Add an optional free-text MARC editing mode to the Leap MARC editor that allows professional catalogers to directly edit bibliographic fields as plain text. Ideally, this would be toggleable at the record level, allowing staff to switch between the formatted MARC view and freetext view as needed.

Leap's current MARC editor is great for copy cataloging, minimal edits, or non-professional staff. However, full-time professional catalogers are often frustrated by the inability to update multiple field at once, paste long blocks of MARC data or navigate through tags using the keyboard. For this type of workflow, Leap's editor is signficantly slower and more cumbersome than the free-text editor in the Client

This enhancement would add a toggleable "Freetext view" within the existing Leap MARC editor. The default view would remain the structured MARC editor, but catalogers could toggle a record into freetext mode, make changes as needed, then toggle back. This preserves Leap's accessibility for non-professional staff while adding in functionality for power users.

For the sake of an example, I vibe-coded a quick demo of what this could look like - https://pinnaclelibraries.org/leapmarcdemo - The default view is still Leap's "table-like" structure, but the toggle at the top allows the user to switch to a freetext editor. Catalogers can make their edits then toggle back to the structured view before saving.