Adobe CC Integration

[JillAc]

Hi Is anybody using the integration with Adobe CC? We tried to use it but couldn't find anything useful or time saving about having it. Any feedback would be great. Thanks! Jill Ackerman

[MirandaRa1]

We have requested a proper demo before we start using it - as I am not a designer. I will let you know my findings from that. Why didn't you find it useful / time saving, as I will ask about your points also... Thanks! Miranda Rais GVC

[KieranMc1]

Hello! We've been testing internally and so far, we think it's great from a designer's perspective. They are able to upload documents and proofs for review directly within the CC program they're using. It supports even uploads of new versions over old ones. Obviously, it's not without its limitations though. Pros: Anyone using Adobe CC (PSD, AI, or ID) can upload documents or proofs directly to projects, issues, and tasks without ever leaving the program. Supports uploads of multiple version uploads. Can assign people to review/approve documents or proofs without leaving the program. Can directly make comments to a document without leaving the program (shows up in the document's "Updates" area, not in an active proof). Can see a "Worklist" of projects and tasks assigned to them that are incomplete, directly within the program (similar to the Home view). Can quickly see the overall status of a creative or proof within the program (the "S,O,C,D" for documents show up next to the creative and highlight in green when active to indicate the stage). Cons/Limitations: It supports only 3 Adobe programs currently (Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator). You cannot upload a proof without using "Automated Proof Workflows". You can circumvent this by creating a generic automated workflow in WF Proof that is open for people to freely add or remove proof recipients but it still seems silly that "Basic" uploads aren't supported. You cannot see the anything that happens within a proofing document without accessing WF/launching the proofing tool- no comments or markups are viewable within Adobe. Cannot close or resolve tasks. A designer's task would be to "Upload the Creative" but it doesn't have an option to complete their task after uploading. So they can use the plugin to upload, but will still have to mark the task "Done" within Workfront. Really depends on how your creatives work and the volume produced as to whether it would be truly beneficial. Hope that helps! Kieran McKinney GoDaddy

[JillAc]

It's an addon so that you can access Workfront from Acrobat or InDesign. You can pull up a list of project names from the application, but you need to know the project name you are working on to select where the upload is going. None of my designers will be able to easily figure that out and they will invariably upload to the wrong project. We have a lot of similarly named projects. I couldn't see how to filter by my projects‚Äö or another way to find the right one. Also, the list is looooooong making it hard to find the right one, especially if it doesn't start with A. Also, you still need to print the PDF and transfer it from Acrobat so having the connection to InDesign seems extraneous and we couldn't think of a time when that would be useful in InDesign. When the designer goes to Workfront to figure out the project name, as long as they are there, it's the same effort to transfer the PDF from there. So while you could theoretically transfer it from Acrobat, they don't really open the document in Acrobat after it's printed so as long as they have to open Acrobat, might as well open Workfront. That was what we saw when we tried it. Perhaps we were missing some critical thinking on how to better use the connection and would love to hear how other people use it, under the assumption that we didn't see the key benefit.

[JillAc]

Kieran -- Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated. We actually didn't test it within Acrobat, I made an assumption it would work the same as InDesign. I have a question – in what type of work does it make sense to share a native InDesign or Photoshop file for review and approval? We tried uploading an InDesign file and it didn't create a proof -- it has to be a PDF for it to be turned into a Proof as far as I can tell. Were we doing something wrong? Did it create the Proof for you? This was the main thing that stopped us in our tracks. The point about Automated Workflows is a good one – we don't use that because we have unlimited variations on who approves what and when, and it doesn't work for us, too inflexible and difficult to manage. If we could create automated workflows using Role instead of Name, then it would be potentially useful. We could work around this if I could figure out how to get around not having to create a PDF to make a proof.

