[Workfront AMA] Ask Me ANYTHING about Workfront Proof | Community
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jon_chen
jon_chen
Community Manager
April 15, 2025

[Workfront AMA] Ask Me ANYTHING about Workfront Proof

  • April 15, 2025
  • 37 replies
  • 11278 views

Event Concluded on May 8th, 2025

Thanks all for attending!

 

Welcome back to another Ask Me Anything (AMA) series, formerly known as Community Coffee Breaks! In the first customer-led AMA of 2025, we are partnering with Workfront Community Advisors Lyndsy D. (@lyndsy-denk), Monique E. (@moniqueevans), and Richard C. (@richard__carlson) to host a 1-hour AMA on Workfront Proofs. Keep in mind this is a text-only event, there is no link/video to join! Just post your question as a reply to the thread and it will be answered during the 1-hour “event”.  

 

What is Workfront Proof? 

Workfront Proofing streamlines the review process for digital assets, allowing teams to collaborate on feedback and approvals in real-time. Workfront Proof supports over 150 file types, enabling diverse content reviews, offers intuitive markup tools for detailed feedback and supports robust version control to track changes. Lastly, with automated approval workflows, Proof ensures that the review process is efficient and organized.

 

Why do we need it? 

  • Streamlined Workflow: Simplifies review processes by centralizing all feedback and approvals in one platform, reducing the chaos of email threads and ensuring that everyone involved has access to the same information.

  • Real-Time Collaboration: Teams can provide immediate feedback on digital assets, allowing for faster decision-making. Reviewers can annotate directly on proofs, making comments clear, actionable, and easier to understand.

  • Version Control: Workfront Proofing maintains a history of all changes and comments, enabling teams to track revisions easily.

  • Automated Approval Processes: Proof allows for customizable workflows that can automate the approval process, making it easier to manage complex review cycles. This feature helps ensure that deadlines are met without sacrificing quality.

  • Support for Multiple File Types: With the ability to handle over 150 file types, including dynamic media, Workfront Proofing is extremely versatile for all kinds of projects.

 

Not sure where to start? We’ve included some sample questions to get you started.  

  • What is Proofing?
  • What is the difference between Proof and Document Approvals?
  • What is the benefit of using Proof?
  • How do you track proofs from an owner standpoint?
  • How do you help proof participants stay on top of their Proofs?
  • What do we need to know about upcoming changes to document approvals and markup?
  • If any of these are your exact questions, feel free to copy-paste them in the comment section below!

 

Here are some recent Proof resources to get you thinking about the topic prior to the event: 

 

GUIDELINES AND REQUIREMENTS TO PARTICIPATE 

Please note that this text-only AMA takes place as a discussion post on the Workfront Community. If you are unable to make this live event, you can always publish your question in the thread now! Please be sure to REFRESH the page frequently so you don't miss responses from our PMs or new questions/comments.

 

**All AMAs are TEXT-ONLY, meaning there is no webinar, video call, or recording. All questions and answers will occur on this thread. 

 

Event Concluded on May 8th, 2025

    37 replies

    Show previous replies
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    NatalieTe1
    New Participant
    May 1, 2025

    What is the benefit of a "private" workflow stage and how are they typically set up? What does this type of stage mean?

      Richard__Carlson
      Richard__Carlson
      New Participant
      May 8, 2025

      What is the benefit of a "private" workflow stage and how are they typically set up? What does this type of stage mean?

       

      A private workflow stage would only be visible for people added to it.  One example of how to use a private stage:  Allowing the content creation to happen uninterrupted without executive oversight.  In other words you can hide the stage if you wanted content creation work to happen and at the same time eliminate the "curious people looking at artwork through the system and reviewing it before they're ready" scenario.

       

      Can proof owners/uploaders be a part of two different workflow stages (one private and one not)? - I was not able to do this in my testing

        C
        Cici5
        New Participant
        May 8, 2025

        @richard__carlson  

        What is the benefit of a "private" workflow stage and how are they typically set up? What does this type of stage mean?


        Great option I was not aware was availble.... quick add question.... can the proof be revised to public once it is ready to share? So let's say V1 + V2 are priviate but V3 can go now go public?

        A
        Alanimal1
        New Participant
        May 1, 2025

        Is there anyway to have a separate chat stream from the updates comments that the submitter sees? When having combined workflows for say Brand and Creative, we would like to have separate comment/updates stream for the proof the team can comment on, that the submitter doesn't see? 

          C
          ConnieAr1
          New Participant
          May 2, 2025

          Not sure if this helps but we add and remove who is able to see a proof. So version 1 may have 5 people, but version 2 may just be creative. Then once creative has approved. The version 3 we will add the reviewers back into version 3 proof.

