One of the major components in making this possible is our rich set of online proofing tools which we’re constantly updating to make creative collaboration as streamlined and natural as possible.
So, you know what, let’s add another one!
Our new online proofing tool is called Group and it makes giving feedback even easier for everyone.
The creation of the new Group proofing tool deserves a big shout out to our customers - and one in particular (you know who you are, thank you) - for suggesting how this would save even more time in the review and approval process.
Let’s look at a use case of the Group tool first to put it into context and then see how it works.
BACKGROUND OF THE GROUP ONLINE PROOFING TOOL
It can be argued that reviewing and giving feedback on creative work broadly fits into the three stages: thought, annotation and conversation.
The thought process begins when the collaborator experiences the work for the first time and forms an initial impression based on feeling for what works and what doesn’t. This naturally leads the collaborator to delve into the next annotation stage of marking up and commenting on the proof. We’ll come back to this second stage in a minute.
Once annotations are entered, the third stage of collaboration takes place. Or more specifically, comment threads start developing through replies to the original one, leading to the awesome conversation, file sharing and @mentioning that pushes the creative boundaries as wide as possible.
This way the comment threads are well organised together, whereas if we look back at the annotations and markups themselves, they are added separately and create their own isolated threads which right now cannot be joined together.
This is exactly what we’re zeroing in on with our Group tool.
We’re applying the concept of conversation threads to annotations and markups, essentially creating markup threads.
Put simply, the Group tool empowers you to make a number of separate annotations or markups and combine them all into one thread, saving a ton of time and keeping feedback on the proof more tidy and organised.
So here’s a classic use case example of how it increases productivity.
If an image or strap-line is used on multiple pages or frames across a piece of creative work, normally you would have to make a separate comment for each time it appears.
Now, with the Group tool, you can highlight all those instances inside one combined comment, so you only have to talk about it once and not repeat yourself over and over again.
Yeah! that feels good.
HOW TO USE THE GROUP ONLINE PROOFING TOOL
Drop open the ADD COMMENT menu at the top above your proof and you’ll see GROUP listed at the bottom.
Select this and the Group icon will appear at the top next to a GROUP button. This tells you the Group function has been enabled and you can now start making markups.
The markups are done using box drawing. So go right ahead and make multiple box draws across your proof and as you do them, you’ll notice a stack of rolled up comments building down the right hand side. They contain the page number it’s been made on if it’s a multi-page document.
When you’re done making your group markups, hit the GROUP button to commit them. There are two button options you can use to do this, the one at the top previously mentioned or the one that appears just above your comment thread on the right.
There are two button options you can use to do this, the one at the top previously mentioned or the one that appears just above your comment thread on the right.
The Group comments are now tidily listed together under one line item, saving space and making the interface fresher and easier on the eyes.
In addition, we appreciate it’s difficult to spot everything connected straight away when proofing work, so we’ve added the ability to submit more markups into the group after it has been committed.
Open the comment group by clicking on it and you’ll see a new button called ADD MORE. Simply hit this button and you’ll drop back into Group mode and be able to draw more boxes and commit those to the same group.
At the same time, you can delete individual items from groups using the Trash icon on the right of each one. And you can edit the group’s master comment using the Edit pencil icon.
Easy.
BUT WAIT! We’ve squeezed in another bonus feature!
Everyone has a favourite proofing tool, right? Well now you can keep your favourite or the most useful one for the job locked on ready for the next comment.
So you don’t have to reselect it from the drop-down menu each time you make a comment. Just check the Keep Tool Active box in the bottom left-hand corner of the Add Comment window and you’ll be set for the next one.
The new Group tool is another innovation to make reviewing and approving creative work faster for everyone and we hope you love it.
