If you’ve been working with Quick collection and Smart Collections in LR3 you’re gonna like this new feature in LR4.
I often use Collections to organize my photos temporary before export. This way I can easily pick the “best ones” for my clients in a very fast way.
To add an image to a quick collection you just have to select a photo, right-click and select “Add to Quick Collection” Â (or press “B”).
The downside of the Quick Collection is that you only can have ONE! So each time you’re done you have to clear the collection. Otherwise you would end up with a mix of different photos in that collection.
I work with more than one client at a time, so I really need more than one Quick collection. The easiest way to do that is basically to start creating a collection for each client that I want to select photos for.
In the image below I have created a collection called “My Collection”. Next up is to set that collection as Target Collection.
This way I can select/add my photos to this collection, the same way that I previously did for the Quick Collection.
Just right click on any collection you’d like to set as target collection. (To remove the target, simply select it again from the menu)
As you will notice the next time you right click on a photo, the menu now says “Add to Target Collection” instead of “Add to Quick Collection“. 
A targeted collection is marked by a “+”-sign on its right side (See image below)
When I work with multiple clients at the same time I switch target collections back and forth depending on how big the job is.
Do you use Quick Collections or perhaps Smart Collections in Lightroom?
nice tip, thanks :)
the only collection that i use is the Quick collection, but i’m new to LR. i had an extensive photo archive with well organized directories from way back, so i don’t need to put my photos into collections so much.
thank for the tips. i will try it later.