Show which Collections are assigned to an image

[marklevine]

Is there a way to show which collections contain a selection of thumbs while in the Folders tab? I am doing something really risky to show this: I select a thumbnail and hit the Del key, then review options with names like 'Remove from collection "collection name"'. After I see which collections contain the image, I cancel the Del action.

It makes me very nervous hitting the Del key on an image I don't intend to delete, so I hope there is an alternate way to display assigned collections.

IMO, collection assignments are not overly different from label assignments. If this is really true, then there ought to be an icon for collections in the right side of the action bar below the file list, along with the icons for Info, Share, Batch, Light Table, ..., and Preview. When selected, a Collections pane would work kind of, sort of, like the Labels pane. That is, Blue highlighted collections would be assigned to all the selected thumbs. Orange highlighted collections would be assigned to some of the selected thumbs, and a collection with no highlight would not be assigned to any of the selected thumbs. (I have thought about the implications of dynamic collections.)

In absence of a pane to manage collections, have I overlooked a way to view (and preferably modify) the state of collections for an image?

[Hert]

Enable custom thumb info
For a new line, select the drop down-> Catalog -> Portfolio List

[Alfons]

Could you give directions how to do that in detail? I tried it but got lost.

[marklevine]

Great, Hert. There is always a way, right?

I've made the change according to the instructions below (added for user Alfons). This doesn't address the ease of adding and removing collections. It would be helpful to provide an interface to click on multiple collections, rather than add/remove them one-by-one.

At the bottom of the file window, click the middle icon called "thumbnail style...". Mine is set to "Custom Thumbnail Info. There is a blank new line below the current info. Click the down arrow and choose "Catalog -> Portfolio List".

[marklevine]

Gah! The display of collections in the thumbnail is limited because only one line is displayed. For nested collections, the name of the containing collection is prepended, further limiting the information provided. For example, I see the following text in a thumbnail:

"Bird Albums.Best of Each Species,Bird Al"

This is useful in telling the name of the 1st collection plus the useful fact that other collections are also assigned. Is there a way to display ALL collections?

[Hert]

Could you give directions how to do that in detail? I tried it but got lost.

Did you never use custom thumb lines before?

Here's how

customthumbline.png (271.34 KiB) Viewed 4382 times

[Hert]

Gah! The display of collections in the thumbnail is limited because only one line is displayed. For nested collections, the name of the containing collection is prepended, further limiting the information provided. For example, I see the following text in a thumbnail:

"Bird Albums.Best of Each Species,Bird Al"

This is useful in telling the name of the 1st collection plus the useful fact that other collections are also assigned. Is there a way to display ALL collections?

With the default font-size, about 32 characters fit per line.
The Macro Commands manual describes the optional parameters;
e.g. use two lines
%CatalogPortfolioList{encode=html; mid=1,32}
%CatalogPortfolioList{encode=html; mid=33,64}

[Alfons]

Thank you Hert. I never used custom thumb lines before.

[Alfons]

I just noticed that this does not work with dynamic collections.

[snowman1]

The comments and suggestions in the original post make a lot of sense to me, +1. (Though I realise it's probably a lot of work and that use of resources would have to be weighed against other work and possible enhancements).

[Alfons]

I noticed that with build 4835 the behavior has changed. With build 4823 the portfolio and collection were shown separated by a dot. I think this is quite useful. However the potfolio information is gone with build 4835. Collection assignment does not work with dynamic collections. This is really a shame as I use dynamic collection a lot.

[Hert]

That indeed got changed so that more control is given (see the Macros manual).

Use this to get the old behavior:

Code: Select all

%CatalogPortfolioList{FullPath}

Dynamic Collection are not included.

[Alfons]

Thank you. Is there a chance that dynamic collections will be included at some point in time?