[feleqyan]

Hi everyone. I'm Hayk, the product manager of Workfront integrations. Thanks for this awesome conversation you've started, I love reading your thoughts and feedback! Jill, I'd love to learn more about the structure of work items that you assign to your designers. How many tasks are they working on simultaneously? Do they mark their tasks as "Done" in Workfront, or it's not a required step? How they track their work in Workfront, and is it an effective way? What filtering/sorting options would enable them to easily navigate their work items? I have a lot of questions, all of them about learning about your use cases and workflows, and using that knowledge to improve our integration with Adobe CC. Kieran, thank you for the very detailed review of our integration! You might like to know that we have a lot of improvements planned for the Adobe CC extension, most of which are pretty much in line with the limitations listed in your post above. There are a couple of features that we can't implement yet because of technical limitations of Adobe's integrations framework (like showing proofing comments and markup over the files open in Adobe CC programs), but there are a lot of other planned improvements too - closing tasks, viewing previous updates and comments, viewing custom forms, using basic workflows to generate proofs etc. And I would love to hear your feedback on all of them! 2All: I would really appreciate if you would find half an hour so we can connect and discuss the Adobe CC extension in more details. I can walk you through our future plans and adjust them according to your needs. You can schedule a call with me "https://calendly.com/haykfalakyan/workfront-adobe-integration" with this link : just pick any day and time that works for you. Hayk Falakyan Workfront

[KieranMc1]

Jill, It's easier for a designer to show/proof review on the native document they're actually working on. That way, they don't have to worry about the concept of exporting to a different file type only for review and can do the final export when the creative is finalized/approved (time savings). We use folders within WF documents for our finalized documents along the lines of: "Final Approved Creative". It could also be helpful as the proof uploads a native document for download as well so, in the case where the document passes hands after an approval/review, the person taking on the document could grab it directly within WF once ready versus having to grab it from an email or somewhere else. Additional time savings here but it really depends on your internal processes as to whether those are helpful features or not. You can absolutely upload native program files within a proof; proof supports .ai & .psd file types and a lot more but NOT InDesign file types, so I guess it depends on the tool being used. I would say though, using the plug-in to do an export of a PDF is still faster than manually saving it as a pdf and then going through WF to upload as a proof. With the other programs, you can select what file type you want to upload it as without having to "save as" locally. Here is a list of supported filetypes for proof: https://experience.workfront.com/s/article/Supported-proofing-file-types-1813352979 As I outlined in my previous comment, one of my gripes with the plug-in is that it does not currently allow uploads of any document as a proof without using "Automated Workflows". We got around it by building a generic one in Proof with open permissions that allows our designers to put in whomever they want, just like a "Basic Proof" workflow. By doing this, it does upload as a proof with the appropriate people same as it would uploading directly within WF. See below for a screenshot of this configuration. Hope that helps, Kieran McKinney GoDaddy

[lenasal]

Hello Kieran,

I know this is an old thread, but we're just jumping in to the WF/Adobe plug-in and we have the same issue with not using Automated Workflows. Your original email says you built a generic one, and that there was a screenshot attached of the configuration, but I don't see the attachment...can I trouble you to reply here with a screenshot or you can send directly to me. It would be so helpful.

Kind regards,

Lena

lsalazar@brewerdirect.com

[KieranMc1]

@Lena Salazar‚

You need to configure the workflow in Proof. Here you go:

[lenasal]

Super helpful...thanks so much!!

[JillAc]

Hi Hayk I'll try to answer, hope this helps How many tasks are they working on simultaneously? One at a time �� Ha-they are juggling multiple projects/tasks at any given day but it really depends on the project. Some take a full time week or two to work on, others less. Do they mark their tasks as "Done" in Workfront, or it's not a required step? Yes, they are supposed to, often I have to remind them to do it. They are getting better, but since the task is disconnected from the Proof, it's challenging How they track their work in Workfront, and is it an effective way? Sort of, we've gotten used to our way so it could probably be better. We follow Skye's recommendation – every time a Proof is ready to go to the next stage the designer and the manager @ tag each other. We don't have tasks for every step because it's too cumbersome so we have 7 tasks for a design project for the design portion of the project: mockup done (designer), mockup approved (manager), 1^st draft done (designer), 1^st draft approved (manager), Final done (designer), final approved (manager), Output final art files (designer) What filtering/sorting options would enable them to easily navigate their work items? The main problem is that they never have to upload an InDesign or Photoshop file, those are our internal files. They have to upload a PDF so that Proof can convert it into a Proof. So first they have to print the InDesign file as a PDF and then upload it. The integration into InDesign doesn't help that step. As for filtering/sorting – they generally use "Projects I'm On" For some reason they don't like Home and I'm not entirely sure why.

