Product Reviews

Keeping track of Photoshop files and QuarkXPress documents was a cinch when floppy drives and tiny hard disks were the norm. But in these days of multi-gigabyte disk drives and offline storage, managing digital assets has become an art form in itself.

Nowadays, asset-management tools are equally indispensable whether you're a graphic designer and/or part of a busy production bureau. The top end of the market has been dominated by Canto's excellent Cumulus (Reviews, Vol 16 No 2, p29), but Extensis' latest upgrade to its Portfolio product at last provides a credible alternative.

Extensis Portfolio operates in two ways. As well as providing a simple method of cataloguing files, the application is also a viewing and distribution tool, with a range of export options that allow Portfolio-created catalogues to be viewed by those without access to the application.

Like most asset-management utilities, Portfolio doesn't store a copy of the asset itself, merely a reference to its location alongside a thumbnail preview of the asset generated by the original application or Portfolio. To add items to a catalogue, you either drag the icon of the asset - whether an image, document, or font - onto an open catalogue window, or scan entire folders and volumes for batch processing. The program allows you to catalogue any file format, with the files to be included restricted by both file type and file name. This is particularly useful when background cataloguing, where you can now specify multiple folders to be watched and interrogated at set periods.

Double-clicking on the thumbnail in the catalogue brings up a larger preview, which means that as long as Portfolio can generate a preview, you don't need to have access to the original file to view it. Multi-page previews are supported, so you can, for example, preview individual layers of Photoshop files. Despite this, direct import and export from within Photoshop or XPress isn't as seamless as that provided by

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Canto Cumulus - although a free XTension to provide drag-and-drop support for XPress files is included on the CD-ROM.

Assets can now be searched across multiple catalogues using a variety of criteria, including descriptive text, multiple keywords, and customisable fields. Captions embedded in Photoshop documents are imported as descriptions in Portfolio catalogues. To speed up regular searches, the search criteria can be saved, although the program still lacks the ability to search for text inside a word processing document.

Search results are displayed in galleries, which operate like Layout fields in a FileMaker database. You can create and save multiple galleries containing like assets, and each gallery has its own viewing preferences - a choice of customisable thumbnail, list and record views.

Portfolio's export options include basic text, QuickTime movies and 'pnot' data, which embeds Portfolio-created data such as keywords and descriptions into the selected item's source file. The program can also export to HTML, and its accuracy in replicating gallery views is remarkable. Portfolio's use of templates to export the HTML data means the resultant HTML files can be extensively tailored.

The truly intriguing addition to Portfolio is the inclusion of PortWeb, a plug-in that works in conjunction with a WebStar or AppleShare-based server to enable dynamic browser viewing of a Portfolio catalogue. Coupled with the customisable field values, which can include pricing information and URLs, it's not hard to envisage Portfolio as a cut-down online retail database.

Other than PortWeb and the addition of SQL database support, Extensis has successfully concentrated improvements in version 5.0 on ease of use. This is most visible in the replacement of previous versions' unmanageable menu options with dockable Palette menus, resulting in more effective use of screen space and quicker access to search and catalogue functions.

The only real criticism that could be levelled at Portfolio 5.0 is its lack of speed. If anything, the application seems slightly slower than its predecessor when cataloguing data, particularly PDF files. Although small files aren't a problem, if you're dealing with large amounts of data or frequently updating a catalogue, you'd be better off looking at the cross-platform Server edition.

Portfolio 5.0 is an excellent mid-range tool, and the availability of a royalty-free browser coupled with the program's ease of use will surely mean it takes the lion's share of first-time entrants to the market.