Portfolio offers a wide range of support and customizability to allow it to be used for a variety of purposes. To this end and to keep it as straightforward as possible, Portfolio splits its interface into two main sections: viewing and configuration. The configuration section is divided by area (e.g., Content, Appearance, Backup, etc). Once you have a general idea of which area is responsible for which aspect of the app it becomes much easier to quickly tweak a color, add an image, hide a gallery, or present to a client.
The front screen functions as the launch pad for the rest of the app, providing the navigational functions for your galleries and for accessing the management areas. Every aspect of the front screen is customizable, but at the bare minimum there will be a configure button in the bottom right corner to provide access to the rest of the app.
This is the screen that is displayed first after launch. It will display any branding you configure it to in the appearance customizer and display all of the galleries and folders you’ve chosen to display in the gallery manager.
Tapping on the configure button will open up the configuration area allowing you to select the area you'd like to edit or to lock the app.
All configuration is handled from the various sub-sections of the configuration screen: adding, removing, and editing of the gallery hierarchy under Content, the front theme and overall appearance under Appearance, viewer colors and behaviors under Viewer, launch screen images under Launch, the background color and placeholder image under External Screen, kiosk-type settings under Kiosk, and backup up or restoring of the library under Backup/Restore.
Appearance customization is handled completely in the appearance customization panel and includes the front theme, external screen placeholder, launch screen, viewer appearance, and customizable behaviors. If it’s part of the appearance of the app (other than your content) then it’s in this panel.
The gallery management panel is responsible for all content loading and editing, which includes both the gallery/folder structure and the media to be shown. In this panel you can create the gallery and folder hierarchy, selectively hide or show them, configure per-gallery settings such as the slideshow soundtrack and metadata overlays, and add or edit gallery content.
The content you load into Portfolio can be spread across a gallery and folder hierarchy you create. Folders and galleries in Portfolio function similarly to their counterparts on a computer: folders and files. Folders contain other folders and galleries while galleries contain the content. If you view it, it’s contained within a gallery while folders are there to let you divide up your galleries into different groupings. Folders are only for organizational purposes.
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Themes define how the front screen looks and behaves. There are a few built-in ones, but you also have the option to add any number of your own. Each entry in the theme listing has a button to make it the current theme and a button to customize it. The customization portion is split into two sections: the appearance and the layout. Everything related to the fonts, colors, text, or other attributes is in the appearance section while everything related to the position, size, and component makeup is in the layout section.
A more detailed guide on themes is available and covers all of the different settings available.
The viewer has a number of settings that can be configured, ranging from background colors to which of the various viewing-related functions are enabled.
A more detailed overview of the viewer settings is available.
The two images set in the launch screen panel designate what is shown at Portfolio's launch. The images are presented full-screen and show until the full library is loaded.
A more detailed overview of the launch panel is available.
When in the viewer the external screen shows whatever is showing on the iPad minus the interface. When not in the viewer it shows the placeholder and background color configured in this panel.
A more detailed overview of the external screen panel is available.
Some of Portfolio's features are available for when the iPad is in use as a kiosk device, such as at a tradeshow. Those features are configurable from within this panel.
A more detailed overview of kiosk features is available.
To help with deploying across multiple iPads and to allow multiple sets of content Portfolio provides the ability to export and import the library.
A more detailed overview of backing up and restoring the library is available.
The viewer is responsible for actually displaying your content and any interaction with it. Viewing images, playing videos, and browsing PDFs are all done within the viewer. Tapping any gallery from the front launches the viewer with that gallery set as the content source. Where possible, the behaviors of the viewer from swiping left or right to switch items to pinching to zoom have been based on the native Photos app.
Using the viewer is also covered in more detail in Basic Viewing.
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