Admation External User Approval Guide

Welcome to admation!

Admation is a marketing and advertising approval platform, designed to facilitate communication between teams. The admation platform allows stakeholders to leave online digital mark ups on work, increasing transparency across marketing, design, management and legal teams. 

From time to time, you may be sent artwork from users who may be using our platform. This guide shows you how to review artwork in the system as an external user – or a user without an official admation account.

Accessing admation as an External User

This may be the first time you've interacted with our platform, so welcome! 

To be granted access to admation as an external user, an existing user needs to request your input on an item. They'll enter your email address, first name and last name to add you into the system as an external user.

You'll be sent an email notification when someone requests your input on an item. As an external user, this email is your only way to access the system. Click the button which says Review Item/s.

Reviewing Items in admation

External users can approve and provide feedback on pieces of artwork and other documents in admation. If your input has been requested in admation, you can use the below screen to communicate your feedback, approval or changes. 

The work or document that you need to review will be shown in the centre of the screen. You will also notice your markup tools across the bottom of the screen.

Depending on how artwork has been sent to you, you may see the option to 'Submit Decision' with the further options of "Approve" or "Changes" in the top right corner of the screen, or instead a button prompting you to Give Feedback. This guide will highlight how to submit feedback for both.

Viewing Approval Information

Your email notification may have given you some context on what you've been asked to review. You can also hover over the  icon at the top of the screen for more information.

The right hand side panel contains all available information that you will need to know about the approval. It may include some optional handy information including:

• Version number
• Submitter and submission date
• Approval due date
• Message
• Attachments and custom mark ups from the submitter

Viewing Your Status When Reviewing Work

Underneath the approval information, you'll see your name and a blue eye icon , indicating that you've viewed the artwork. The person who sent this to you will be able to see that you've seen this item too. 

You will also see an orange pending icon next to your name indicating that you need to provide feedback on the item. 

If you have a green or red box next to your name, your feedback has been left in the system already and you will not need to provide any further information.

Using Online Mark Up Tools to Provide Feedback in Admation

Arguably, the most useful tool in admation is the ability to add and share feedback about artwork in the platform. You can do this by using the range of markup tools found across the bottom of the screen, including:

• Hand tool – to scale or move an existing shape
• Freehand drawing tool – to draw your own shape freely. This tool is great for drawing arrows.
• Freehand highlighter tool – to highlight lines of text freely. You can also hold down Shift on your keyboard whilst this tool is selected to draw multiple free-drawn highlighted lines. 
• Straight line highlighter tool – to highlight set lines of text, similar to a highlighter. You can also hold down Shift on your keyboard whilst this tool is selected to draw multiple highlighted lines.
• Line tool – to draw straight lines. This tool is great for crossing out text.
• Ellipse tool – to draw circles.
• Rectangle tool – to draw rectangular annotations on your work.
• Colour selector –  to change the colour of annotations on your screen. Great for highlighting annotations on a dark background.

You'll also see Download and Zoom buttons. 

To add your feedback, click a tool of your choice then click and drag your mouse over the artwork in the centre of the screen. This creates a shape around the item you'd like to highlight. A text area will appear, prompting you to add your comment.

You can style your text using any of the available text styling tools, including:

• Bold, Italicise or underline text
• Re-align text 
• Strikeout text 
• Create bullet points
• Add images 
• Remove all formatting

Type in and style your comments as required, then click Save once you're happy.

Your comments will be saved in the panel across to the right hand side of the screen.

Support note: Sometimes outdated versions of web browsers can prevent you from leaving your comments. If you are having trouble creating your digital annotations, please access admation using Google Chrome.

Continue adding any further comments to the piece of work, as required. Remember to approve, reject or give feedback on the artwork to send off your changes. 

Adding General Comments to Work

If you would like to add an overall comment as part of your feedback, click the General Comments button. 

Type your comment in the space provided. To save your comment, click the Tick icon. Your general comment will show on the bottom right hand side of the screen in blue. Note that you can only leave one general comment per submission.

From the right hand side of your screen within your existing comments, you may also Edit, Delete or Attach Files to your comments as required.

