There’s been so much going on over the last few weeks that it’s time for a quick August roundup of new online proofing software features that have been rolled out in the latest releases of GoProof.
We get a ton of requests for extra proofing and collaboration functions from our incredible customers and we always try our best to see if we can do each one.
Some are huge development cycles, some quick and easy but whether we do them or not is based primarily on how much more value it gives our customers and the importance of it in our holistic vision.
Top of the agenda is automation. Anything that can help get marketing and creative work reviewed ahead of schedule and contribute to reducing the amount of stress or fallout has got to go up there.
August is just the ticket for automation. We’re calling it Auto-August!
Here’s why.
AUTOMATED DEADLINES AND REMINDERS
First out of the blocks is a great enhancement to an existing feature which was suggested to us by an awesome customer.
In GoProof you can set a deadline against a proof and as many reminders as you want when you send it for review. This keeps the pressure on your collaborators to review it in time and if they forget or get sidetracked, they’ll get politely pushed along the way.
Some proofing routes are very similar in timeframe, whereas others are more random. For the similar ones, like if you have a company standard policy for turning around content or you have particular clients that work in a fixed way, then the deadline and reminders can be almost identical each time.
You really don’t want to manually enter these deadlines and reminders whenever you send a proof, right?
So we’ve created a way to pre pack your deadlines and reminders so you can apply them to a proof with just a simple one-time setup.
Here’s how you do it.
First, go to the Clients menu at the top to view all your clients. Click the dropdown menu on the client you want to add automatic deadlines and reminders to and select Client Deadlines.
Your chosen client will be highlighted in the list on the next screen but you can select All Clients if it’s something you want to roll out across everyone.
Then set your deadlines and reminders using the Offset method. This means you enter the amount of time after you send a proof out that you want the alert to occur.
So for example, if you want a deadline of 5 days from proof release with a reminder on the two days running up to it, then select 5 from the Days option and add a reminder at 3 Days and a reminder at 4 Days. Done.
Each time you send out a proof for that client, those deadlines and reminders will be automatically applied.
There’s no hard restriction though, so you can still remove or change them at the point of sending the proof out. It just means you don’t have to manually set them up every time.
A welcome timesaver.
NUDGE THE WHOLE GROUP, NOT JUST ONE PERSON
Next is a simple addition to the proofing zone which helps speed up the process of getting all your ghost collaborators engaged on a review.
GoProof tracks whether they have seen and finished their review of the proof with a simple status that updates in real time, which helps you make decisions.
And here’s a classic context. You may have 14 collaborators on a review. Three have seen the proof but not done anything with it and the other 11 are showing as not seen, meaning they haven’t even opened it.
Your deadline is fast approaching and you are busy with all the other stuff you’re working on in the project, so can’t afford to spend ages trying to gee up each one.
Instead of having to nudge each one in turn, you can now push out a nudge to everyone in the collaborator group in just one click.
The Nudge Group function is a simple text link on the Collaborators tab inside the proofing zone. You’ll find it just underneath the tab itself when you have selected it.
Just click it, type in your nudge message and fire it off. All done.
AUTOMATED PROOFING WORKFLOWS
Last, but not least, is a nudge and reminder about our amazing new automated proofing workflows.
These are a real game-changer for internal teams, creative agencies and larger businesses that have strict protocols on reviews and need staged progress happening in a rigid sequential order.
If you want one team to collaborate on a proof before another team sees it, then this is the way to do it. Proofs can move through as many stages as you want.
It’s so simple to set up and once done, you can sit back and watch the magic happen. You can learn how to create automated proofing workflows on our blog.
---
We look forward to your feedback on our feature-packed Auto-August and keep the requests coming in!
