When you select Update with XML template from the NPS Metadata Tools menu, a window will open to allow you to browse to the XML file you would like to use as a template.

When you have selected your template document, the window shown below will open. All of the parts of a metadata document are arranged hierarchically on the left side. If you have chosen to use a document you created using the Metadata Template tool, this list will be limited to those sections you chose when you created the template. The abbreviations for the sections will likely look rather foreign at first, but they will soon start to make sense. For instance, idinfo is the Identification Information section; eainfo is the Entity and Attribute Information section.

Click in the boxes to select sections or fields to import to your target document.

You can select as little or as much of the template as you like. You can even select the entire document by clicking the box next to metadata at the top of the tree. But this will replace your entire target document, so make sure that's really what you want to do before you click Update. When you expand to the lowest level of the hierarchy, to the level of the individual element, the value entered for that element will be displayed in the box on the right side. Drilling down to the lowest level and checking the values will help you make sure you have selected the right section of the template.

There is no way to undo your changes once you click Update, so make sure you really want to overwrite the sections you have selected!