Organizing assets with folders and subfolders

Folders in Collage help you organize your assets — images, videos, documents, and audio — in a clean, structured way. You can create folders from several places, nest them into subfolders, and view them however you prefer. This article walks through creating folders, handling uncategorized uploads, and choosing a view.

Create a root folder

Collage gives you four entry points for creating a top-level folder:

1. Sidebar — click New, then select New Folder.
2. Dashboard — click New Folder at the top of the Dashboard (or Create your first folder if you don't have any yet).
3. Folders page — click Folders in the sidebar, then New Folder at the top right.
4. Move dialog — while moving an asset, click the + button at the top of the Move dialog to make one on the spot.

Creating folders requires a Manager or Admin role.

Fill in the Add Folder dialog

Every entry point above opens the same Add Folder dialog:

1. In the name field (placeholder "Type Folder Name"), enter a name (required). The Add Folder button stays disabled until you type a valid name.
2. Optionally pick a folder under Select Parent Folder. Leave it blank to create a top-level folder. Search for one, or click into a folder to browse its subfolders. A preview line confirms where the new folder will go.
3. Click Add Folder to finish.

If the Add Folder button won't activate, check that the name isn't empty or spaces only, and doesn't contain any of these characters: / \ : ? * " < > |

Add a subfolder

Subfolders are managed from Folder Details (not the list or grid view):

1. Open the folder you want to nest inside.
2. Click the three-dot menu next to the folder's name and choose Add Subfolder.
3. Enter a Folder Name, optionally add a Folder Description, and click Add Folder.

Folder structure best practices

A good structure mirrors how your team actually looks for assets — not your internal org chart. A few patterns that hold up as libraries grow:

• Lead with your top way of finding things. Most brands organize the top level by brand or product line or by asset type (Photography, Video, Logos, Documents). Pick the one your team reaches for first.
• Keep the tree shallow. Two or three levels is usually enough — for example, Product Line → Asset Type. Deep nesting hides assets and makes them harder to move and share.
• Keep temporary or cross-cutting groupings out of the tree. A campaign is temporary and pulls many asset types from across folders, so it works better as a Collage than a folder. Reserve folders for an asset's stable, structural home. See Folders vs Collages.
• Let tags and custom fields do the cross-cutting work. Attributes that span folders — season, region, status, channel — belong in tags and custom fields, not in ever-more subfolders. That keeps the tree clean while still letting people filter across the whole library. See Searching and discovering content and Tagging and custom fields.
• Name folders consistently. Agree on a convention (for example, Footwear-Product-Shots) so folders sort predictably and stay easy to scan.

A clean top level often looks like this:

• Photography → Product Shots, Lifestyle, Events
• Video → Product, Social, Brand
• Logos & Brand → Logos, Colors & Fonts, Guidelines
• Sales & Partner Assets → Sell Sheets, Decks, One-Pagers

Find assets in the Uncategorized folder

When you upload assets without assigning a folder, they're collected under Uncategorized Assets, which always sits at the top of your folder list whenever there are any (Managers and Admins only). Opening it actually takes you to the same Uploaded page you land on right after uploading, not a folder detail page — so it has the bulk action bar and click-and-drag selection described below, but not the Display panel. Use Move (on its own or as a bulk action) to file those assets where they belong.

View and organize inside a folder

Open any folder and click Display (the gear icon) to control how its contents look:

• View — Grid or List. (Mosaic isn't available at folder level — that's a Collage-only view.)
• Sort by — click a field to sort by it; click again to flip between ascending and descending.
• Thumbnail size — a five-step slider, available in Grid view on larger screens.

Your view, sort, and thumbnail size apply across all folders, separately from how you view Collages or search results. Your Grid/List choice is shared with the main Folders page.

Select assets and folders the same way you would anywhere else in Collage. See Acting on many assets at once with bulk actions for how selection and the bulk action bar work.

Switch views on the Folders page

On the main Folders page, switch between Grid (visual cards) and List (detailed rows). In List view, click a column header to sort by name, date modified, date added, or item count.

• List — shows each folder's name, description, date modified, date added, and subfolder/asset count, plus its option menu.
• Grid — shows folders as visual cards with the name, subfolder and asset count, and an options menu; description and dates are hidden to keep the layout compact. A lock icon (Restricted on hover) means the folder isn't visible on any portal.

Use the folder options menu

Each folder's three-dot menu offers Share, Download, Edit (name and description), Portals, Move, and Delete. Downloading a folder saves it as a ZIP file; very large folders arrive by email as a download link instead. Viewers see only Share and Download.