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Hello Airtable Community! 

My name is ​@Akshar_Patel and I am a Product Manager here at Airtable. We're thrilled to announce a powerful new feature that will revolutionize how creative and marketing teams manage their review and approval workflows: Proofing.

 

What is Proofing?

Proofing provides an integrated workflow for creative and marketing teams to upload, version, review, annotate, and approve digital assets directly within Airtable—eliminating the need for external review tools.

With this new feature, you can now combine the power of Airtable's project management capabilities with professional-grade proofing tools in one seamless experience. You can track versions, compare files side-by-side, add detailed annotations, and collect stakeholder feedback without ever leaving your Airtable workflow.

We recommend using Proofing for key use cases like:

  • Creative agency workflows - Marketing teams managing multiple client campaigns who need to track asset revisions and collect approval feedback in one centralized location
  • Product marketing - Teams reviewing packaging designs, promotional materials, and digital assets who need to compare versions and ensure brand consistency
  • Content operations - Organizations managing editorial workflows who need to review documents, track changes, and coordinate approvals across stakeholders
  • Client collaboration - Agencies working with external clients who need a professional review experience without requiring full Airtable access

How do you use Proofing?

To get started:

  1. Navigate to any attachment field in your base and open the field configuration menu
  2. Set the Format to "Versions" to enable version management
  3. Upload your files - each new file becomes the next version automatically
  4. Click the Review button to open the enhanced proofing viewer
  5. Use the annotation tools to add feedback: notes, rectangles, freehand markups, and text highlighting on PDFs
  6. Select previous versions to view different versions side-by-side

Rich Annotation and Markup Tools

Add precise feedback directly on your files with a comprehensive set of annotation tools:

  • Note annotations: Click anywhere to add contextual comments
  • Rectangle highlights: Draw shapes to call attention to specific areas
  • Freehand markups: Create custom drawings and creative direction
  • Text highlighting: Select and highlight specific text within PDF documents

Feature Details

  • File Types Supported: Images (JPG, PNG, GIF), Documents (PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLS) - individual attachments up to 5GB in size
  • Version Limits: No specific limit beyond your plan's standard attachment storage
  • External Collaboration: Comment-only users can fully participate in the proofing workflow
  • Storage: Each version counts toward your attachment storage limits just like regular attachments
  • Plans: Available on Business and Enterprise Scale plans

For complete setup instructions and detailed feature information, check out our support article on Proofing attachments in Airtable.

We've heard from customers that managing creative reviews across disconnected tools creates version confusion and lost feedback. Proofing solves this by bringing professional-grade review capabilities directly into your existing Airtable workflows, whether you're managing creative campaigns, product launches, or client deliverables.

We can't wait for you to explore this exciting new addition to Airtable. 

As always, your feedback is invaluable to us. Please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or suggestions about how we can continue to improve your proofing experience.

Thank you for being part of our community!

Hey ​@Akshar_Patel this is great!

Thanks for sharing.

For several use cases this might be good enough as to avoid the need of having a Resources or Attachments table, where each record is it’s own version of the attachment!

I’ll be playing around with it :D

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation

Ah, business and enterprise only, would have been good to mention that in the original post. For us poor Teams peons 

 

Hey ​@Akshar_Patel, how much are you also thinking about using this for document review and version control? This capability is bringing Airtable closer to competing with some tools dedicated to managing contracts and I could see a many use-cases for tracking redlined versions of agreements and using AI agents to summarize or extract the text of certain key terms that all contracts reviewers will need to pay attention to.

​@Akshar_Patel This look very promising and as someone who owns a creative business, very helpful! 

​@benivy,

As a former lawyer myself I’d loooove to see that redline feature.

Feel free to post that as a feature request using this Product Idea form.

Mike, Consultant @ Automatic Nation 

Hey ​@Akshar_Patel, how much are you also thinking about using this for document review and version control? This capability is bringing Airtable closer to competing with some tools dedicated to managing contracts and I could see a many use-cases for tracking redlined versions of agreements and using AI agents to summarize or extract the text of certain key terms that all contracts reviewers will need to pay attention to.

 

​@benivy  - We are very much thinking about this! With Proofing - you can compare PDFs side-by-side an see changes in text across 2 versions. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Airtable Proofing has absolutely sparked my interest. I’m very keen to explore this! 

This is a step in the right direction, but it still doesn’t work if you want something like a “working attachments” field where you have multiple files with revision control. We had to revert all back to the old view because we have a creative project and it could have 1 to many attachments, and right now I have to build multiple attachment fields, which is less than ideal. I might be missing something here.