            A
            Alanimal1
            New Participant
            May 2, 2025

            Thank you Connie, in the case of a multiple team workflow (brand, creative, AI), especially with creative, there are many comments and possible opinions in the comments. This in turn makes it hard for the original submitter to follow and becomes confusing. (things mentioned that the submitter doesn't need to see) By keeping that part of the conversation separate between the teams involved, takes confusion away from submitter in the update comments, makes the interaction with the original submitter cleaner and less confusing or controversial. 

              B
              BethBa4
              New Participant
              May 1, 2025

              In Workfront email notifications, the proof name url is so much more prominent than the Go to Proof CTA.  Is there a way to realign this notification so users stop going to proof url and trying to make comments (and sometimes succeeding) in the native file?  is the proof url even necessary?

                CynthiaBoon
                CynthiaBoon
                Employee
                May 8, 2025

                Hi Beth!  We talked about the proof and Workfront email notifications during yesterday's session, and one of the recommendations was to turn off those Proof Notifications in Workfront option (in Setup) since it can get confusing. I always found a Proof Approval report way more useful than the notifications, but here's the event link, if it's helpful.

                  ElizaBarryGuild
                  ElizaBarryGuild
                  New Participant
                  May 8, 2025

                  That's great for the meantime, but it would be nice if we could customize notifications so that they ARE useful rather than finding workarounds. Lots of people don't log in unless they have a reason to, so it results in PMs chasing people from the report rather than individuals self-serving, which isn't scalable.

                    C
                    ConnieAr1
                    New Participant
                    May 1, 2025

                    Would like to better understand how copywriters use the proofing tool in Work Front? Is there a way to see track changes from Microsoft in the system?

                      C
                      ConnieAr1
                      New Participant
                      May 2, 2025

                      Tagging the experts in case this helps (per instructions) (@Lyndsy-Denk),  (@MoniqueEvans), (@Richard__Carlson) 

                        E
                        EmilySo2
                        New Participant
                        May 1, 2025

                        We currently only use Simple Proof. I want our project managers to see the value in Proofing Workflows, but all they see is extra work and more "admin time." Do you have any recommendations on how to get buy in for Proofing Workflows? Along those same lines, I know about the templates, if anyone has best practices or recommendations for that, I'm all ears!

                          CynthiaBoon
                          CynthiaBoon
                          Employee
                          May 8, 2025

                          Hey Emily!  I definitely had this issue back in the day, and here's my 2 cents. The cool thing about the Advanced Workflows is that they save time, by having it already created, but they are super flexible in that PMs can change out names, add a stage if needed etc.  What I did was to meet with the PMs and created a couple of "shell" (or basic) Workflows with just a couple of stages that everyone seemed to use, and then the PMs could adjust as needed. 

                          For the templates, the best piece of advice that I can give is to use Naming Conventions that make sense to your PMs.  There's not a way to sort them, so if you have a bunch of them or if the names are super similar or confusing, your PMs might not select the correct ones.

                            ElizaBarryGuild
                            ElizaBarryGuild
                            New Participant
                            May 8, 2025

                            Is there, or could there be, a way to set up which workflow a proof would need before the designer finished the item? We, for instance, know that who needs to approve a piece before it is made and I can't find a way to not create a stall between the design being finished and the PM setting up and triggering the workflow. Ideally, the designer would be able to kick it off instantly, but then you have to train them to activate and use the correct workflow.

                              MorganHatcher
                              MorganHatcher
                              New Participant
                              April 29, 2025

                              What is your opinion on when to use a Document Approval vs. Proof Approval? 

                                MoniqueEvans
                                MoniqueEvans
                                New Participant
                                May 8, 2025

                                Great question! This is a heated debate but in my opinion, the best direction is to be very consistent with your workflow and not mix the two. It is much easier to report on Document Approvals and eventually (way down the line) this is the route that all asset approvals will take eventually so it will be less of an learning curve. Proof Approvals do have their perks with their more specific details but reporting on them can be quite difficult. 

                                I think in this case a best of both worlds approach is the best; but does require a lot of training and due dilligence. But this allows you to use the markup capabilties of Proof and the organization and reporting ease of Document Approvals. Here's a link to see more details on this. Use Unified Approvals and proofing together

                                  S
                                  Stacey_Robertson
                                  New Participant
                                  April 16, 2025

                                  Can the archive period be changed?  We have noticed that proofs archive after 60 days and drop off of the My Approvals report on the home page.  This is not an ideal set up as we don't cancel proofs until after 90 days.

                                    Richard__Carlson
                                    Richard__Carlson
                                    New Participant
                                    May 8, 2025

                                    We do not believe that the archive period can be changed by system admins.  I was not able to find any settings for this specific feature.

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