Cumulus 8 - Canto

COLLECTIONS 21your current folder structures are based on hierarchies that enhance yourworkflow, this option offers a great way to get instant category trees thatwill be familiar to users.CollectionsA collection is Cumulus-speak for a set of records from any one catalog oreven multiple catalogs. It is a way of looking at your catalog(s) – the waythat you look at it at any given time. Whenever you work with assets inthe record and category panes – which make up the Collection window– you’re creating or modifying collections. When you view the records inany category, you’re looking at a collection. When you view the results ofa search, you’re also looking at a collection. The same is true for individualrecords you’ve dragged and dropped into the window – any ‘snapshot’of your catalog can comprise a collection. A collection acts as your temporaryworkspace in Cumulus, and you can also save it as a file.While a collection can contain all records in a single catalog or all in a singlecategory, it is neither one nor the other. A collection can also contain– and here is where its advantages become obvious – the results of asearch (either as a new collection or replacement of the current collection),or any records you drag and drop into the Collection window. Anyindividual set comprises a collection. The records in one collection mayeven belong to different catalogs.Once saved, a collection file remembers the records it contains and theRecord View Set used. A collection file also keeps track of column widthof the Details View.Assume, for example, that you have a catalog containing thousands ofrecords organized neatly into categories. Your latest project, however,only requires assets from four of those categories, and from those it onlyrequires the image files. You could first run a search to pull all image filesfrom those four categories. Then you could select a Record View Set andemphasize the exact information you need for this project. Save the collection,and from now on you can simply open the collection containingthe records you really need – while the entire catalog remains availableto you in the background. You could then e-mail the collection to inhousemembers of the project team.A collection, whether saved or unsaved, is always connected to its catalog(s).When a collection is open, the catalog(s) storing the records of thecollection are also open. In order to open a particular collection, you musthave access to its catalog(s). If a record is removed from a catalog, it isremoved from any of the collections it was in. Similarly, if you delete a category,it is deleted not only from one collection, but also from the catalog.You can, however, delete a record from the collection without deleting itfrom the catalog – as long as you press only the DEL key. But if you pressboth Command / Control and DEL, the record will be removed fromboth collection and catalog (see “Delete,” p. 247, for more information).Working with CollectionsCollections can be customized and then saved, so that your particularpreferences for a special set of records can be recalled. A collection fileremembers the records it contains, the Record View Set used and the columnwidth of the Details View.