Portfolio is a digital image cataloging application. Using Portfolio you can take images—including graphics, presentations, movies, sounds and other digital media files, even documents—that you or members of your workgroup create and put them into common catalogs. You can then view, edit, copy, and retrieve items from the catalog and transfer them to other documents, regardless of file format, location, platform, or applications that created the files.
It’s quick and easy to view and retrieve images in Portfolio catalogs because the catalog stores only thumbnail images of the file (along with whatever additional information you require), rather than the full document or image. Portfolio creates pointers to the original files, so the originals are always available for copying to applications, previewing, editing, etc., while allowing the catalog itself to be fast and efficient.
There is no limit to the number of items a single catalog can contain (bearing in mind that the more items in a catalog, the more memory and time are required for common operations). To each item in a catalog, you can add:
An unlimited number of keywords that will help you easily search for and select catalog items.
A description (up to 32,000 characters long) that lets you store important or useful information about the file.
Unlimited custom fields, including special field types such as Date/Time, Strings with multiple values and predefined lists, URLs, and more.
In a workgroup setting, you can allow all users full access to all catalog functions, or you can designate catalog administrators to create, maintain, and control access to catalogs for the entire workgroup. With Portfolio installed on their computers, members of your workgroup on both Macintosh and Windows can simultaneously search, view, and use items from catalogs whose source files are located on one or many network servers, shared volumes, CD-ROMs or removable drives. Users can access the Portfolio Server remotely using TCP/IP, and you can even create Web pages of cataloged items.
With the PortWeb plug-in and appropriate web server setup, even web browser users to can browse Portfolio catalogs.