Manage a seamless collaborative review

Using Share for Review, you can share your document via a public or private link. Collaborators can then view and comment on the document in a browser. Comments appear in the Review panel in InDesign with the shared document open, and are linked to the relevant objects and pages in your document.

Published August 10, 2023

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What you learned: How to use Share for Review to collaborate on a document and gather feedback

Start a review

To initiate the review, click Share in the application bar above the open document and choose Share for Review . Then, add a title for the review and click Create to start the process.

You can set options to control the access level, invite specific users, and enable or disable commenting on the document.

Access settings: Invite Only —share with specific people. You can enter email addresses separated by commas. Public —share with anyone. You can optionally require a password to open it.
Invite individual users to review the document in the Members section. They’ll receive an email link to join the review.

In InDesign you can use Share for Review for collaborative reviews with others and receive feedback without leaving InDesign.

Here is generally how it works.

You create a document in InDesign.

When you're ready, you share it via public or private link.

Collaborators can then view the document in a browser and add any feedback using the different commenting tools.

Back in InDesign, those comments appear in your Review panel with the shared document open.

There are linked to the relevant objects and pages in your document.

You can then make any changes necessary and reply to or resolve those comments.

So with the document open, let's try it.

Start by clicking Share in the Application bar above the open document.

Now you can see a number of ways to share like PDF and Publish Online.

Choose Share for Review.

First, you want to add a Title for the review.

Now the title can be anything, it doesn't have to mirror the document name.

Since you can manage previous reviews on the web, naming can become important, especially since you can create multiple reviews for the same document, maybe for different users or review cycles.

Click Create to upload a preview of the document to Creative Cloud.

When it's finished, you can then set some options like the access level and invite specific users.

Now there are two types of access you can grant.

Invite Only and Public.

Selecting Invite Only is how you share it with specific people only.

You enter an email for people you want to invite down here in the Members section.

If the email isn't associated with an Adobe ID, they'll be asked to make an Adobe ID when they attempt to review the document in browser.

They will receive an email with a link to join the review and a notification in the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Now the Public option is for sharing it with anyone.

Anyone with the link can open it in a browser.

For this example, choose Public.

With Public chosen you can make it, so a password is required to open it, by clicking Require Password and typing one in.

I'll click Cancel without adding one.

Now you can copy the link to the document down here by clicking this icon and then paste it into an email maybe.

You can give that link to anyone so they can view the document in a browser.

Now you can also invite specific people in the Member section down here with Public chosen if you want.

Try that, click to invite someone and add an email address or addresses separated by commas.

Now, if you invite people, you can always remove all of them from here or individual users from your review next to their name in the list, so they no longer have access.

Here are a few things I want to point out.

When you create a review, by default, users can comment on it.

For certain reviews you might not want people to comment.

You can turn off commenting for the current review by clicking the eclipsis down here and choosing Public Settings.

If you want it, you can then turn off commenting by disabling this option.

We will leave it checked so we can see how commenting works.

Just click done.

Now, if you want to see what the reviewers will see, you can click the link down here.

The browser will open and show you the document.

You'll see that in the next video.

You can also click Update Link here to update the review after making changes to the InDesign document within InDesign.

You'll see that in the final video.

For the next part, you'll see what a reviewer sees and how they can comment in the browser.

Review the document in browser

When users click the review link, they can access the document on any OS, mobile device, or desktop using a browser. In-browser, the document appears, along with tools for commenting (if enabled).

With the commenting tools, including a highlighter, text strikethrough, drawing tools, and others, users can add comments to the document. Comments are submitted individually. Users can see comments from other users in the Comment panel and the corresponding annotation in the document, as well as reply to and filter comments.

Now that you've started a review, let's take a look at what a collaborator will see and how they add comments.

We'll make this easy to follow along.

So in InDesign, with the review document you shared still open, click Share up here, then choose Share for Review.

And you should see all those sharing options again.

Now, to see the document in browser, click the link down here.

