I'm coming from the perspective of using SCCM for quite some time and we like to replicate the following in Desktop Central:

1) Essential software - software installed on all computers

2) Optional software - software installed by the user depending on their needs

Sometimes we'd like optional software to be mandatory on a select group of computers.

I've managed to get all our essential software automatically installed on the test machines. The second option of optional installs triggered by the Self-Service Portal is proving to be a little trickier. I cannot seem to find out how to do so. I have created the packages but don't see the option to advertise these packages only in the Self Service Portal only - deploying the package to 'local office' seems to be the only option and then the software is installed on all computers as expected. 

Are optional installs of software possible with Desktop Central? If so, I'd be grateful if someone could point me to the correct documentation.

Also the essential software packages are listed in the Portal (as I wanted them to be in case we wanted to re-install them) but their status remains as 'Yet to Install' and the action as 'Install'. Is this what I should expect?

Thanks in advance!