Between Takes: Thoughts from the Set of Digiveristy.tv

InDesign’s New Share for Review Can Speed Up Your Proofing Processes

By RUSSELL VIERS, Digiveristy.tv

If the list of new features for newspapers in the recent Creative Cloud release from Adobe left you underwhelmed, you’re not alone. But one gem stands out as especially useful, and that’s InDesign’s new Share for Review.
There are so many uses for newspapers, but when I first started using it, I pictured it being especially useful for newspapers in an ad proofing workflow. 
Side note: I just finished recording an episode where I explain this new feature in detail. Click here to see Share for Review in Action.
Who remembers the days when we had to make PMTs of the layout boards as proofs? Or years later, making photocopies. There were even times I just took the layout boards to the customers, hoping the little bits wouldn’t pop off in transit. Then we had to rush back to the office with the ads, with notes, so production could make final corrections before going to press.
Maybe that’s a bit too far back in the day. Fast forward 20 years.
Thanks to PDF, for the past couple of decades, most papers make digital proofs of ads and send them to customers via email. The customers can use the commenting tools in Acrobat to make notes, then return the proof. Or, in most cases, I’m sure, the customer just calls in and talks the ad rep, or production person, through the changes.
“Hey, can you move that logo up a bit,” asks the customer over the phone.
“You mean the one you asked me to move down yesterday?” replies the Production Artist.
“Yes, that one,” continues the customer. “And all of the other changes you made yesterday, just take them back to how they were originally, that was good, thanks.”
No question there are often revisions, which usually involves PDFs sent to the ad rep or customer, comments back to production, then a new PDF created (with a different name) and emailed, which comes back with more corrections. And on and on and on. At the end of it all there are multiple PDF files with rev numbers and different comments associated with each.
As effective as this proofing process seems to be, it still has many possible snags. PDFs with larger file sizes can sometimes get blocked by email, emails can get lost in the spam filters, and customers not having software to view proofs are just a few. How about the customers who don’t know how to save an attachment, or open a file in Acrobat, or make comments, or even attach a commented PDF to a reply email. And other things that can go wrong. 
In short, there are many possible points of failure with our current proofing workflows.
But now there’s a new, improved, way to proof, thanks to Share for Review. With this new feature, you upload a proof directly from InDesign where a link is created that can be shared with anyone you want to review the proof…and there’s NO additional software, other than a web browser.
The key points here are:
The proof is viewed in a browser, so no other software is necessary. In fact, anyone can use that link on any computer, in case the Ad Rep or Customer is away from their desk, even if they don’t own any Adobe software.
As corrections are made, no additional proofs are made or links created. One link for the whole review process and when changes are made in InDesign, the proof is simply updated.
The Production Artist has all comments in the original InDesign file that created the ad for future reference.
The same proof can be reviewed and commented on by multiple people simultaneously, including replies to comments by other reviewers or the production artist, right from InDesign.
It’s important to keep in mind that the quality of this online proof is similar to exporting a PDF from InDesign using the Smallest File Size preset, which downsamples and compresses the raster images much more than for a PDF made for press. I recommend making some test proofs before going live with this workflow and seeing if the quality of the images will work for your projects. You can also check out the proof I created for the video by clicking here.
If you want to use this to proof digital projects, like PDFs, it’s worth noting that this proofing supports hyperlinks applied in InDesign. This is great for bookmarks, navigational links, and links to external websites.
So let’s walk through a possible Share for Review ad proofing process, from the beginning: 
• Production Artist finishes ad and clicks Share button in InDesign then selects Share for Review
• Production Artist sets the access to Public, then copies the link and shares proof to the cloud. The proof name, by default, is the same as the document name (but can be changed)
• Production Artist sends link to Ad Rep for review
• Ad Rep clicks link to launch internet browser to review ad
• Ad Rep uses simple commenting tools in browser interface to make notes for Production Artist
• Production Artist sees comments appear in near real time in the Review Panel in InDesign
• Production Artist can make corrections while Ad Rep is still making notes (if desired)
• Ad Rep finishes comments and notifies Production Artist
• Production Artist finishes corrections and updates link, which generates a new version of the ad proof, reflecting the requested changes, to the same link
• Production Artist notifies Ad Rep proof is ready and Ad Rep forwards link to customer for review
Repeat process above with customer until approved
This is just one use of this review tool, of course. Perhaps you’ve got pages you want reviewed, or cover art for a special section. This works on multi-page documents, as well, so there is no reason someone couldn’t proof an entire newspaper using this (although for editorial proofing and correction, I prefer InCopy).
Share for Review isn’t perfect. There is some functionality I want to see added, like alerts when opening a document and before exporting or printing when there are review comments unresolved, so no comments are missed. There are other small things I hope to see some day, but this is really workable as it is, and a great improvement over export PDF, email, etc., as I pointed out above.
InDesign isn’t the only Creative Cloud tool with this functionality. Photoshop iPad, Illustrator iPad, Lightroom and Lightroom mobile already have the capability to share, similar to Share for Review. Photoshop and Illustrator have the feature in beta and I hope to see it released to all of us soon.
Will I use this? Yes! 
I just finished a 52-page catalog that I wished I had been able to use this on. The new version of InDesign, with this feature, was released just days after completing it. I will use it on the next project, for sure.
The ability to proof and correct in a parallel workflow vs the existing linear one saves so much time and makes meeting deadlines so much easier.
So, until someone develops a proofing system using telepathy, this may be as good as it gets for a while.

Russell Viers is an international speaker and trainer teaching production techniques for graphic designers.