Adding Items to a Catalog

You can easily add items (including whole folders and volumes of items) to a catalog from within Portfolio, or by dragging and dropping them into an open Gallery window.

If you add items to a catalog from disks or network volumes, you can dismount the drives or volumes and continue to use the catalog—viewing, searching, and organizing cataloged items—without re-mounting the source file volumes. The only time you need to access the source file is when copying the item to another application, when printing from the original, or when using the source file functions available in Portfolio such as previewing, editing, copying, renaming, or deleting a source file. And even then, Portfolio automatically prompts you to insert the necessary volume.

When you add items to a catalog, Portfolio displays the Cataloging Options dialog so that you can select or change cataloging options before cataloging begins.

Portfolio provides default Cataloging Options that will serve most needs, so you can quickly catalog items without spending time learning about these options. To select the default options, click “OK” on the Cataloging Options dialog.

You can bypass this dialog altogether by disabling this option in Portfolio’s Edit > Preferences dialog. With “Show Cataloging Options” disabled, Portfolio automatically applies the default cataloging options (or the last-saved options if any were specified in Catalog > Cataloging Options) each time you add items to the catalog.

When the Cataloging Options have been set, Portfolio begins cataloging the items and displays a progress window so you can track its progress.

Note: Since Portfolio works with thumbnails and references to item source files rather than the actual file content, if you move or rename files and then wish to access the source file contents, (such as when copying items to a document in another application, Previewing the item, or editing the source file) you will need to “update” the catalog records. See Updating Cataloged Items.

To Add items to an open catalog:

Note: You must have a catalog open, either a new, empty catalog or an existing catalog, before you can add items.

Drag and drop selected files, folders, or volumes into the open Gallery window.

— or —

Choose “Add Items...” from the Catalog menu, then locate the files, folders, or volumes of items that you want to add to the catalog.

To add...

Follow this procedure...

A single file

Locate and select the file you want to add to the catalog, then click “Open.”

All files in a folder

Locate and select the folder or volume or a volume you want to add. Click the select Folder button.

All files and subfolders within a folder or volume

Locate and select the folder or volume that you want to add, check the “Include Subfolders” option. Click the select Folder button.

The Cataloging Options dialog will be displayed, allowing you to choose a variety of options for the cataloged files.

Tip: You can select multiple files from the Open dialog by pressing Shift (Macintosh) or Ctrl (Windows) as you select additional items. Mac OS: You must have Navigation Services enabled. Windows: System limitations prohibit selecting more than approximately 40 individual files at the same time (more files can be selected if are in folders).

From the Cataloging Options dialog, select either “Add” or “Add & Update” from the Modify Method option of the General tab. You can review or change the other options, or simply allow Portfolio to use the default options presented.

Tip: Portfolio’s default Cataloging Options settings are adequate for cataloging under most circumstances. You can change these options at any time either when the dialog box is displayed during an add or update, or by choosing Catalog > Cataloging Options....

Tip: You can elect to have Portfolio automatically apply the default Cataloging Options when adding or updating. To do so, deselect the “Show Cataloging Options on Add/Update” option in Edit > Preferences.

Click “OK.”

Portfolio scans the volume(s) containing the source files, examines each file before adding it to the catalog, extracts the data as specified in Cataloging Options, and displays the “Cataloging Status” dialog to keep you posted on its progress.

Tip for Mac OS: Once the first process has started you can drag additional files, folders, or volumes to a Portfolio Gallery to initiate more cataloging processes while the first completes. Portfolio allows up to three cataloging processes to be active simultaneously.

When cataloging is complete, the items just added to the catalog will be displayed in the Gallery window.

To add...	Follow this procedure...
A single file	Locate and select the file you want to add to the catalog, then click “Open.”
All files in a folder	Locate and select the folder or volume or a volume you want to add. Click the select Folder button.
All files and subfolders within a folder or volume	Locate and select the folder or volume that you want to add, check the “Include Subfolders” option. Click the select Folder button.