Deliverables overview [in-depth guide] – Workamajig

This guide covers "The Way" of how to create a new deliverable based on your system defaults and the setup of your project team.

A deliverable is an efficient way of sending digital artwork internally for review before sending it to your clients for their comments.

NOTE: If you host your own WebDav file server, then it needs to have an SSL certificate so it can be contacted as an HTTPS address in order for the review screen to display the file.

Basic one-off workflow

While this guide covers "The Way", if you want a step by step process of how to create a one-off Deliverable, then click the link below to download a PowerPoint presentation file of the basic use of deliverables.

Deliverables101.pptx

System Setup

Default system preferences

By default, there are 2 steps, internal & client. Here, you can tailor some aspects of the built-in process.

Menu > Admin/manager > System setup > Transaction preferences > Deliverables

Internal Review / Client Review

Send options

Send to everyone at once - If selected, the round will be sent to all approvers at the same time. The first one to make a decision will complete the round.
Send to people in order - If selected, the files are routed to your list of approvers in order, from the top down. By default, it orders the approvers alphabetically. You will need to adjust the order of approvers per deliverable if you prefer a custom list not alphabetically.
Everyone must review - If checked, everyone will have to make a decision in order for the round to be completed.
Login required - When checked, the hyperlink in the approver emails that go out will redirect the user to log in with a username & password (unless they are already logged in). When not checked, the hyperlink in the approver emails that go out will redirect the user based on a token contained in the hyperlink that lets the approver go right to the review screen, even if they do not have a login.

NOTES: There are a total of 4 send configurations, each with a different set of results.

Send to everyone at once - Scenario; the round is sent to several users for review. The first of those users to "make a decision", whatever that decision is, then completes the round. Others may view the round & make comments, but the decision that has been made is final.
Send to everyone at once & everyone must review - Scenario; the round is sent to several users for review. Now, everyone has to click on 'make a decision' before the round will be fully complete. However, if at least one user chooses 'please resubmit' for the round, then the round will be rejected overall.
Send to people in order - Scenario; the round is sent to the first user in the list. If that user approves, then it moves to the next person on the list, and so on. But if say the first user chooses 'please resubmit', then the round is complete, and no one after that user in the list will be notified or made aware of the round. These some users may not get a notification until after several rounds of review have been completed.
Send to people in order & everyone must review - Scenario; the round is sent to the first user on the list. Then, regardless of whether that user approves or rejects, it notifies the next person on the list, and so on. This means everyone will be made aware of the round, it'll just depend on the timing of when each user clicks on 'make a decision'. Additionally, if at least one user chooses 'please resubmit' for the round, then the round will be rejected overall.

Days to review - The default number of days to calculate the round's due date.

Send reminders - When checked, emails will be sent to the Approvers of the round based on the following Interval setting.

Interval - You have the option of sending daily or hourly email reminders.

Number of days before the due date to start sending reminders - Input the number of days you would like the reminder emails to begin sending to approvers based on the number of days from the due date of the round.

Instructions - The default message that is displayed when a review is opened.

Pause after this step (Internal only option)

When checked, the round process will halt after the internal review is approved. You then need to go into the deliverable and click on 'send to client'.
When not checked, the approved internal round & files will automatically be sent to the approver(s) in the client setup.
NOTE: If there are no approvers in the client setup, this process will halt.

Clients can see internal comments (Client Review Only) - When checked, a client user can see the comments and markup made by full users.

For more details regarding all the system options, refer to the Transaction Preferences - Deliverables guide.

Enabling advanced features (Optional)

This allows for the Fix this (task to-dos) feature of deliverables, along with assigning a to-do status.

Transaction preferences > Project > Use Todo Items

For more regarding this, please refer to the To do status guide.

Project Team Setup

For best results when relying on the setup of your Transaction Preferences, update the Project Team Subscriptions prior to generating a Deliverable for the Project.

Project Dashboard > Team > Subscriptions

Best practice is to subscribe your internal users and external clients to the Approver checkbox.

For your AMs/PMs, we recommend they be subscribed to the Notify checkbox as they will typically do the follow-up after each round is completed.

To create a predetermined workflow based on the "Type" of Deliverable being done, then please refer to the Deliverable Types guide.

NOTE: These options can be set in the user record, so these are checked automatically when the user is added to the team of the project.

Add new Deliverable / Round 1

With the system defaults set and the project team up to date, it's time to create the first round of review.

Go to your project dashboard.
Click the Plus sign next to Deliverables.
Fill out the form.