Now, a few things to note.

If you put the access setting Invite Only, users will need to login with their Adobe ID.

Now, if they don't have an Adobe ID, they can create a free Adobe ID.

If Public was chosen and the link was emailed separately, or they were added as a member, anyone with the link can review as a guest or login with an Adobe ID.

It's recommended that a reviewer creates an Adobe ID before adding comments to manage the comments better.

With the document open in your browser, you can see the document in the middle here, you can see navigation options down here like Zoom In and Zoom Out, you can see Next and Previous page, Fit Width, and fit full page.

Really useful.

Now, I like using the Page Thumbnails over here on the left in a longer document to move around faster.

Make sure you see the first page and you can also scroll in the browser window out here.

Now on the right, you can see the Comments panel.

If you click the Comment icon here, you can close and open the panel.

At the top of the panel, you'll see the tools that reviewers can use to share their feedback.

Now, let's add a comment or two.

First, try the Pin.

Click the Pin icon and click somewhere in the design to tell everyone what this comment relates to.

After clicking, you can move it to the right spot if you want.

Now, add your comment on the right.

And click Submit.

Now, if you're signed into Creative Cloud through your browser within Adobe ID already, the comment is added along with your name.

I wasn't logged in to the Creative Cloud, so I see this.

Because we set this document as a public link, I can either log in with an Adobe ID or log in as a guest.

If this review was set to Invite Only, I would need to login with an Adobe ID.

And you can create a new one at that point.

I logged in as a guest to show you how it would work.

And the comment is now added.

You can see a name next to the comment.

And for me, I see Guest because I didn't log in with an Adobe ID.

Now, let's try another comment.

Try to Text Highlighter, Strikethrough, or Replace Text.

All of which, you drag across text in the document to start.

With one of these tools selected, drag across some text in the document.

Now, you can also change the color associated with the comment before or after you use the tool.

Add a comment.

And click Submit.

If you want, try a few more to get the hang of it.

You can also use this Pencil to draw a shape, maybe to circle something you want to comment about.

After you've made some comments, go to the second page.

And notice that you can see Spread #2 over here in the Comments panel.

The comments are actually organized by spread.

Now, even if you have a document that has individual pages and not spreads, it still organizes them by what it calls Spreads.

Scroll back up to the first page.

Now, you can also hide the comments in the document by clicking this icon down here.

This can be a way to take a step back and just look at the design overall maybe.

Click to turn them back on.

Now, if you come back to one of your comments and you click on the ellipsis here, you can see a few options in the menu including resolving comments.

You'll learn about resolving in the next video.

Others can also reply to a comment by clicking Reply for a specific comment.

Go ahead and try that.

And here's a tip.

If you're logged in with an Adobe ID when reviewing, I logged in behind the scenes to show you what that would look like.

You can click the add mention to see a list of those invited pop-up.

Now that you have an idea of what reviewers can do, let's go back over to InDesign in the last part and see how to manage the review so far.

Manage the review

As comments are added to the document in-browser, they also appear in the Review panel in InDesign, with the shared document open. You (as the review initiator) can view, reply to, filter, and resolve comments.

If changes are made to the document, you can click Share in the application bar and choose Share for Review to return to the share options. You can then add or remove users from the review, update the existing document link for users, or even create a new review from the current document.

As the owner of the review document, you can view and manage feedback you received from others from within InDesign.

Now, see any comments, you can open the Review panel by choosing Window, Comments, Review.

Now, this Review panel shows a list of comments organized by spread.

If you close and open this review document you started, the review and comments will still be there.

If you were to save the document as a copy and rename it, or even send it to somebody else to open in their version of InDesign, the review will no longer be associated with the document.

Now, the Share Review panel launches automatically whenever you copy a link or add a reviewer in the Share for Review window.

You may have seen it opened behind the Share for Review window if you followed along in the first video.

Now, if you close the Review panel, it won't open again automatically, just so you know.

