Adjust Content panel display



The Content panel displays thumbnails, detailed thumbnails, or a list of the files and folders in the selected folder. By default, Adobe Bridge generates color-managed thumbnails and displays them in the Content panel with file or folder names as well as ratings and labels.

You customize the view in the Content panel by displaying detailed text information with thumbnails or viewing thumbnails as a list. You can also resize thumbnails and specify thumbnail quality. Choose Horizontal Layout or Vertical Layout from the Content panel menu to position scroll bars. Choosing Auto Layout ensures that Adobe Bridge switches between a horizontal and vertical layout as needed.

Choose a view mode

 Choose one of the following from the View menu:

  • As Thumbnails to display files and folders as thumbnails with file or folder names as well as ratings and labels.

  • As Details to display thumbnails with additional text information.

  • As List to display files and folders as a list of filenames with associated metadata in a column format.

  • Show Thumbnail Only to display thumbnails without any text information, labels, or ratings.

    Click the buttons in the lower-right corner of the Adobe Bridge window to View Content As Thumbnails, View Content As Details, or View Content As List.

Adjust the size of thumbnails

Make thumbnails smaller so you can see more of them at once, or enlarge them to see thumbnail details.

  • Drag the Thumbnail slider  at the bottom of the Adobe Bridge window.
    Note: When you resize the Adobe Bridge window in Auto Layout mode, thumbnails in the Content panel also resize. To avoid this behavior, choose Horizontal Layout or Vertical Layout from the Content panel menu.
  • Click the Smaller Thumbnail Size button at the far left of the Thumbnail slider to reduce the number of columns in the Content panel by one. Click the Larger Thumbnail Size button at the far right of the Thumbnail slider to increase the number of columns in the Content panel by one. Adobe Bridge automatically maximizes the size of the thumbnails for the number of columns displayed.

Lock the grid

Lock the grid so that Adobe Bridge always displays complete thumbnails in the Content panel. When the grid is locked, thumbnails keep their configuration if the window is resized or panels opened or closed.

 Choose View > Grid Lock, or click the Grid Lock button  next to the Thumbnail slider at the bottom of the Adobe Bridge window.

Show additional metadata for thumbnails

The Additional Lines Of Thumbnail Metadata preference specifies whether to show additional metadata information with thumbnails in the Content panel.

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Bridge CS4 > Preferences (Mac OS), and click Thumbnails.
  2. In the Additional Lines Of Thumbnail Metadata area, choose the type of metadata to display. You can display up to four extra lines of information.

Limit file size for thumbnails

You can limit the file size for which Adobe Bridge creates thumbnails (displaying large files can slow performance). If Adobe Bridge can’t create thumbnails, it displays the icon associated with that particular file type. Adobe Bridge disregards this setting when displaying thumbnails for video files.

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Bridge CS4 > Preferences (Mac OS), and click Thumbnails.
  2. Enter a number in the Do Not Process Files Larger Than box.

Specify monitor-size previews

Monitor-size previews display the highest quality preview possible based on the resolution of your monitor. With monitor-size previews enabled, images appear sharp in full-screen mode.

  1. Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Bridge CS4 > Preferences (Mac OS), and click Advanced.
  2. Select Generate Monitor-Size Previews.

Specify thumbnail quality

You can specify that Adobe Bridge display embedded, high-quality, or 1:1 previews of image thumbnails for individual folders of images.

  • For faster browsing, choose a folder and then select the Browse Quickly By Preferring Embedded Images button  in the Adobe Bridge application bar.
  • To display higher-quality thumbnail previews, click the Options For Thumbnail Quality And Preview Generation button  in the Adobe Bridge application bar and choose one of the following:

    • Prefer Embedded (Faster) to use the low-resolution thumbnails embedded in the source file. These thumbnails aren’t color managed. This option is equivalent to choosing Browse Quickly By Preferring Embedded Images.

    • High Quality On Demand to use embedded thumbnails until you preview an image, at which time Adobe Bridge creates color-managed thumbnails generated from the source files.

    • Always High Quality to always display color-managed thumbnails for all images. Always High Quality is the default quality setting.

    • Generate 100% Previews to create 100% previews of images in the background for Loupe and Slideshow views. This option speeds loupe and slide show operations but uses more disk space and slows initial browsing. See Use the Loupe tool and View images as a slide show.

Customize the List view

You can customize the List view by sorting and resizing the columns, and by choosing which metadata categories to display.

  1. Choose View > As List.
  2. Do any of the following:

    • Click any column header to change the direction of the sort order.

    • Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS) any column header to choose a different metadata category, close the column, insert a new column, resize the column, or return to the default configuration.

      Note: The Name column is always the leftmost column.

    • Drag the vertical divider bar between two columns to make them wider or narrower.

    • Double-click between two column headers to automatically resize the column to the left.