NOTE: When you click Save, it will open to the Round 1 screen within the Deliverable. Not the Deliverable itself.
Review the Round 1 setup of your new deliverable.
Add your File.
Click Send For Review.

NOTE: If you close the round setup screen and come back later, it will open the Deliverable itself. At this point you will click on the Review Rounds tab to open the round edit screen from there.

Add additional round(s)

If no Round(s) exist:

Click the + plus sign next to Rounds to start fresh based on the system and project setup.

If you are making Round 2 and beyond:

After clicking the + plus sign next to Rounds. You will get a prompt.

Choose "Same As Last Round".

NOTE: This will copy the all the changes made in the prior round (Send Options, Approvers, Notifiers, Etc). You will just need to add a File.

Review the setup of your new round.

NOTE: At this point, you can customize the setup of this round/step to be different than the default or previous process.

Click the plus sign next to Files and choose the location of the File(s) to review.

Upload new file - You can technically use any file you want, but only images, PDFs, and video files are compatible to review visually. Even then you may need to use specific file types with those genres to get the best results.
Use existing file - Same as above, however, the file has already been uploaded to the Files section of the project before creating the deliverable to review.
Add URL - This requires JS code to be added to your web page so it can be generated in the review screen. Also, the security of the page's site needs to match that of the Workamajig application (i.e. HTTPS) and allow for iFrame use.
Add Vimeo video - Copy/paste the URL or code from your browser with the video open (i.e. "https://vimeo.com/113102368" or "113102368").
Add YouTube video - Copy/paste the URL or code from your browser with the video open (i.e. "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE" or "sGbxmsDFVnE").

For more on this, please review the section Supported file types & exceptions.

NOTE: You can click the plus sign to add more files to one round.

One last check

Click "Send For Review".

Notice how the page updates, it now says View comments where you clicked send for review.

At this point, emails have been sent to those in the "Approvers" list of the round setup.

Reviewing the deliverable

As an approver, you can open the Review page by:

Clicking the hyperlink in the email you receive.
Clicking on the Notification bell icon at the top of your screen to review your items to approve.

Review the file.

Instructions appear in the center of the screen upon first load and can be accessed again from the Make A Decision panel.

NOTE: If there are multiple files to review, then you must choose which file to look at first from the thumbnails at the top.

Compare

If you are on round 2, or on a round on a different deliverable within the same project, you can choose 'compare' from the More menu.

This will then list all the rounds for every deliverable on the same project.

Add Comments and Markup

Click the Plus sign to add a comment

Enter your comments in the text box provided. You can also choose a tool to markup a section of the file that relates to your comment. You can also add an attachment that relates to your comment.

You can also use the tools at the bottom of the review screen to resize the visible file.

Make a decision

Click on the "Make A Decision" button to get your final say for the round.

Choosing "I approve" or "I approve with changes" will move the deliverable to the next step (i.e. client rounds).

Choosing "Please resubmit" will reject the round, forcing a new round to be made for the current step.

NOTE: You can only make one choice and there is no way to change this decision once made. Also, once a Deliverable has moved to the next step, there is no going back to the previous step.

At this point, an email is sent to those in the "Notify" list of the rounds setup.

Next steps

Once the round is completed, you can take the next steps.

If approved (or approved with changes)

The next default step is to send the files(s) to the client for review.

Depending on your process, if pause after approval is set, then you will see the button labeled "Send For Review" at the top of the approved round.

If you don't have pause after approval checked, then the client step is automatically sent once the internal round is approved.

If rejected

You will then want to create a new round to review the next version of the file(s).

Click the plus sign that has appeared next to Rounds and choose Same As Last Round.

NOTE: You do not need to create more deliverables for each additional round. Open the existing deliverable and click the plus sign next to Rounds.

Managing Comments & fix this To Dos

Reviewing Comments

Open the Deliverable and click on Comments from the top of the Deliverable. This will open the latest round.

Click on the Comments button to see what was said and their related markup.

You can group the comments in different ways for easier viewing.

By User, By timestamp, By page, By date.

You can then reply to the comments to note the current status of each comment.

Fix This / To Dos

If Use To Dos is enabled in Transaction Preferences, then you will see a Fox This button appear in each comment. This will create a To Do that you assign to a task where your users can see this update at the task level.

Clicking on "Fix this" will start the process of creating To Do.

The first comment you click Fix This on will open a prompt to choose a Followup Task.

We recommend you choose an Existing Task and click Save.

The users already assigned to the task will see an alert on the card in Today Creatives new To Dos.

Fixed

Once an item has been addressed you can click 'fixed' on the comment. Or if you have To Do Statuses enabled, then you can click the current status to edit the To Do and update its status.

