Custom Fields: Usage and a display problem..

So I’m starting to use custom fields, I created an archive index page by following the instructions in this documentation article. It’s working fine and good, but I have a problem.

After I’ve set up the page, I can no longer see the custom fields when I view the manage page tab in admin view. Is that normal? Its not that the custom field disappeared, the page is still working and the smart link is there, but the meta data is not listed.

This is a problem because I want to use a custom field called keywords to add keywords to my posts to improve my search. That’s going to be tricky if I can’t view the keywords later, how would I keep track of it or modify my keywords?

I can’t seem to find documentation that says what kind of data can be accepted in the custom field, I suspect its plain text, which is disappointing but fine. I need to know the max characters for a custom field because I intent to use a custom field in a way you’re probably not supposed to…

My blog is hacked into working like a gallery, content(); holds the image, excerpt(); holds a thumbnail of the image. That leaves NO room for any sort of text, I’d love to have a description for the images, how would I go about doing that? Custom fields seems like my only answer…but I don’t know the max characters for it, I don’t want problems with it later. Simple text is fine, but would there be any way at all to insert a line break?

I really want to use custom fields, and I’d like to later add data about photos using custom fields, but if they won’t show up that’s a hard way to work…

Any inputs on this will be greatly appreciated!