What is the difference between Global and Local categories?

Categories is a way to collect and filter on assets and other content types in a different way than folders.

As an administrator, you may have access to managing categories in the top right corner inside Place.

Local categories only apply to specific Place archives/folders.

You may not use a local category structure from one archive inside another.

You may not use local categories on any other applications, except Place.

Example:

• You have two archives. A local category structure is only possible to assign to assets inside one of the archives without being available in the other.
• Local categories are not possible to use in other applications, but if users go to a search page, they may use the local categories as filters.

Global categories may be used across most application.

Example:

You have a campaign category in your global category structure.

• Place: You may assign assets to this "campaign" category across all your archives (if needed). If you have one logo archive and one images archive, these may now be assigned to the same category.
• Point: Pages in may be assigned to the category to create filters or automatic searches (feeds)
• Plan: May use global categories for list items and other functionality.
• Produce: Templates may be assigned to a global category to help filter down on specific content. (coming in January 2025 release)
• Prove: Allows you to filter on categories, allowing you to list related content and metrics.

You can see all available categories under Categories and Tags in Place.

You can see categories in the filters menu inside Point (if enabled).

As a end user, you may only see categories which are used on assets within your search.

Example 1:

On a page in Point, you are showing assets only from the "images" archive. If you only use a few of the categories from the global structure on those assets, other categories are hidden because there are no assets to display, even if they are used on assets in other archives.

Example 2: 

Not all categories in the local category structure are being used. When users open the filters menu in Place or try to search in point, any unused categories will be hidden. For uploaders and editors, the categories will be available for selection within the archive.