Creative's view of their task assigned to dos

To Do List

By clicking on your assigned task card, you can see the to-do list of that task in the project details panel.

Clicking on View Markup from the To Do will take the user directly to the review screen with the comment and markup visible.

To Do Board

Alternatively, you can click on the folder icon from the assignment card and select 'to-dos'.

This will bring up the to-do board for just that project and task.

From here, you can interact with the to-dos by dragging and dropping them into to-do statuses you have set up.

Edit To Do

With an individual To Do open, you can interact with its details.

To see the comment & markup that is shown in the Review screen, you can click on 'view markup'.

Any comments added here are conversation pieces that will go to anyone on the "email updates to" list.

Update the status

Depending on your setup of your To- Do Statuses, you will want to move your to-dos to a 'completed' status, as these will then show as fixed to your project manager.

Monitoring deliverables

NOTE: When there is a current active step for the round, the active step's status is displayed. When there is not an active step (ie. the round is complete) the round's status is displayed.

Today page

From the Project manager > Today page, under Items needing attention, there is an action item for Daily deliverable status.

Report views

You can also run a report of all deliverables to review their current status by going to Views > Deliverables from the Project manager > Today page.

As with all Views, these interactive report can be modified or copied to meet your needs.

Anything underlined in the Views are clickable links. In this case, when you click on the Current Round column, it will take you to the latest review round of that deliverable.

Custom report

There is also a custom report dataset called 'deliverable detail' that creates a report with one line per comment.

Managing To Do's

Project To Dos

From the project, you can click on 'to-dos' from the list of items to view the To Do board that shows all the To Dos of that project.

Deliverable To Dos

From the deliverable itself, it has two lists of to-dos, open & closed.

Supported file types & exceptions

Can 'display, comment, & markup'

Files

Images - JPG/BMP/GIF/PNG, etc.
Videos - MP4/FLV. For best results, use the latest "H.264 Codec" and set it to "streaming".
NOTE: MOV file format is not supported.
Audio - MP3/OGA/M4A/AAC/WAV.
PDF - Each page is rendered live for visual reference only, you are not able to edit text. But you can highlight & strike-through the actual rendered text (not flattened text).
HTML - While you can upload an HTML file in the review screen, keep in mind that if it references images or other components that are not in the HTML file itself, it can have an effect if viewed again later. Such as image files moving from their original location, thus showing a broken image link in the review screen after it was there during the initial review.

Webpage

URL - The design here is that you have a staging site/path (not your live site) that contains your website page as a whole. You must also include JS code on the page as described when creating this type of review.
NOTES: The site must have a valid SSL certificate to be compatible with any browser. If you use CSS code that resizes the page, then you will need to disable that or not use markup.

Integrations

Vimeo - We connect to Vimeo's API, so no files are stored in your designated WebDAV server. While the comments may not be frame specific, they should be close. You may need to find the correct url that will share your video if you have additional security restrictions applied to your account.
YouTube - We connect to Youtube's API, so no files are stored in your designated WebDAV server. While the comments may not be frame specific, they should be close.

Can 'display & comment, cannot markup'

MS Word/Excel - The viewer for MS files is read-only. As such, only comments are available & no markup. You can instruct users to download the file and upload a revised version with their comments using track changes. Or, you can upload a PDF instead to review with full markup tools available.
HTM - Any URL that is added using the URL (instead of being uploaded) that is not a true website with the provided code.

Can 'comment, cannot display or markup'

Any non-supported file relates to "proprietary" files, such as *.psd (Photoshop), *.AI (Illustrator), or similar. You can download the file to open it using the related application on your computer and then upload a version with your changes to the comments. Or, use a PDF-rendered version for review for full markup features.
You can download any file that is uploaded, even if it's not viewable on the review screen.
You can upload a file along with your comments.

Additionally, if you are encoding and uploading the actual video file for review, then be sure to stay up to date with web technologies to be sure you are using the latest encoding capabilities.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Supported_media_formats

Keyboard shortcuts

Press "Control, Shift, ?" at the same time to open the Keyboard shortcuts menu. It will show what actions can be performed on that page specifically and allows you to assign specific pages as shortcuts.

When in the Deliverable review screen, you will see specific commands relating to deliverables.