  

Attaching Files to Your Feedback

You may like to add external files to support your feedback. Attaching files can sometimes make it easier for designers to understand the changes requested. An example of a supporting file could include suggested photos or imagery to use, or an updated logo.

To upload a file as part of your feedback, click the Attach Files button. Then drag and drop the file on to the allocated area. You may also click Browse to select your file from your computer.

 

Addressing Files with Multiple Pages

If your file or document has multiple pages, you will be able to toggle between the pages using the numbers at the bottom of the screen below your mark up tools.

If you hover over the page tiles, the entire section will pop up with a thumbnail preview of the work.  

Click one of the thumbnails to continue commenting on each page. The number in the top right hand corner of each thumbnail represents how many comments have been made on each page. 

Addressing Files Sent as a Batch

Sometimes admation files can be sent to you together as a group of items. If this is the case, your admation email notification will show the multiple files that you need to review.

Where you are sent a batch of files, you can continue marking up the work. You also have access to additional functionality.

Firstly, when items are sent as part of a batch, you will be able to copy the comments across to other similar files. To do this, select Batch Response on an existing comment.

Then use the Checkboxes to select the items to Apply to Batch.

When you are ready to toggle to the next item in the batch, you can look to the top right hand corner of your screen. 

You may use the arrows to toggle between the different files. You may also click into Batch to approve or request changes on multiple items of work together.

Comparing Versions

Admation gives you the ability to quickly compare previous versions of artwork side by side. If you have been sent more than version of this file, you will be able to click the Compare button along the top of your screen. 

The comparison view shows the previous version of the artwork on the left side and the current version on the right side. On the left side panel, you can review any comments/markup made in a previous round of work.

At the top of the screen, you can scroll between the different available versions of the work.

Support note: You will only be able to compare versions of work that have been previously sent to you. 

Click the Return to Single View button to exit compare mode. 

Submitting Your Feedback #1: Requesting Changes

Once all of your markup has been added, you will need to submit the work back to the person that asked you to review this item. If you are requesting changes to the artwork, click the Changes button under the Submit Decision button in the top right corner.

Click the Submit button to confirm your decision. Once submitted, your decision cannot be undone.

Once your feedback is submitted, you will see that your feedback is recorded and available for future reference on the right side panel. You will notice that the Approve and Changes buttons have now been disabled. 

Note: your organisation might also have the option to conditionally approve (this is functionality which can be turned on and off!)

Great work! You may now click Exit to leave the window. Alternatively, you may exit the browser completely. Or keep reading for more information on approving artwork.

 

Submitting Your Feedback #2: Approving Artwork

If you are happy with the item, click the Approve button along the top of the screen. Unless otherwise directed, you should only approve an item that, in your opinion, is ready to go to market.  If you have added any comments requesting changes, you should click the Changes button instead.

Click the Submit button to confirm your selection.

Your decision and feedback is then recorded on the right hand side of the screen. The Approve and Changes buttons are now disabled. As a result, you can no longer make changes to your comments or final decisions. 

Great work! You may now click Exit to leave the window. Alternatively, you may exit the browser completely. Keep reading for more information on neutral feedback options.

Submitting Your Feedback #3: Positive, Negative or Neutral Feedback

If you have been sent an item for feedback rather than an approval, you will see a separate set of options for submitting your feedback. Instead of the Approve and Changes buttons, you'll see a Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down and, depending on the organisation's settings, sometimes there will be a Neutral Feedback option. Click the relevant option to submit your feedback.

The ability to provide additional feedback will disappear as that feedback is sent back to the team.

Submitting Your Feedback in a Batch

For those with the batch functionality enabled, you may also click into Batch mode in the top left hand corner of your screen to submit your feedback in bulk. 

When you click Batch, admation will show you a list of all the items that were sent to you in this batch together. From this screen, you can use the checkboxes to select the item(s) you would like to approve or request changes on. 

Then select Batch Approve, Batch Conditional Approval (if turned on in your system!) or Batch Changes to close the loop.

Submitting Feedback to Close the Loop

Note that a final  decision is required in order to package up your feedback and send it back to the team. Please ensure that you select one of these buttons to close the loop, noting that your approval or change request decision is final. 

Great work! You may now click Exit to leave the window. Alternatively, you may exit the browser completely.