> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.scaleflex.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.scaleflex.com/portals/viewing-a-portal/sections/gallery.md). # Gallery How visitors browse, preview and take away the assets in a gallery. A gallery is where visitors meet your assets. What they can do in it is decided entirely by how you set it up in **Gallery settings** — so this page is the mirror image of those panels, read from the visitor's side.

A gallery as a visitor meets it — the toolbar above, the assets below.

## Arriving Assets appear in the layout you chose — **Grid**, **List** or **Mosaic** — in the order your **Sort** set, however many **Assets per page** allows. What the gallery opens on depends on the **Display mode**: | Display mode | A visitor first sees | | --------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | **Flat** | One continuous set of assets. | | **Sections** | Tabs, one per group, if you left **Display tabs** on. | | **Folders** | Your folder structure, to navigate down from. | | **Collections** | The collections tree. | | **Labels** | A grid of label covers to choose from. | ## The toolbar The row above the assets, if you left **Show toolbar** on. It holds the search field, the **Variation** and **Sorting by** dropdowns, the sort-direction and regional-settings controls, the layout toggle, and the cart. With it off, visitors see the gallery exactly as you arranged it and can't re-sort or re-lay it out. ## Searching The search box in the toolbar searches the assets the gallery holds. On its own it asks a visitor to arrive with the right word already in mind, which is the hard part of searching somebody else's library. Turning on **Search suggestions** helps them find it, in two places: * **While they type.** From the second character, a list drops down offering terms that actually occur in the assets. The part already typed is dimmed and the rest is bold, so the completion stands out. Arrow keys move through the list and back out to what was typed, **Enter** searches for the highlighted term, and **Escape** closes the list without clearing the box. * **Once a search has run.** A **Refine search** row appears under the box with terms that sit alongside the results — the words a visitor wouldn't have thought to try. Picking one re-runs the search for that term, and the box updates to match. Both draw on the terms present in the assets rather than a generic dictionary, so a suggestion does not lead to an empty gallery. In **Folders**, **Collections** and **Labels** display modes, the box at the top level reads **Search folders**, **Search collections** or **Search labels**: it narrows the list in front of the visitor rather than searching assets, so no suggestions appear until they have opened something and are looking at assets. ## Filtering The **Filters** button sits beside the gallery and is independent of the toolbar — hiding the toolbar leaves filtering available. Which filters appear is up to you: asset format, size, video duration, tags, and any metadata fields you added. In **Collections** mode the filters appear once a visitor drills into a group's assets rather than at the top level. If you turned on **Allow searching by tags**, the tags shown on an asset are clickable, and selecting one filters the gallery to assets carrying it. ## Opening an asset Selecting an asset opens it in the viewer suited to its type: | Asset | Opens as | | ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Images | The asset details view, with metadata beside the image, or a lightbox. | | Video | A video player. | | Audio | An audio player — see [Audio files](/portals/viewing-a-portal/sections/gallery/audio-files.md). | | PDF and Word documents | A document viewer. | | PowerPoint and Excel | A document viewer, when external tools are enabled for your project. | | 3D models | A 3D model viewer, for `obj`, `stl`, `fbx`, `glb`, `gltf`, `amf` and `3ds` files. | | Anything else | No preview. Visitors see *Sorry, preview is not available for this format.* and can download the file instead. | What a visitor can do once an asset is open — read its metadata, switch variation, download, embed, link to it — is covered in [Working with assets](/portals/viewing-a-portal/working-with-assets.md). ## Taking assets away What's on offer depends on what you allowed in **View options**: | If you turned on | A visitor can | | ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Allow assets for download** | Download an asset, or collect several in the [download cart](/portals/viewing-a-portal/sections/gallery/download-cart.md). | | **Enable sharing** | Create a [share link](/portals/viewing-a-portal/share-links.md) for someone who can't open the Portal. | | **Show embed button** | Copy a CDN link from **Embed**, to use the asset on a page of their own. | With all three off, the gallery is for looking at — which is a legitimate choice for work in progress or a look-book.

Hovering an asset brings up what you allowed — here the cart, sharing and download.

## What they don't see The gallery shows what your **Source** and **Criteria** allow, and nothing else. A visitor can't widen it: filters narrow what you chose, they never reach past it. ## In this section * [Audio files](/portals/viewing-a-portal/sections/gallery/audio-files.md) — playing audio without leaving the Portal. * [Download cart](/portals/viewing-a-portal/sections/gallery/download-cart.md) — collecting several assets and downloading them together.