About using pick lists

Note: Pick lists are available only when using Synapse Desktop.

A pick list is a tool that you can use to collect elements from multiple projects or libraries and then download them to your desktop or copy them to another project or library. You might think of a pick list as a shopping cart in which you gather a number of elements before "buying" them all at once.

For example, suppose that you are working on a publication and want to reuse a number of images that are currently stored in multiple libraries. In the first library, you locate the elements that you want to use and add them to your pick list. You repeat this procedure for each library that contains elements you want to use. Once your pick list contains all of the elements that you want to use, you download all of the elements to your desktop. This is useful because you can download elements from multiple libraries at the same time, which is much faster than downloading elements from one library at a time.

When you add an element to a pick list, you essentially create a short cut to that element; the element still resides in its original project or library location. When you download elements from your pick list to your desktop, you are actually downloading each element from its original location. You can only download or copy an element from a pick list when the original of the element still resides in its project or library. Deleting an element from its project or library does not delete any shortcut to that element in the pick list. However, you will be unable to download or copy an element from the pick list when its original has been deleted.

Removing an element from your pick list does not affect the element in its original location. However, if you make a change to an element in your pick list, the element is changed in its original location. For example, if you add an element to your pick list and then modify the element's attributes, the attributes of the element in its original location are also modified.

Each user account has its own pick list. Whenever you log on to Synapse Desktop with the same user account, you can access the same pick list, and your pick list is unique to your user account.