Approvals keeps its PDFs in Files, your team's file library. Every proof you upload is also a file version there, and any PDF already in Files can be sent for approval without uploading it again. When a newer version of an artwork's file arrives in Files, the Approvals page says so.
Every upload is kept in Files#
When you upload an artwork's first version, Files gets a new file named after the artwork, for example "Carton 200.pdf", in a folder called Approvals. Each later version you upload becomes the next version of that same file, so Files holds the whole history of the artwork.
- The proof shows exactly the bytes in Files. They are stored once, never copied, and a PDF that is already in Files costs no extra storage (see Storage).
- You can rename or move the file and the Approvals folder in Files. The next upload still goes to the artwork's file, wherever it is. If the file is in the trash, the upload starts a new file in Approvals.
- In Files, these versions carry the Approvals badge. The file's Activity lists each proof round ("Used in an app: Approvals: Carton 200, proof round 2"), and Sent for proof once reviewers are emailed its link.
- A row's File v5 opens the file in Files, and so does Open in Files in the row's ⋯ menu.
- A proof shared from the 1-up editor of an imposition job keeps its own copy of the print-ready PDF instead: it is a proof of those exact bytes, not a new version in Files, and it doesn't count toward your storage.
Choose a PDF from Files#
In the upload dialog (Upload artwork, or New version in a row's ⋯ menu), choose Choose from Files instead of dropping a PDF.
- Find the PDF in the Files window: browse the folders or search, then choose Select. Only PDFs can be picked, and only once Files has finished reading them.
- For a new artwork, Artwork name starts as the file name.
- Choose Add artwork (or Add version for a new version of an artwork).
The version uses the file's current version in Files, with nothing uploaded, and the artwork's history lists it as v3 added from Files. If another artwork already proofs that file, Upload artwork adds the version to that artwork rather than starting a second one, and the message names that artwork. If Files already checked the file version with your team's default profile, the new version shows that report instead of checking the same PDF again.
You can also start from Files: Send for proof on a PDF there does the same (see Files).
When a newer version is in Files#
Someone may add a corrected PDF straight into Files, for example by dropping it onto the file. The artwork's row on the Approvals page then shows v6 available under its version (with the file's own number). Nothing changes by itself: the proof your reviewers see stays on the version they were sent.
To send it, choose v6 available, or Send v6 for approval in the row's ⋯ menu.
- Reviewer emails starts with the reviewers of the current version. Remove or add addresses; leave it empty to share the new version later from Share.
- Add a Message if you like, and choose Send to reviewers (or Add the version without reviewers).
The PDF becomes the artwork's next version and the older versions lock, as after any upload (see Artwork versions). The reviewers get a personal link to the new version by email.
Signed-in team members see the same news on the proof page, in a strip under the header, with a button that opens this dialog. Reviewers never see it.
Two version numbers#
An artwork's versions and its file's versions are numbered separately. A row can read v2 with File v5 under it: the second version sent for approval was made from version 5 of the file. Versions made in Files but never sent don't count as approval versions, and sending the same file version twice in a row adds nothing (two clicks at once add one version).
Deleting and the trash#
Approval versions keep the file version they show. As long as a proof uses it:
- Files won't delete that version, and a trashed file that a proof still uses is kept in the trash rather than purged (see Versions);
- the file's Where used lists the artwork, for example "Approvals: Carton 200, proof round 2".
The other way round, removing an artwork or a version from Approvals never deletes anything in Files: only the PDFs Approvals keeps itself, such as a proof shared from the 1-up editor, are removed with it.
In the API#
Uploads through POST versions/ are kept in Files the same way; files_folder picks the folder for an artwork's
first file. POST versions/from-file/ sends a version from Files, and every version reads its file_id,
file_version_number and file_latest_version_number. See Approvals API.