one change: one entry in version history, one undo.
A paste of several fields is one change per field, so it produces one entry each and takes that many undos. Version history names them, so you can see exactly what a paste did.
Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows) immediately afterwards is the fastest way out. See Undo and redo.
Copy and paste, or AI Autofill?
| Use | When |
|---|---|
| Copy and paste | You know the value and want it repeated exactly — client, job number, location, release status |
| AI Autofill | The value has to be read off each shot's frame — shot size, visible action, whether it is usable |
A fact you know is not a job for a model, and a judgement about each frame is not a job for a paste.
Limits
- A copy stays inside StoryFolder. It is not your computer's clipboard, and it does not paste into other applications.
- It does not survive a restart.
- It never creates fields. Missing fields are skipped and named.
- It has no opinion about correctness. Pasting the wrong client onto sixty shots is a valid operation; the count line and the write mode are the guards.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What is happening |
|---|---|
| No Paste notes & metadata action | Nothing has been copied. Copy first — and note that a copy is forgotten when the app closes |
| Fewer values changed than expected | Only fill empty fields protected filled targets, or some fields were missing from this project and skipped |
| The wrong shots got it | Undo immediately, or open Version history and restore |
| A copied field is not offered | The target project does not have it. The dialog names which |