# Set up a folder capture job

Make a watched folder that turns dropped-in files into documents automatically — created in the Catalog Manager on the server, with the descriptor choice that decides how documents split and where they land.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.x · Audience: system-administrator · Time: 20 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/set-up-a-folder-capture-job

**At the end of this guide, files dropped into a folder become Content Central documents on their own — split correctly into documents, filed to the right catalog, and sent either to the Coding Queue or straight to the shelf.**

> **NOTE:** Capture jobs are managed in the **Catalog Manager** application on the Content Central server — not in the web interface. If you administer from the browser only, this one's a trip to the server (or a remote session).

## Step 1: Open the catalog's capture jobs

1. On the server, open **Catalog Manager**.

2. Select the catalog in the **List of Catalogs** and click **Modify...**.

3. In the Modify Catalog wizard, go to the **Capture** tab. The **Capture Jobs** list shows existing jobs with their **Name**, **Document Type**, **Source**, **Descriptor**, and **Enabled** state.

4. Click **Add...** to open **Capture Job Details**.

*[Screenshot: Catalog Manager's Modify Catalog wizard on the Capture tab, with the Capture Jobs list and the Add button]*

## Step 2: The General tab

1. Leave **Capture Job Enabled** checked, and give the job a **Name** and **Description**.

2. Pick the **Document Type** incoming documents belong to.

3. Set **Capture Source** to **Folder**. The helper text confirms it: "A folder will be monitored and incoming files will be converted to documents."

4. Choose the **Priority** (**High** / **Medium** / **Low**) — how this job competes with other capture work.

5. Decide **Process Subfolders** — checked means files anywhere under the folder are picked up.

*[Screenshot: The Capture Job Details dialog, General tab, with Capture Source set to Folder]*

## Step 3: The Details tab — which folder

Click **...** next to **Incoming Folder** and select the folder to watch. The picker starts at your system's Incoming folder; a subfolder per catalog keeps things tidy.

> **IMPORTANT:** The watched folder can't be the same as (or nested with) certain other configured folders — the dialog enforces this with messages like "Index location folder and Incoming folder cannot be the same." If you hit one, pick a dedicated folder rather than reusing a system location.

## Step 4: The Descriptor tab — how files become documents

This choice decides how the job splits incoming files into documents, and it's the one worth thinking about before clicking OK:

| **Document Descriptor** | Behavior |
| --- | --- |
| **None** | One document per file. The helper says it plainly: QCards are not processed and should not be used |
| **QCard** | Image files, with QCard separator sheets deciding where one document ends and the next begins |
| **Xml** | Paired XML files describe each document's boundaries and field values (the integration-friendly option) |
| **Zonal** | Zones defined in Zonal Recognition (barcodes, zonal OCR) decide the boundaries |

Two follow-up settings matter:

- With **None**, a **Processing Type** choice appears: **Image** (scans converted to searchable PDF) or **Electronic** (any file type, captured as-is).
- With **None** or **Zonal**: **Bypass Coding Queue and send documents directly to Catalog** — checked, documents file straight in; unchecked, they wait in the Coding Queue for a person. QCard and XML jobs carry their details with them, so they file according to what the descriptor provides.

Click **OK**, then save the catalog.

## Step 5: Prove it

1. Drop one test file into the watched folder.

2. Wait a minute — folder pickups are processed in the background by the Capture Service.

**Success check:** the file disappears from the folder, and the document appears in the Coding Queue (or the catalog, if you bypassed the queue).

> **IMPORTANT:** The **Capture Service** does all the work here — an idle watched folder with files piling up almost always means the service isn't running. That, and the other quiet-folder causes, are covered step-by-step in [Hot-folder documents aren't processing](/content-central/capture/hot-folder-documents-arent-processing).

## What's next

- [Hot-folder documents aren't processing](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/hot-folder-documents-arent-processing)
- [How documents get into Content Central](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/how-documents-get-into-content-central)