Skip to main content
Collections are how you group related artifacts in Bower. You can think of them like folders on your drive — use them to organise by sample batch, experiment, protocol run, date range, or whatever structure matches how you work.

​
What a collection is

A collection is a named group of artifacts (notes, attachments, and protocols). Artifacts can belong to more than one collection — adding an artifact to a collection doesn’t move it, it just associates it. Collections sit in your page tree on the left-hand side of the desktop app. You can nest them and reorder them.

​
Creating a collection

1

Click New collection

In the top navigation, click New collection. Or click the + button next to Collections in the page tree.
2

Name the collection

For example: “Sample Batch 14”, “February Field Samples”, or “PCR Protocol Runs”.
3

Press Enter

​
Adding artifacts to a collection

  • Drag and drop — drag a note or attachment from the main view into a collection in the page tree.
  • Bulk add — select multiple artifacts with Cmd+click (Mac) or Ctrl+click (Windows), then use the bulk action menu to add them to a collection.

​
Organising collections

Collections can be nested inside other collections. Drag a collection over another to nest it — useful for organising by project at the top level and sample batch within. To reorder collections, drag them up or down in the page tree.

​
Visibility

Collections are visible to all members of your workspace. There are no per-collection access restrictions — if someone is a member of the workspace, they can see all collections in it. Use separate workspaces if you need strict data isolation.

​
Searching within a collection

To search within a specific collection rather than the whole workspace, open the collection first, then use Cmd+K or Ctrl+K. Search results will be scoped to that collection.