This short guide will walk you through how to:

If you would like to share some training materials with your team about the review process in Ziflow, we have prepared a special Reviewers Guide in PDF format.

The review begins with an email notifying you that a new proof was created and requires your input. The email contains a personalized link to the proof. Because every reviewer may have different access rights, you shouldn’t share this link. Every reviewer added to the proof will receive their own personalized email and link to access the proof.

The email will show a preview of the asset to be reviewed. It also contains a workflow snapshot of where exactly it is in the review process. To start reviewing the file, click on the green Open Proof button, which will take you to the Ziflow Proof Viewer.

Now you’re in! This is where you will spend time reviewing and providing feedback on the content.

If a reviewer wants to post a comment, they need to click on the Comment button in the upper right corner of the screen, enter a message in the comment box, and publish it by clicking Post.

Once you’ve accessed the proof, you can start the process of providing feedback using markups and comments. With Ziflow, you can create markups directly on all file types to communicate what you want to see changed. The easiest way to get started is simply by clicking where you want to start drawing or highlighting text. When drawing a markup, you can choose from rectangle, circle, arrow, line, freehand drawing, and text selection.

You can move the toolbar around the screen, selecting and using the appropriate drawing option to indicate wherever you have feedback. Add your message in the comment box, click Post, and your markup and comment will be published. This process can also be done in reverse. First, type your message in the comment box, add a markup, and click Post.

Marking up text is easy in Ziflow. Simply use the text selection tool to highlight, replace, delete, or insert text, adding any additional notes on the changes in the comment box as needed.

As with the drawing tool, the text selection tool can be used simply by clicking on the word or phrase you want to select. Whichever tool option you last used (highlight, replace, delete, insert) will be the default, but you can easily select another option. In this scenario, I chose the Replace Text tool. Add a comment describing what should be changed, and click Post to publish the markup and the comment.

Let's say a reviewer opens a proof after some comments/markups and annotations are made. The reviewer should read the posted content and give feedback to the team.

If a reviewer clicks on a comment inside the comment box, they will be automatically redirected to the page where the comment/annotation was made (replies to this comment will also be displayed). Comments can also be switched by clicking the arrow buttons above the comment bar.

If you’d like to reply to a comment, simply click the Reply button in the comment box. That will open a box where you can add a new message.

When you’ve completed your markups, there are a few ways to complete your review - and that depends on what role you were given by the Proof Owner.

If you have decision rights, you’ll be able to select an action indicating the results of your review, including Approved, Approved with changes, Not relevant, Pending, Changes required. Once you’ve made all your markups and annotations, you can click the Make Decision button and choose a decision from the list.

Account administrators on Pro, Business Legacy & Enterprise accounts can also set custom decision labels for their reviewers.

Once a decision is selected, the Proof Owner will be notified. When all reviewers submit their decisions, Ziflow will calculate the final decision automatically.

Reviewers who do not have decision permissions can still notify the Proof Owner that they have finished working on a proof. Their decision does not affect the final decision for the whole proof. It is just a way of notifying about the reviewer’s work status.

Sometimes, there is more than one version of a proof routed before final approval is reached. In these cases, you can use the handy Compare Mode to compare two versions (older and newer). Compare Mode can be accessed from the upper left portion of the screen. The top toolbar offers multiple ways to compare proofs, including:

Plus, you can still access the usual markup/commenting tools at the bottom of the screen in Compare Mode.