# Metadata quickstart tutorial

**URL:** https://forum.qiime2.org/t/metadata-quickstart-tutorial/3910
**Category:** Ideas and Suggestions
**Tags:** metadata
**Created:** [April 24, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/metadata-quickstart-tutorial/3910 "2018-04-24T23:45:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![colinbrislawn](https://forum.qiime2.org/user_avatar/forum.qiime2.org/colinbrislawn/32/6221_2.png) [@colinbrislawn](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/colinbrislawn)
#### Post date: [April 24, 2018, 11:45pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/metadata-quickstart-tutorial/3910/1 "2018-04-24T23:45:32Z")

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The [metadata tutorial](https://docs.qiime2.org/2018.2/tutorials/metadata/) is very detailed and comprehensive. It's also a little imposing for first time users.

I would love to see some sort of 'Metadata cheat sheet' that leads with a good example. Qiime 1 did a pretty good job with this, showing

```plaintext
#SampleID BarcodeSequence LinkerPrimerSequence Description

```

then moving on to

```plaintext
#SampleID BarcodeSequence LinkerPrimerSequence Treatment DOB Description
PC.354 AGCACGAGCCTA YATGCTGCCTCCCGTAGGAGT Control 20061218 Control_mouse__I.D._354
PC.355 AACTCGTCGATG YATGCTGCCTCCCGTAGGAGT Control 20061218 Control_mouse__I.D._355

```

* * *

I love how tidyverse does this. Their documentation leads with a [simple](http://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/index.html) example or [two](http://dplyr.tidyverse.org/).

* * *

Maybe we tell new users to start by trying [Keemei](https://keemei.qiime2.org/)? I know metadata has always been hard for new users, and I'm wondering what's the best way to approach this.

EDIT: So the minimum metadata is mentioned here: [Metadata preparation and rarefaction level - #3 by thermokarst](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/metadata-preparation-and-rarefaction-level/3913/3)

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### Author: ![thermokarst](https://forum.qiime2.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@thermokarst](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/thermokarst)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2018, 12:54pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/metadata-quickstart-tutorial/3910/3 "2018-04-25T12:54:47Z")

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### Author: ![thermokarst](https://forum.qiime2.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@thermokarst](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/thermokarst)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/metadata-quickstart-tutorial/3910/6 "2018-04-25T21:30:25Z")

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Thanks @colinbrislawn - this sounds like a great idea - would you be able to open up a new issue on the [docs](https://github.com/qiime2/docs) repository with this information? If not, no worries, one of us can handle it. Thanks! 🦖

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### Author: ![thermokarst](https://forum.qiime2.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/8e7dd6/32.png) [@thermokarst](https://forum.qiime2.org/u/thermokarst)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://forum.qiime2.org/t/metadata-quickstart-tutorial/3910/7 "2018-04-25T21:30:30Z")

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