[JillAc]

Hi Kieran Thanks for this, really appreciate it. We work mainly with InDesign files so that's where the time saving would be for us. Are you saying that you are sharing InDesign files natively with other Adobe CC users and they download the raw file to review as a document, and not as a Proof? We didn't see a way to export the InDesign file as a PDF and then immediately have the ability to upload it to WF from the integration but will look at it again as maybe we didn't try that exactly right. The other issue I saw with it was that the designer has to know the Project Name of what they are working on to upload it to the right place. I couldn't find a way to filter on "tasks assigned to me" or "projects I'm on" and I also didn't see a way to separate by Portfolio which would help narrow down the choices -- so how do they know which project to upload to? We have a naming convention that may not be so easy to find the right project and I foresee them choosing the wrong one by accident.

[Leann_Berger]

@Jill Ackerman wrote: "So first they have to print the InDesign file as a PDF and then upload it." Not the version we're using. My understanding of how the InDesign plugin works is that the designer chooses a target project (by searching if necessary) and then the extension generates a PDF using InDesign's PDF Export engine and uploads the resulting file without the user having to visit the OS's file system or browser at all. They can also generate a proof without having to visit a browser, assuming they use a proofing template. The extension does not upload a native InDesign file. Michael Lemberger

[feleqyan]

Jill, thanks for your detailed answer. My understanding is that it takes both new features/functionality and some process changes to achieve the best performance and velocity on your side. For now, the CC extension is rather limited in functionality. There's definitely room for improvement there, and the way I see it, improving the way your designers access and manage their tasks is one of the biggest opportunities we have. We're already working on it, and I'd love to share some design prototypes with you to hear your opinion and make sure that we're going to build the right thing. The general scope of possible improvements is: A more complete experience with tasks: Filtering and sorting Accessing task details (description, dates, predecessors, custom forms...) Quick actions (marking tasks as done, updating the percent complete, changing the status...) Logging hours Better communication with Workfront Full access to updates stream Viewing regular and proof comments Replying to comments (with tags) I believe that this new functionality, along with small process changes, can streamline the way your designers interact with Workfront. My biggest goal here can be to enable your designers to be productive in Workfront without ever having to open Workfront :) Oh, and as for the issue with PDFs, Michael is spot on: you can export your working documents from InDesign to Workfront as PDFs right from the extension, without having to print and save them locally first. You just need to select the desired export format from the dropdown menu. Let me know if you need more help with it, I'll be happy to assist. Hayk Falakyan Workfront

[MirandaRa1]

Hi Hayk, QQ - how would / could the extension interact with Adobe Cloud and/or sharepoint - as we need to 'swap' assets between designers and we need them to be able to access each others' work - these files can be pretty big... We also would prefer they don't lose context - ie can swap photoshop to photoshop instance, without having to open WF etc.... Thanks! Miranda Rais

[feleqyan]

Hi Miranda. The extension doesn't support cloud storage providers, for now. Hayk Falakyan

[tbamber]

Hello Hayk, One problem we have noticed is we are not able to send proofs to email address outside of our company. Also, in Workfront Proof, we have our workflows set up by group, but when uploading a proof directly from InDesign or Photoshop, we are not able to see the individual groupings. Do you know If this is going to be changed? We have quite a few different groups and weeding though (and guessing) all of the workflows can be quite tedious. Thanks! Tony Tony Bamber Whirlpool Corporation (Creative Studios)

[feleqyan]

Hi Tony. We are aware of the issue with external reviewers and are actively working to address it. I'll post in here again when it's fixed and deployed. And thanks for pointing out the drawback with proof groups! It seems like an easy enough improvement to make. I'll make sure we have it on our roadmap for the CC extension. Hayk Falakyan