Attributes once more

[kinook]

a) The System checkbox is different than the System category. Some but not all System attributes are also System category. And it is intentional that a System attribute cannot be altered, since UR relies on them being configured as they are, although this can be overridden by explicitly making an attribute modifiable (see https://www.kinook.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=2825 -- "Make Message Date (read-only system attribute) user-creatable and editable").

b) Unchecking an attribute in Tools | Options | Attributes prevents that attribute from being displayed in the IAP if it exists for the selected item(s).

c/d) The attributes in your second list only exist for template items. The Template Item attribute only exists for non-template items.

e) Choose Columns is also a display option, which will display an item attribute's value (if that attribute exists for a particular item). It does not affect the existence of an attribute for a particular item.

f) Whatever item attributes (except for template-specific attributes, see c/d) exist for a given template item are what item attributes will be created for a given item of that template when the item is created.

Adding an attribute to a template item will not add that attribute to existing items of that template, but you can search for items of that template where an attribute doesn't exist, and then add the attribute to those item(s) in the IAP after selecting all search results.

If you want all items to have all attributes, you could 1) add every attribute to every template item and 2) for all existing items that don't have a given attribute, search for and add the attribute to those items.

I agree that it would be beneficial to be able to automate selecting and/or updating a given item attribute directly, without having to arrow down in the UI some number of times to get to a given attribute. Perhaps a command-line option to be able to select an attribute by name or ID when going to an item could help. Another option would be to use the SQLite tool to update an item attribute.