Looking in the panel, click one of the comments, and you can see that it's highlighted on the page.

If you click one of the annotations out here in the document, that comment is then highlighted in the Review panel.

Now, you can see a lot of the same options you saw when reviewing documents in the browser.

Options like Reply.

Or the ability to hide and show the comments in the document down here.

As you review comments, maybe making those changes to your document and you want to mark a comment as done, or maybe you simply want to ignore a comment, you can resolve those comments, resolving hides them from the list.

For one of the comments, click the More Options ellipsis here.

Like in the browser, you can resolve or delete individual comments, or edit comments you made.

Now, I can't edit this one because someone else made it.

Now, suppose you want to make the change suggested in the comment.

Like this one.

With the Selection Tool, I'll drag this text frame down to the bottom.

Now, if you want to make a change suggested in one of your comments, go ahead.

After making the change, you may want to resolve the comment.

Maybe indicating that it's been done.

For a comment, click on the ellipsis, and choose Resolve.

The comment is now hidden.

Now, you can resolve comments or not depending on your workflow.

There are also times when you resolve comments, and you want to show them again.

Maybe you accidentally resolved a comment, and you want to see it.

That's where filtering comes in.

Click the Filter icon down here.

And you can filter the comment list based on reviewer time and if it was resolved.

Click the status Resolved.

You might need to scroll down.

And then close the Filter menu by clicking somewhere else to see all of the resolved comments in the panel.

I only see one because that's all I resolved.

Now, if you resolved the comment in error, or you want to see it in the main list again, you can click the More Options ellipsis here and choose Move to Unresolved.

To see all the comments again, click Clear Filter, or you could click the Filter icon down here and just deselect Resolved.

It's the reverse of what you did.

And you can see it again.

Now, as far as managing the review process as a whole, to see the Share for Review options again, you can come up here to the Menu icon and choose Share for Review.

Go to review in this menu would actually take you out to the browser again.

At this point, you can make any changes, like adding other people or requiring a password for instance.

Any changes you make will affect everyone that has access to the review.

Now, if you make changes to the document, maybe like design changes, you can update the review document by clicking Update Link here.

Reviewers will then see the updated document.

I'd suggest you check the timestamp next to Update Link just so you know when you last updated it.

Now, if you want to start a new review, maybe you want to keep this review and comments as they are, but you want to send out a second round and you want to start from scratch.

Clicking the More Options ellipsis down here, you can create a brand-new review or even delete this current review.

Every review you start is stored for you to see it later on.

Go ahead and click on Create new review.

We won't go through this since we did this in the first part of the tutorial.

But you could create a brand-new review with a new name.

Click Cancel to return to the original review.

If you want to keep track of all your reviews, maybe you want to go back and see what somebody said in a comment, you can do that on a Creative Cloud Assets site.

Click More Options here again.

And choose Manage review on the web.

Your browser opens up, assuming you're logged in with your Adobe ID, you'll see the reviews you created.

Using Share for Review in InDesign is a great and pretty easy way to create a collaborative review with others and receive feedback without leaving InDesign.

Adobe Stock contributors: mahout; Template Depot; Anders Engström; Liudmyla Klymenko; Ольга Чжу; romankosolapov
Presenter: Brian Wood

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Cookies are small text files stored by your web browser when you use websites. There are also other technologies that can be used for similar purposes like HTML5 Local Storage, web beacons, and embedded scripts. These technologies help us do things like remembering you and your preferences when you return to our sites, measure how you use the website, conduct market research, and gather information about the ads you see and interact with.

If enabled:

We can improve your experience by tailoring the site and the content to things we think might be of interest
We can better keep track of your preferences — like what language you prefer to use
We will better understand your likely interests so we can provide you more relevant Adobe ads and content on non-Adobe websites and in non-Adobe apps
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If disabled:

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What you learned: How to use Share for Review to collaborate on a document and gather feedback

Start a review

View transcript

Review the document in browser

View transcript

Manage the review

View transcript