Exporting Comments in Ziflow

One-click download of all comments and markups.

Updated over a week ago

Summary: If your review and approval process includes exporting reviews for historical or auditing purposes, please use this feature to have a hard copy of the review process.

Ziflow allows for the export of a Review report —a digital copy of a Review that includes all feedback and markup that was collected during the approval process. While this report is in PDF form, the comments themselves are “printed” within the pages of the review, with markup pins that correspond to each piece of feedback. The PDF export will include full comments, markups, and decisions (with reasons) made. All versions of a review can be exported, allowing for a complete download of its entire progress through all of its versions.

Ziflow has also added the ability to export a PDF with markup that can be viewed in Adobe readers. This exported file will allow your users to open the document in the Acrobat family of applications, with the comments made using Ziflow’s Viewer able to be viewed as if they were comments made via Adobe’s own tools. Subsequent comments made via Acrobat will appear alongside comments made within Ziflow with no difference between the two.

Available for: anyone with View permissions on a review.

Where is the feature setup? under Settings -> Proofing Settings -> Proof Viewer.

This feature is enabled by default. An account administrator has the ability to hide this option, however, the icon will still be visible on the review summary page.

Export comments to PDF inside Ziflow account settings

How does it work?

There are two types of exports users can trigger:

  1. Review report - generates a PDF document with all the review details, including comments, markups, review workflow, and status.

  2. PDF with comments - exports a file with comments that can be parsed and viewed in Adobe applications.

Please note that exporting PDF with comments is only for image & static file formats uploaded into Ziflow.

Both types of exports can be actioned either from the Ziflow dashboard (first screenshot) or directly from the Ziflow Viewer (second screenshot).

(export options while viewing a review inside the Ziflow dashboard)

Review export options within the Ziflow dashboard

(export options while viewing a review in the Ziflow Viewer)

Review export options within the Ziflow Viewer


Review report

Reviewers can export comments from only one proof or all versions. Downloading the comments to PDF can be done in 2 places:

  1. First, from the Review Summary page: Click on the Review report icon as shown in the screenshot below:

    Review export from the Ziflow dashboard level


  2. Inside the Ziflow Viewer: Click on the Review report icon in the left sidebar menu. Reviewers can also decide how the exported document will look like:


What does the report look like?

When you choose to export a review report, a PDF file will be created. The file will contain the following:

  1. Cover page

    • Ziflow or your company logo

    • Review name

    • Version number (with Review status)

    • Number of pages

    • Number of comments and replies

    • Owner information

    • Footer

      Export comments to PDF cover page


  2. Each page with comments
    a. Review pages with all the pins.

    Export comments to PDF markups


    b. Each comment with all the details: thumbnail image, avatar & name, comment number, comment text, date/time & timezone, page number, number of likes, if any, and number of attachments, if any.

    Export comments to PDF comments


    c. Replies to comments with all the details: avatar & name, reply number, reply text, date/time & timezone, number of likes, if any, and number of attachments.


Additional information:

  • Private comments aren't included in the review report.

  • In exports from combined proofs, the comment has information about the asset it was created on.

    Asset name near comment at PDF export


  • The exported file will contain the captions under the markup thumbnails when exporting comments from a video proof (combined with SRT subtitles).

    Subtitles under a comment thumbnail in the PDF export

PDF with comments

The PDF with comments can also be generated from two different places within our system:

  1. First, from the Review Summary page: Click on the PDF with comments icon, as shown in the screenshot below:

    Export PDF with comments from the Ziflow dashboard level

  2. Inside the Ziflow Viewer: Click on the PDF with comments icon in the left sidebar menu.

    Export PDF with comments from the Ziflow dashboard level

When you open the downloaded file in Adobe Acrobat, Ziflow proof comments appear in the Adobe comments section.

Viewing PDF export from Ziflow inside Adobe apps

Additionally, all markups coming from Ziflow are also being reflected on the document opened inside Adobe Acrobat.

Markups from Ziflow proof are also reflected in the exported PDF

Additional information:

  • Private comments aren't included in the exported PDF. Only public comments can be exported to the PDF export.


Supporting material:

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