Additional notes

The Approval check box on deliverables will only show if it is checked on the edit screen and will only be checked through the deliverable approval process. If the approval box is unchecked it will be logged in the system log.
Added an option to the Deliverable board to 'hide approved/completed deliverables'.
Clicking on deliverables from various locations will now take you to the Deliverable board.
Added a to-do count for individual deliverables on the Deliverables tab of the Today-Creative assignment details screen.
You can now change the task and/or status of a deliverable from the Deliverables dash by clicking on the current status or task name.
Added an 'exclude from deliverables' check box to the Other tab of the Task detail panel.
When copying a deliverable, all of the to-dos that are not tied to a review round will be copied over and marked as 'open'.

Known Issues

If a site blocks the use of their content from being displayed in other sites or iframe, an error stating this will be shown.
Long URL links in the emails sent out to review can potentially be spammed by your email server settings and software. Your options are to adjust your server/software settings or change the setting in deliverables setup to 'require login'.
In some cases, the browser and/or PDF reader plugin is unable to display certain layers and effects that were made in Adobe InDesign when generated to PDF. In this case, you can still download the original PDF file into an Adobe Reader installed on your computer that can view these elements.
In some cases, when using the PDF text highlight tool, the intended text does not get highlighted, or it highlights the entire page. There are also other anomalies that can occur, such as ???s appearing in place of spaces.
When using the zoom +/- for the viewable area of a PDF file and then using the Text highlight/Strikeout tools, the feature may not work as expected.
There is currently a limit on PDFs to 100 pages MAX and/or 40 MB Max file size.
Printed annotations do not appear in the correct location on the deliverable.
The minimum size of the highlighted circle and outlined circle is 18px.
When trying to move freehand annotations during a new comment or edit comment, it will continue the line instead of moving.
We do not recommend using Edge or IE to view deliverables.
If the PDF does not render properly in Firefox itself (not through WMJ in Firefox), then it will not render properly in WMJ. When designing PDFs, users should have this in mind.
After saving the comment, the time may jump backward/forward up to 0.5 secs, causing the comment/annotation to appear on the incorrect frame.
In order to use annotations with the URL feature, the following MUST apply to the website:
- Basic CSS
- No transformations
- No hover effects
- Nothing is hidden beyond the edges of the page
- No Javascript effects
- No Flash
- No text that “reflows” as the page changes size
- Preferably a fixed width
- No “responsive” designs
- If a webpage contains any of the above, you can still use it with Deliverables, it will just not
  be able to use annotations (comments only).
If you feel a PDF file is not rendering properly, please view it standalone in the browser first. Then let us know if there is a difference. Otherwise let your designer know to compensate for the browser viewed on.
Office Live (Word) is not compatible with iOS devices.

Browsers

Edge
- When 'always load review items at actual size' is not checked, markup lines may
  show thicker than normal - UNFIXABLE
- When printing, extra blank first page - UNFIXABLE
Internet Explorer
- After clicking 'show all markup', annotation numbers don’t appear until the
  mouse moves over the deliverable - UNFIXABLE
- The ruler doesn’t show px measurement until stopped drawing - UNFIXABLE
- Signature lines in a PDF will have a white background - UNFIXABLE
- Some websites may appear “shaky” when scrolling - UNFIXABLE
- When 'always load review items at actual size' is not checked, markup lines may
  show thicker than normal - UNFIXABLE
- When printing, extra blank first page - UNFIXABLE
Safari
- If a video has a blank frame at the end, and you add a comment at that point, then all
  comments added may not show video when clicking on them, but will show
  annotations

Other considerations

Project Templates

You can add Deliverables to your project templates. But keep in mind only the shell of the Deliverable will copy, no Rounds will be copied. To have the workflow of the Deliverable copy, then use Deliverable Types with the deliverables you set on the project template. Or else, when a round is created for the Deliverable, it will use the system defaults and setup of the project team.

Separate Deliverables for Internal and Client rounds

Some have found that creating separate Deliverables for Internal and Client reviews work better for their processes. This is more so the case if you want to review multiple files internally and then you want to send one round with multiple files to the client in the end.

When creating a typical deliverable, you get the choice if this will have an Internal or Client step.

Who should create the Deliverable/Round/Upload the file?

We hear this quite a lot. Some even have a unique process when it comes to creating and managing Deliverables.

The recommended way is for the AM/PM to be the one who creates the Deliverables, Rounds, and Manages all the Comments made.

However if you come up with a process in which deliverables are part of your project templates, and you rely on the approver sand notifiers being setup in advance, then really anyone can start the round, add the file and send for review.

But still, someone needs to be notified when the round is complete and have the knowledge of what needs to be done next.

Resources

Deliverables board [guide]

Deliverable types [in-depth guide]

Deliverable status [in-depth guide]

Project manager > To-do board [guide]

Mail settings [in-depth guide]

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