Proofread assets

Proofreading assets lets you annotate multiple file types when you edit an asset in the Content tab to identify changes and provide feedback. You can draw on or highlight specific items and leave a comment for another team member to carry out the required changes.

To start proofing an asset, go to Plan > Content tab and click Edit for the uploaded asset you want to annotate.

Supported file types

Content Marketing Platform (CMP) directly supports the following types of proofing and their extensions. 

• PDF
  • PDF
  • PDF (1.x to 2.0)
  • PDF/A 1,2,3
  • XFDF
  • FDF
• Microsoft Office
  • DOC
  • DOCX
  • XLS
  • XLSX
  • PPT
  • PPTX
• Images
  • BMP – auto-converted to PNG
  • GIF
  • JPG or JPEG
  • PNG
  • TIF – auto-converted to PNG
• Video

  • MP4

  • OGV

  • WEBM

    CMP transcodes other formats into the MP4 format to support proofing. CMP retains the original file for publishing and download purposes. 

• Other
  • HTM
  • HTML

Types of annotation

In the asset editor, select the tool you want to use from the toolbar and drag or click the area of the asset you want to highlight. You can then leave an associated comment with the annotation to provide context and request changes. Find the list of tools mentioned in detail below.

Click the following highlighted options to access the tools.

• Microsoft Word files – Open the options menu (...) and select Manage versions.

  

• Other files – Click Edit (pencil) for Proofing & Versioning.

  

Text Tools

• Text tool – Highlight text in any color. Click A to use the text tool, and select a color.

  

• Select text – Click and drag your cursor to highlight text.

  

Shape tools

The shape tool lets you select an area using a shape in any color. To access the shape tool, click the "circle" icon and select your desired shape and color. You can then drag the shape around your desired area. 

Freehand

Freehand lets you draw on the asset in any color. Click Free Hand (pencil icon) and your color of choice. You can then freehand draw on the asset. 

Comment

To leave a comment, click Comment (icon) and click the asset where you want to comment. A comment box displays. 

You can find even more color-coding features by clicking the dropdown button.

Comment area

Comments display to the right of the asset. Select a comment to see the highlighted area on the asset, or select a highlighted area to identify the comment.

Download assets

To download an asset, click the download icon within the proofing toolbar. 

• With Comments (PDF) – Download a PDF version of your file that you can open in a desktop PDF reader to display the comments and associated page highlights.
• Without Comments – Download the original source file in the format.

The downloaded file (without comments) will look like this:

Compare asset versions

You can compare asset versions by selecting a draft with the current version.

The 3-panel layout displays the older draft on the left and the latest version on the right; the differences display in the middle.

The central panel shows an overlay of each version with changes between the versions:

• Red – Content from the older version.
• Green – Content from the newer version.
• Gray – Shared content between versions. No change.

You can scroll in the central panel, which scrolls the versions at the same time. Comments are highlighted directly on the drafts so you can determine if you made a change correctly. However, you cannot reply to comments when in the comparison mode. To change the versions being compared, each panel has a drop down that lets you select a draft in each panel.

You can switch off the central panel. 

Proofing Video Formats

Optimizely Content Marketing Platform (CMP) includes support for proofing video formats directly within the interface. Supported formats include MP4, OGV, and WEBM with browser-supported codecs. Any other formats are automatically transcoded to MP4 for proofing of the video content. To ensure your original file remains intact, it is retained and used for publishing and download purposes.

Proofing a video allows the same features and proofing tools as any other document, with some key areas to note:

• Proofing tools – Select your tool, color, and thickness options.
• Video Timeline – Shows where on the timeline comments were made. Selecting a user avatar skips to that point in the video.
• Comment String – Shows comments made on the video. Select the annotation type link (Rectangle or Freehand) to skip to that point in the video.

If you upload an unsupported format, it is converted to the MP4 format. Your original version remains automatically for publishing and downloading purposes.