Opening and making PDF collections (portfolios)
PDF by Zaweba shows PDF collections as a file list with columns and folders, opens the PDFs inside in tabs, and can make a new collection from your files.
A PDF collection, often called a portfolio, is one PDF that holds several files. It's a tidy way to send a bundle together: a set of contracts with their schedules, a planning application with drawings and reports, a course pack with handouts. PDF by Zaweba opens collections, lets you work with the files inside, and makes new ones.
Opening a collection
When you open a collection, PDF by Zaweba shows it as a file list. The list has the collection's own columns, which the person who made it may have set up to show things like a description, a date or a reference, and its folders, so a large bundle stays organised.
Click a PDF in the list and it opens in a tab of its own. You can read it, search it, and work with it like any other document, then go back to the list for the next one. With several files open in tabs, moving between related documents is quick.
Keeping the structure when saving
Save all keeps the folders. When you've opened and changed documents from a collection, saving all of them preserves the collection's arrangement instead of flattening everything into one heap. That matters for bundles where the folder structure means something, such as "Signed" and "Drafts", or one folder per property.
Making a collection
File, then Create a PDF collection makes one from your files. It's a good choice when you want to send several documents as one item and keep them separate inside, rather than combining them into a single long PDF.
The difference is worth thinking about. Combining files merges their pages into one document, which suits something meant to be read straight through. A collection keeps each file whole, with its own pages, settings and signatures, which suits a bundle of separate documents.
Associated files
Associated files, often shortened to AF, are files attached to a PDF with a stated relationship, such as being the source data for a chart or an alternative version of the document. PDF by Zaweba keeps associated files with their relationships. It sounds small, but some archiving and invoicing standards depend on these relationships being kept, so a tool that quietly dropped them would break those files.
Practical tips
Give the files inside a collection clear names before you build it. The list is how people find their way, and "Schedule A, lease terms" is far easier than "scan0043".
Use folders for any collection with more than a handful of files. Group by type, by stage or by person, whichever suits the reader.
Before sending a collection outside your organisation, think about what each file carries. Clean up each file with Remove hidden information before it goes in, so nothing private travels inside the bundle.
When a collection is the right tool
Choose a collection when the documents belong together but should stay separate. Choose combining when you want one continuous document. Choose individual files when the documents travel separately anyway.
PDF by Zaweba handles all three offline, so assembling a bundle of private documents never means uploading them anywhere first.
