Extensis User-to-User Forums

I want to make a catalog of my "image bank" into Portfolio.

I've already copied all my image CD's (from different providers) to an external hard drive. Some of the CD's have a text file with keywords, some of them have a portfolio database (.fdb file).

I s it possible to import the keywords from the text file automatically?

Is it possible to merge all the .fdb files in 1 "image bank catalog" ?

Merging files/records - Yes/No - see http://forums.extensis.com/jforum/posts/list/378.page Note too that if you use screen previews, you'll need to re-create these for any records dragging into your main catalogue - the thumbnail travels but not the preview (there is a reason why).

If the Keyword text lists have tab-delim per-record data then a text import merge is possible - though if the CDs/files are old you'll need to re-save the files as Unicode before attempting import. If the lists are just lists of possible keywords rather then per-record info, these can be imported as files to Keywords or any custom field. Imported lists are merged with existing list items. To replace a list, delete the current one before importing.

thanks mwra for the quick reply.

Can you please discribe how to import the keyword text lists? I've attached a sample text file so you'll have an idea how it looks like. Do I have to import the images first and than later import the text file? Or can I do the two things together?

I'm sorry for all these questions, but I'm new to Portfolio.

Manual p136-137 tell you pretty much everything you need to know about import from text file.

OK, your file's a tab-delimited file with Filename/Title/Credits/Information/Keywords field date. If you want the Title/Credits/Information you'll need to create fields for that or decide which existing fileds they'll map to. You'll also want to get the keyword info into the correct format. Add present the keyword info is in comma-delimited form:
Code:

ant,bee,cat,dog,...

whereas it needs to be ASCII character #29 delimited. In the following I've used a % for the #29 character as the actual character is a non-printing one and you'd see nothing.
Code:

ant%bee%cat%dog%...

Note the lack of commas. The easiest way to do this is to know yourself up a Macro in Excel. If you look about in the PortfolioFAQ forums, I think there are some code samples there. IIRC, Excel doesn't do Unicode by default so if you've unusual characters in the data you might want to use a different tool.

An important fact the manual omits [sic] is that Portfolio expects import files to be in Unicode form. On the PC, Notepad allows this as non-default save option. I think you can use TextEdit on the Mac.

That's everything you need. Call back if you get stuck.

Thanks Mark,

it is no longer a problem to import text files via the "Import Field Values..."
(I tried it with simple 1-keyword lists)

The only problem I still have is to convert my comma-devided keyword list into an ASCII #29 devided list. I've already tried several things, both on Mac as PC, but nothings seems to do the trick.

Anyone got an idea how to do this?

(help)

See this article.

[Post-edit] Mac users - don't be put off by reference to use of Excel - the macro code used should work in Mac versions of Excel too. Saves faffing around with AppleScript or shell scripting (unless you like doing that).

Wow, that's it... many thanks Mark.

PS: thanks to the good help, we were able to test everything we needed to test so we've already bought a full version

Sadly I'm not on commission!

Good luck with your new Portolio.