Assorted questions from a new user

So I ran my first full session in d20pro and I have a few questions if anyone can help me with

1. How do you handle metamagic? I have a wizard PC and he uses several Extend spells (Extend Mage Armor) for example, which boosts it from a 1st level spell to a 2nd level. But there's no way to choose it because it's not technically a spell. My only thought is I would have to manually enter something like (Metamagic) [Spell Name] in the class and spell.txt files at the appropriate level but that seems burdensome to say the least. Is there an easier way I'm missing?

2. Does the spell function (hotkey s) do anything besides tracking spell usage? As far as I know, spells do not have any mechanics integrated with them, I have to create a spell effect or choose a pre-saved one from my library. Is this correct? Related to that, whenever I double-click spells in the spell tab, I get a message saying "Spell Casting is not available because this is just a Creature Template. Drag this Template to the Game first." I have no idea what this means. The character has a token on the map but there is no way to edit spells from the token so I don't see how this affects anything. Any ideas?

3. The mini window suffers from a few things, namely lacking an item tab and spell tab. Is there anyway to add tabs to the mini window so my characters can see their items and their spells without having to go into their character edit mode? If not this is my most requested feature, especially if the item system gets overhauled.

4. Finally, I know group initiative isn't available yet, but I'm hoping one of the devs can at least say if its being worked on. D20pro is amazing at speeding up combat once all the prep work is completed, but nothing grinds it to a halt faster than a Summoner summoning 4 lantern archons in the middle of a combat, each with their own initiative

 

Thanks for your response!

1. I was afraid this was going to be the answer lol. Hopefully they can make a metamagic template that can modify spell levels or something in one of the updates.

2. I guess I should clarify. By edit the spell I meant having the effect (ability) tied to the spell. So if I click spell -> burning hands, it would already have the damage effect tied to it, rather than having to select it as a pre-made ability every time I cast. I'm not a coder so I don't know how easy it is to do, but I think being able to link an ability to a spell permanently wouldn't be terribly hard. So in my spell book, I click on burning hands, it is already tied to an effect that does damage, and (possibly) a template. Or even tying templates to abilities would be a nice time saver.

3. I understand, but to me, spells should be a "quick menu" kind of thing when I just want to see what spells they have/haven't been cast yet. I don't want to go into an edit mode just to see what spells a character has. The edit mode is also clunky and takes awhile to scroll through once they have a few sell caster levels. I like the design of the mini window much better so I was just hoping there was a way.

4. Fingers crossed its soon then!

 

I did know about that it's just a pain there isn't a working library with all the spells yet. I'm sure it'll come with time. But to save yourself some work, someone already created a creature that has all the effects pre-saved on the token. Check in the user created content forums for Kim Jong-Il and -Un, and that should save yourself a lot of work (unless you already made all of the spells lol).