# Set your default capture catalog and document type

Two small per-user settings that remove two clicks from every capture: the Default Capture Catalog on your Options page, and the per-catalog Default DocTypes page — set once, preselected forever.

Product: content-central · Versions: 7.x · Audience: user · Time: 5 minutes · Last verified: 2026-09-05

Canonical: https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/set-your-default-capture-catalog-and-document-type

**At the end of this guide, the capture page opens already set to your catalog and your document type — the two clicks you make forty times a day, made zero.**

Two settings, two places, one visit each.

## The default catalog

1. Open your avatar menu and choose **Options**.
2. On the **General** panel, under **Capture Defaults**, set **Default Capture Catalog** to the catalog you live in.
3. **Save Changes.**

Every capture page now opens with that catalog selected (a capture link that specifies its own catalog still wins — deliberate, so purpose-built links keep working).

## The default document type — per catalog

1. Open your avatar menu and choose **Default DocTypes**.

2. The **Default Document Types** page lists every catalog you can capture into, each with a **Default Document Type** selector — the page's own footer says exactly what it does: "When capturing documents, the selected default document type will be pre-selected for each catalog."

3. Pick your usual type per catalog — or leave **No default (prompt each time)** where no single type dominates — and **Save**.

*[Screenshot: One row per catalog, and the mix most people end up with: three catalogs with their obvious default set, one left on prompt-each-time.]*

Your choice here outranks any catalog-wide default your administrator set — this page is *yours*.

## Where it pays off

Every capture surface that asks "which catalog? which type?" now pre-answers: [uploading from your computer](/content-central/capture/add-a-document-from-your-computer), [DirectScan](/content-central/capture/scan-documents-with-directscan), QCard generation. You can always override on the page — defaults are the starting position, not a limit.

**Success check:** open **Capture New** > **Electronic** — your catalog and document type are already selected, fields ready. If the type didn't preselect, check the **Default DocTypes** row for *that specific catalog*: the setting is per catalog, and it's usually the other catalog that got set.

## What's next

- [Add a document from your computer](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/capture/add-a-document-from-your-computer)
- [Make the dashboard yours](https://help.ademero.com/content-central/getting-started/make-the-dashboard-yours)