Setting Preferences

You can customize Portfolio to suit your working style and work more productively by setting preferences using the “Preferences&ldots;” command in the Edit menu.

Where Prefereces are Stored

There are two types of Preferences in Portfolio, user preferences and catalog preferences. User preferences are “user based” and are stored on the user’s machine. These settings apply to all catalogs opened on that machine. Catalog preferences are “catalog based” and are stored in the catalog. Catalog preferences apply to just one catalog, and are shared by all users of the catalog. The table below shows each Preference setting and where it is stored..

These settings

Accessed in this location

Are stored in

View Defaults

View > Customize: Save Defaults

User’s system

Default Catalog

File > Save as Default

User’s system

Editing Application List

Item > Edit Original

User’s system

File Types List

Catalog > Cataloging Options: File Types tab

User’s system

User Preferences

Edit > Preferences

User’s system; Catalog

Default Gallery

Windows > Save Gallery

Catalog

Default Find

Catalog > Find

Catalog

To set or change User Preferences:

  1. Choose “Preferences...” from the Edit menu, or press Command-Option-E (Mac OS) or Ctrl+Shift+E (Windows).

    The “User Preferences” dialog box is displayed

  1. Select the desired options from the General and/or Advanced tabs.

  2. Click “OK.”

Preferences - General

Result

Confirm Delete from Catalog

When selected, the “Confirm Delete” dialog box appears when you delete an item from the catalog.

Show Options Dialog on Add/Update

When selected, the Cataloging Options dialog box appears when you add items to or update items in a catalog.

Autoplay Movies and Sounds

When selected, movie and sound files are played automatically in Preview windows; you don’t need to click the Play button.

Display Welcome Screen

When selected, a dialog box prompting you to create a new catalog or open an existing one appears when you launch Portfolio.

QuickFind Opens New Gallery

When selected, QuickFind will display found items in a new Gallery window.

Fit Preview Images to Window

When selected, images are automatically scaled to fit Preview windows. When unchecked, images appear at 100% and scroll bars appear in the window to allow you to view the entire image.

Prompt on Untitled Close

When selected, always prompts you to save untitled (unsaved) Galleries.

Default Open Mode

Select the access level with which Portfolio will open the catalog: Reader, Editor, Publisher, or Administrator.

Image Dimensions

Select the unit of measure for displaying image dimensions. Applies to displays in the Gallery and Preview windows.

Preferences - Advanced

Result

Index Node Size <specify>

Controls block size written to the Portfolio database. Generally, increasing the node size to 4K or 8K will increase the performance of Finds and Sorts, but may slightly decrease the speed of cataloging.

IMPORTANT: Portfolio 4.0 is only capable of reading catalogs created with a 1K node size. For this reason the default has been left at 1K. If you are working in an environment that contains Portfolio 4.0 and 4.0.1 users, do not change the node size. If all users in your environment have upgraded to 4.0.1 or 5.0, it is recommended that you create new catalogs with a node size of 4K or 8K to achieve better performance. If you are using the Portfolio Server version 4.0.1 or later, you can safely change the node size for served clients, even if some of the clients are using Portfolio 4.0

Language <specify>

Sets what sort of tables are used for a catalog. If you are about to create a catalog for a language other than English, change the language here so that values will sort properly in that language.

Open Gallery with Catalog

Determines whether a gallery will be opened whenever a catalog is opened. If you have large numbers of records in your galleries, turning this option off will allow the catalog to open more quickly.