Here's a feature some of my savviest Creative Suite friends didn't know about (so I know it's cool): you can view the entire contents of a folder, including thumbnails of all the subfolder items, all at once in the Bridge window. Adobe calls this the Flat View, and the only real trick is finding the tiny, obscure "Flatten View" button quietly stashed in the Filter panel. Make sure said panel is showing (Window > Filter Panel) and look for the button right underneath the "Filter" tab. For some inexplicable reason, it's represented by a folder with a red circle/slash symbol. (Maybe it's supposed to mean "No Subfolders?")
Once you find the thing, simply click the icon, and voila, you are presented with thumbnails of all your subfolder items in one handy window. If you're looking for one particular file in a hierarchically organized collection, you don't have to click down into individual subfolders (and back) searching for it.
This has been particularly handy for managing the image files for books I'm editing. Take Derrick's soon-to-be-released The Digital Photography Companion, for instance. During the editorial process, I keep the image files in manageable-sized folders, organized by chapter so they can be easily shipped out to the tech editor, copyeditor, etc. But when the Design department wants an image from the interior to use for a catalog or brochure, I can use the Flatten View feature to scan the whole collection looking for that awesome shot of San Francisco without having to remember it's in Chapter 3.
You can apply the features of the Filters panel to the whole set, too. So once you have all the files in the window, you can still filter by file type, keyword, and other handy categories. (In my case, I might ask for keyword, "San Francisco" to get every shot of SF in the entire book.) When you're done, click the mystery icon again and Bridge puts you back in your hierarchically organized parent folder with subfolders intact.
Categories
Design
Comments (7)
Read More Entries by Colleen Wheeler.
@Ian You can't add keywords in Slideshow mode, but you can tag with star ratings or color labels. Just use the keyboard shortcuts while the slideshow is playing; the ratings or labels will appear onscreen in the lower left corner. When you're done, you can use the Filter panel to select all the yellow labels, three stars, whatever you like.
PS for a handy mid-slideshow reminder of what the keyboard shortcuts are, press H during the slideshow and a bunch of controls will appear on the screen.
In Adobe bridge (CS3)is there anyway to tag images during a slide show and then re view the tagged images or copy them somewhere else?
Brian,
Unfortunately, as far as I know this was a feature that was added for the Bridge version (2) that came with CS3. I fired up my Powerbook (where CS2 lives now) and couldn't find a way to do it pre-Bridge 2. In fact, I had forgotten just how primitive that first version of Bridge was. I also remember being shown this icon at an InDesign CS3 users group meeting, where it was presented as a new feature of the Bridge CS3 (and audience members oooo'ed over it.
If anyone can prove me wrong, please do!
How do you get to filter view? I have bridge for CS2 on my mac and when i go to window at the top of the screen my only options are workspace, minimize, bring all to front and download status.
Super thanks! You saved me. =)
So glad you found it useful, Matt. The first time I saw it demo'd at an InDesign Users Group meeting, the whole audience gave a murmur of surprise and approval.
Brilliant! Thanks so much for this. I hunted around the Bridge interface for 10 minutes trying to find such an option, and was about to give up when I found this article.
It's one of the features I love about iPhoto, and I'm very happy to discover that Bridge can do it too!
Matt