English 585: Editing Principles and Practices II

Organizing a Portfolio

Much of your portfolio assignment depends on careful organization. Here are some tips for assembling an effective portfolio.

Directory Structure

Start your portfolio project by designing a directory structure to simulate the CD-ROM you plan to create. Name a primary folder or directory to represent the CD itself. Name a startup document that will be located at the root level of your CD and place it inside your simulated-CD folder. Then create subfolders or directories with short names to minimize directory access problems. There are many ways to organize your files. For example, you might create folders for each of the seven skill areas to be represented in the portfolio with subfolders for archival files, audio files, video files, and text files or you might create folders for archives, commentaries, and media with appropriate subfolders. Devise a system and stick with it; changes in directory names or structure could break hyperlinks or other file linkages. If your directory structure is set, then creating links from your presentation software will be much simpler.

Software

Select the software you intend to use to create the interface for your multimedia files. Then design an interface that provides a visual identity for your portfolio, introduces your project, and structures access to your files. Here are some tips for different software options:

Word. In Microsoft Word you could integrate text and multimedia within a wordprocessing document or you could use hyperlinks to external documents. The former method allows better integration but file size can be large; the latter method creates an efficient table of contents for your material but results in a awkward shift between Word and Explorer.

PowerPoint. Use the Slide Show menu to add action buttons or to add actions to your own icons. PowerPoint can be saved as a web page, a movie, or a slide show. Web pages are better created in GoLive, Dreamweaver, and BBEdit Lite, however. Movies typically have problems with buttons and sometimes with audio. The slide show is more dependable but requires PowerPoint to work.

Web Editor. An html document would work well as a simple interface to portfolio files. Locate the file at the top level of your CD and make sure that all the paths are correct by checking every hyperlink. GoLive, Dreamweaver, and BBEdit Lite are available in the lab.

Flash. Flash is the most flexible interface but requires a greater learning curve. If you stick with buttons (These can be text to serve as content categories) and a display space for your files, then minimal skills are needed. You will need to understand importing, symbols, and some Actionscripting for button actions. Use the Publish Settings to control what files Flash exports when you “publish” a movie. The projectors are ideal since Flash will create both Mac and PC versions and will make them standalone applications.

Storage

Cross-Platform CDs. Toast can burn three kinds of cross-platform CDs (see Toast help for more details). A data CD stores both Mac and PC files with both visible to each system even though some files won’t work on both. ISO 9660 CDs follow a standard for storing multiple directories so Macs and PCs can locate all files, though the filenames may be altered in the process, breaking hyperlinks. For the portfolio project, choose the third option, a custom hybrid CD. This hybrid requires you to create a temporary disk image for storing the Mac files and automatically creates a space for the PC files.

For the Mac side, create the temporary disk under the Utilities menu and name it exactly what you want the Mac CD to be called. Copy files to this temporary CD (it appears as a CDRW disk icon on the desktop) and arrange them visually so that they form a clear structure with an obvious file to use as startup (preferably one at the root level outside any folders.) Use the “Select Mac” button to choose your temporary CD disk as the Mac part of the hybrid CD.

For the PC side, use the “Select ISO 9660” button. Then under the Settings tab, select the Joliet option for the most flexible set of directories. Mark the checkbox for always including file types for Mac files. Under the Files tab, use the “New CD” button to name your PC disk. Use the “Add...” button to choose PC files. If you choose files from the Mac temporary CD disk to appear on the PC disk, they will be stored on the hybrid disk only ones.

Always burn a simulated disk image before burning an action CD so you can detect any problems before ruining a disk. You can use the “Write as a Disc Image” from the File menu to create a simulated hybrid disk that you can examine for correctness. At the final burn time, choose the buffer underrun projection option to minimize burn errors.

Filenames. Making filenames work on various systems and platforms can be problematic. Keep your filenames short, clear, with three-letter file type extensions, and with no spaces or special characters. In Toast select the option to show Mac filename extensions (Settings tab, PC side) and be sure to include those extensions in the filenames (.doc, .htm, .pps). Where possible, save files that will work without special software (save standalone projectors in Flash, for instance, in separate Mac and PC versions). Arrange files and folders in the temporary CD the way you want them to look to users.

File Transfer. Create your portfolio folder on one of the PowerBooks, set up the folder structure, and start moving copies of files from current locations to the folder. Use FireWire drives, CDs, or direct transfer to move the files. Remember that you can save movies with larger screen sizes or higher quality compression for use on CDs. When files are complete and thoroughly tested, burn your CDs.

Toast Screen