Review and approve a proof
Before you start reviewing a proof, make sure you know what’s expected of you. What is your role in the proofing workflow? Review the proof, approve it, or both?
As a copy editor, your focus could be reviewing the proof for grammatical errors and misspellings. Marketing and creative teams may focus on the asset’s design and making sure corporate branding is followed. Legal teams may ensure the wording of a services contract is airtight. And a project manager might make sure the content being reviewed meets the intent and goals of the project it’s associated with.
You might be asked to approve the proof, too. Approving a proof means you’re saying, “this work is OK and ready to go.” Or maybe you have to say, “this work needs changes made, please send it back for revisions.”
Once you know what’s expected, you can get started with reviewing a proof.
Receive a proof to review
When an asset is ready for review and approval, you will receive an email notification.
It is important to note that this proof link is unique to you. If you share the link with someone, any comments and markup they do will be tagged with your name.
The New Proof email also contains essential information about the proof:
- The name of the proof is the subject line of the email.
- The thumbnail gives you a quick look at what you’ll be reviewing.
- The version number lets you know which version of the proof you’ll be looking at.
- And, most importantly, the deadline appears two places in the email—right above the proof details section and in the gray bar for the workflow stage you’re part of.
Once you’re ready to start your review, all you have to do is click the blue Go to proof button and the file automatically opens in the Workfront proofing viewer.
Open a proof from Home
If you’re working in Workfront and have been asked to approve a proof, you’ll find an assignment in the Work List of Workfront Home. It’s helpful to select just Approvals from the Filter, so you can focus on that type of work.
It’s important to note that proofs show up in Workfront Home only if you’re assigned to approve it. If you’ve just been asked to only review the proof, it will not show up in Workfront Home when you select Approvals from the filter list.
Select the proof approval in the Work List, then click the Go to Proof link to open it into the proofing viewer.
Depending on your organization’s proof and project workflows, you may see a task assignment in Workfront Home instead of a proof approval request. In this case, you’ll open the proof from the Documents section of the task itself (see below for instructions).
You may also find proofs to review on a Workfront dashboard that was created specifically for your team or organization to help manage proof workflows.
Open a proof from a project, task, or issue
If you normally work with projects, tasks, or issues in Workfront, you may prefer to open the proof directly from the Documents section of that item.
- Click the name of the project, task, or issue.
- Click Documents in the left panel menu of the item’s page.
- Find the proof in the Documents list.
- Click the Open Proof link to open the proofing viewer.
How to approve a proof
After you’ve opened a proof you will see a Make decision button at the top, next to Add comment. If you are not an approver for this proof you will not see this button.
When you are ready to make a decision click the Make decision button to see your decision options. Select your choice, then click the other Make decision button below.
Review and approve a proof
In this video, you will learn how to:
- Know what’s expected of you when reviewing a proof
- Make a comment on a proof
- Use markup to indicate changes needed on a proof
- Reply to a proof comment
- Approve or reject a proof