Description:
Awarded a Seybold "hot pick," Extensis Portfolio 5.0 is for the pack rat MP3 collector, Web designer, or multimedia whiz who not only can't bear to part with anything, but can't bear not knowing where it is. And maybe this pack rat will want to share it with others, too. As anyone working with multimedia knows, after a few large projects you begin wondering where that funny little icon went or what part of your extensive folder system holds that cool sound loop. Even the layering capabilities of many graphics programs don't protect you from the need to catalog and sort your creations before they overtake your hard drive like kudzu and you can't find certain ones when you really need them. Enter Portfolio 5.0--Extensis's in-depth answer to Cantos Software's Cumulus--an asset-management application that combines powerful indexing and display desktop features with Internet-enabling software. To begin your first multimedia catalog, simply drag and drop items into an open gallery window (and if using software applications that support drag and drop, you can also drag them out into that application). Portfolio lets you embed your Digimarc watermark into your creations and associate URLs or Photoshop captions with your files. You can modify keywords and other searchable fields associated with each catalog entry, and you can also custom tag and search text within the file not associated with standard descriptions or keywords. Images are initially displayed as thumbnails but can be clicked on to view a larger preview--or a multipage preview in the case of PDFs or layered Photoshop files. You can create a slide show using Portfolio, and Macintosh users can even export this slide show into a QuickTime movie, where it can be further edited. Searching can be as broad as looking at thumbnails in your gallery view, saving "find galleries" (for example, your retrieval of automobile photos in one gallery) for quick reference later, or as picky as searching for the item's vertical resolution in dpi or based on a digital watermark. Some convenient features include background cataloging (setting the software to update the catalog from preset folders), and hunting for missing files (files that may have been moved but their location is not reflected in their last catalog entry). Updates from the previous version include a dockable-palettes interface and the ability to edit in record view. Portfolio 5.0 for the Macintosh comes bundled with the Portfolio browser and a PortWeb plug-in that works in tandem with your Web-server software. The read-only Portfolio browser is handy for inclusion with a storage disk or CD-ROM burned for a client. It's also great when catalogs need to be seen more than modified. But the real innovation is the PortWeb plug-in, which lets you use your Macintosh's Web server (such as StarNine WebStar 2.0-4.2 or Apple Web Server, which is part of AppleShare IP 6) to serve up Portfolio search returns to your online users. Extensis includes in the manual the syntax you need to include on your Web site to call into the PortWeb plug-in (and your Portfolio catalogs), and it's pretty easy. Even more impressive is the "collections" (or shopping cart) capability--though it can't charge your credit card, PortWeb can keep track of your multimedia selections. If you code your Web form correctly, you can have the user check multiple images for collection at one time and add them in a batch to their shopping cart--a poor man's digital-image ordering system or a way to display a band's latest MP3 offerings. Portfolio 5.0's other features for the Web-design community include exporting gallery views as HTML pages, with an image folder of JPEGS automatically created to support the newly generated page, and the ability to embed URLs and e-mail addresses as custom fields in your Portfolio catalog. For design shops that want to serve other machines on their network, the Portfolio server allows a client/server relationship rather than dependency on the system file-sharing capabilities. (For office use, Portfolio Server 5.0 can also be bought bundled with five Portfolio clients.) Though Portfolio is a great setup for a visual-arts professional, the application's support of sound and video files makes it easy to see how an animation buff or MP3 addict could use Portfolio 5.0 to manage their collections. And finally, if the files on your hard drive aren't a large-enough kingdom to survey, you can extend your system by upgrading with Portfolio 5.0 SQL Connect, intended for business-size customers to tie Portfolio Server 5.0 with a Microsoft SQL server or an Oracle 8i database. Just think of the possibilities.... --Betsy Aoki
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