First, I think its important to make the distinction between the
metadata info window and the
metadata template. The Info window shows the metadata of a specific image. The Template is filled out, and then applied to one or more images, which updates the metadata for the image with the content of the fields of the Template. Double-clicking the variables in the Variables window should place the variable, surrounded by curly brackets, where your cursor is. Nothing else should appear after double-clicking until you initiate a command that evaluates the variables (for example, applying the Metadata Template to several images will evaluate that variable in that field for each of those images).
So for example: if you have several images with the "Creator/Photographer field" filled out with different names, and you would like the Copyright field to include the contents of that field and the year the image was taken, separated by an underscore, you would select the images, open the Metadata Template, and fill out the copyright field with the following:
{photographer} {year4}
And you would then click "Apply Metadata Template"
Now, when you view the metadata Info window for each image, the copyright field should be filled out with the corresponding information.
