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## Managing Source Files

There are many ways to organize the source files for items in a Portfolio catalog. Each strategy has advantages and disadvantages, but considering the options and planning ahead can save you time in the long run and significantly increase Portfolio’s usefulness to you and your workgroup.

One of the key benefits of using Portfolio is that you do not need to remember where a source file is located or what it is called. However, because Portfolio can use filenames, folder names, or entire pathnames as keywords, and because you can then use those keywords to help in searching, a rational plan for naming and organizing files and folders is helpful.

Each workgroup must ultimately decide what works best for its own situation based on how the group works and how work flows through it. Here are a few suggestions that might help in your planning.

### Organizing Source Files

One of the most obvious ways to organize files into folders is to set up a series of folders for each project, client, or category (for example, travel, business or architecture). Within a folder, use subfolders to partition related files appropriately.

Another approach is to organize files into folders by file type, by parent application, or by department of origin (for example, Marketing, Sales or Publications).

Once you’ve organized your files into folders, it’s easy to include the files into Portfolio catalogs.

### Naming Source Files

Use naming and organizing strategies together to make the most of keyword searching in Portfolio. Once you have decided how to organize your files, consider the following alternatives for naming them:

- Use file extensions to indicate file type. This is very important when using Portfolio in a cross-platform environment, where you’ll want to keep Windows file naming restrictions in mind when naming Macintosh files and vice versa.

- Use number or alphabetic prefixes to help sort items in ways that matter for the kinds of files you use. For example, you might use frame numbers for images from a single photo shoot or counter or time code readings for sounds, movies, or images digitized from video or audio tape.