A tour of the Portfolio Interface

Once you've selected and opened a catalog (see accessing a catalog), Portfolio opens a new Gallery window. Which records you see depends on which records were visible when the catalog was last closed. To see all the records, click in the "QuickFind" box and hit enter (i.e., don't enter any search criteria). Portfolio will find and display all the records in the catalog.

1. The shortcut buttons give you quick access to various menu commands. The first three "traffic light" buttons are for updating, adding and deleting images in the database.

Buttons for thumbnail view, list view and record view.
These three buttons toggle between the three kinds of views you can have of the database.
The info button brings up an information box that displays all of the data associated with the image.

2. The list of saved views allows you to choose from previously created views of the catalog. Different views may display various sub-sets of the available fields and different layouts.

3. The list of sort criteria controls the order in which the records are displayed. Records are sorted alpha-numerically according to whichever field you select. Note that this command only sorts, it won't change the view settings. So, if you choose, say, the "Subject (VRA)" field, the records will be ordered according to subject, but you won't be able to view the Subject (VRA) metadata entries.

4. The view area displays images and data according to the current "view" settings. This area is also where you select images for export, display, slideshows, new galleries and so on.

4a. The image thumbnails in the view area refer directly to full-sized images that you have cataloged in the database (the images are not in the database file, but the file refers to their location on a computer). To see a larger version of an image, double click on the thumbnail.

5. The "FolderSync" area is for watching folders for new images. We seldom use this feature, so you should close this area by double clicking on the bar between it and the view area.