Collections and Galleries: Create, Move, Rename and Delete

A Gallery is a group of files. A Collection can hold a group of Galleries and/or other Collections. You cannot upload files into a Collection; you can only upload files into a Gallery.

The creation of Collections and Galleries is what allows your Library Staff and your Invited Users (stakeholders) to find your organization's media in an organized fashion while browsing the left pane of the Library or the left pane of the "Galleries" area of your Portal. You can make as many Collections and Galleries as you want, and organize them in any way that’s useful for you, such as by project or date or subject. Change your mind later? No problem. Drag-and-drop Galleries and Collections around in the left pane of your Library to reorganize. We don't recommend storing more than 2,500 files within a gallery (and even then, asking someone to scroll through 2,500 files in the Library or Portal website is a lot!)

For example, many universities create a parent Collection for the Athletics department, a sub-Collection for all their sports and seasons, then, nest Galleries within each sport Collection dedicated to each game held within that season. This makes it easy to locate images and share entire Collections with Invited Users.

The highest level (often referred to as the root level) of your PhotoShelter for Brands library is called "My Library".

To get you started, we’ve already populated your Library with two default Collections: Incoming Files and Our Library.

• The Incoming Files collection is the default destination for most files uploaded by Contributors.
• The Our Library collection is a sample collection. You can rename it, or delete it, and we'll review the steps to do both below.

Tools like the Desktop Uploader can preserve your existing file folder structure, converting folders and groups of images into Collections and Galleries in PhotoShelter for Brands - instantly! Learn more and install the Desktop Uploader app for free here. 

Create a Collection or Gallery

Collections are indicated by a file folder icon in PhotoShelter for Brands. Galleries have a photograph icon in PhotoShelter for Brands. To create a new Collection, click the green icon with the + folder icon. To create a new Gallery, use the green icon with the + photograph icon. 

For example, create a new Collection or Gallery at the highest level in your Library by clicking "My Library" and using the Create Collection/Gallery icons. 

Note: In order to maintain optimal performance, try to keep each gallery under 10,000 assets.

Rename a Collection or Gallery

To rename an existing Collection or Gallery, select what you'd like to rename in the left pane of the Library. Look to the right pane where the Collection or Gallery name is now displayed. Click the Collection or Gallery name to turn it into an editable text field and add your edits. Use the checkmark to save your edits.

Move a Collection or Gallery

You can move a Collection or Gallery by clicking it in the left pane, dragging, and dropping it over any existing Collection that highlights when you hover over it.

If you would like to make a Collection or Gallery appear at the topmost level (the level of the system generated "Incoming Files" Collection, for example), click the Collection or Gallery and drag it over the My Library level and drop it. you can create a new Collection or Gallery.

Please note: if you ever see duplicate Collections or Galleries after dragging and dropping them in the left pane of your Library, this is a known visual bug that our engineers are actively working on. Simply refresh the webpage to restore a normal view in the left pane.

Move Several Collections (or Galleries) in Batch

You can move several Collections or Galleries inside of another Collection by clicking their representative thumbnails in the center pane, dragging, and dropping it over any existing Collection that highlights in the left pane when you hover over it.

Please note: if you ever see duplicate Collections or Galleries after dragging and dropping them in the left pane of your Library, simply refresh the webpage to restore a normal view in the left pane.

Delete a Collection or Gallery

To delete a Collection or Gallery, select the container to delete, and drag-and-drop it onto the Trash section of the left pane.

Alternatively, select the Collection or Gallery you want to delete and click the Trash icon in the right pane.

If you delete a Collection or Gallery containing files, you'll see a prompt to confirm the deletion beforehand.

To recover files from the Trash, click the Trash tab in the left pane, then locate the file you'd like to restore. Drag-and-drop the file into an existing Gallery in the left pane.

Note: The Trash folder is automatically emptied every 90 days. Once the Trash is emptied, files are no longer able to be restored to the Library.

Set Collection and Gallery Cover Images

Once you’ve uploaded an image into a Gallery, set its cover image by dragging one of the uploaded images from the center pane over the empty square at the top of the right pane that says "Drag image here to set cover image". Change your mind? Just drag a different image to the square later.

If you do not set a cover image, the Portal will default to displaying the first image thumbnail in the Gallery as the default cover image. The parent Collection will default to displaying the first image thumbnail of the first Gallery in the Collection.

A Gallery containing all video files (or, a Gallery consisting of non-image files) must have an image uploaded if you would like a cover image to appear (and a thumbnail to display for this gallery on the Portal site).