​@Ben Taylor 

You could workaround this limitation by creating a linked record field that links to multiple different records. Each record would have a single attachment that contains versions.

Of course, the downside to this is that you would need to “click into” the linked record to make changes. You couldn’t make changes from the parent record.

Hope this helps!

- ScottWorld, Expert Airtable Consultant

This is a step in the right direction, but it still doesn’t work if you want something like a “working attachments” field where you have multiple files with revision control. We had to revert all back to the old view because we have a creative project and it could have 1 to many attachments, and right now I have to build multiple attachment fields, which is less than ideal. I might be missing something here.



Agreed with ​@ScottWorld  – it seems more of a base architecture problem than a proofing functionality. You’re trying to gather feedback on multiple records which aren’t ‘formally’ linked to an umbrella or parent record.

All the creative review workflows I’ve tackled (worked for Disney for a long time) required a 1:1.

Matteo – CrOps

Do you know when this possibility will be available ? Thanks :) 

Do you know when the same functionality apply to video? As a marketing agency 90% of our assets are videos, would be great to have this available for them.

This is a step in the right direction, but it still doesn’t work if you want something like a “working attachments” field where you have multiple files with revision control. We had to revert all back to the old view because we have a creative project and it could have 1 to many attachments, and right now I have to build multiple attachment fields, which is less than ideal. I might be missing something here.

Same here. We were excited to try this, but it simply took all of our working attachments and put them into one file and called each one a version within the file. So, we reverted back until this tool is updated. Disappointing.

Seconding ​@Toby’s request for video functionality for marketing teams! We use Airtable extensively for our creative review process and the majority of our assets are video files.

Do you know when the same functionality apply to video? As a marketing agency 90% of our assets are videos, would be great to have this available for them.

​@Toby, ​@liquidchroma what do you guys use now? do you integrate with 3P apps?

This is a step in the right direction, but it still doesn’t work if you want something like a “working attachments” field where you have multiple files with revision control. We had to revert all back to the old view because we have a creative project and it could have 1 to many attachments, and right now I have to build multiple attachment fields, which is less than ideal. I might be missing something here.

Same here. We were excited to try this, but it simply took all of our working attachments and put them into one file and called each one a version within the file. So, we reverted back until this tool is updated. Disappointing.

​@AT_User can I ask what the use-case is for multiple attachments into one record? if – say – there are 6 images in one attachment field and I leave a comment, how am I supposed to indicate the comment if exactly for image 3, for example?

Use case for multiple attachments:
If we have a project request to update a brochure -- it comes in as one record (we call it a project request) and it has multiple attachments such as:

  1. new image to use (Jpg)
  2. copy document to use (MSWord)
  3. reference file (PDF - say, last version of brochure that needs to be updated)

Per your commenting question - you can click on each attachment to leave a comment  -- so you said “Image 3” -- you could click on Image 3 and then put a comment on it. 

Thanks ​@AT_User! 

I still think the feature works well IF you see it as a versioning system (which is what is conceived as).
The problem is that you’re consolidating 2 different things:

  1. a brief (the new image, and the copy document, and reference file)

and the final output:

  1. the new brochure design

A solution would be to have two attachment fields, and use the setting ‘files’ for the brief, and ‘versions’ for the output.

 

It’s too bad you can’t have multiple attachments in the attachment area, and THEN choose (toggle or check box) if a particular attachment (brochure once it’s ready for review/approval) will require “versions” if edits are needed, therefore a v1 v2 v3 need to be created. 

It’s too bad you can’t have multiple attachments in the attachment area, and THEN choose (toggle or check box) if a particular attachment (brochure once it’s ready for review/approval) will require “versions” if edits are needed, therefore a v1 v2 v3 need to be created. 

I hear you, but as for every other feature, Airtable PMs need to balance complexity...what you want to achieve is very simply done by an architectural change. Frame.io and Air also work in the same way.

I’m excited to use this feature! One additional use case that would be useful is the ability to have Reference Files that can be viewed alongside an asset while in the proofing tool. Copy decks, nutritional panels, reference artwork, etc. are all helpful things that could be uploaded to make the proofing experience more efficient!

I’m excited to use this feature! One additional use case that would be useful is the ability to have Reference Files that can be viewed alongside an asset while in the proofing tool. Copy decks, nutritional panels, reference artwork, etc. are all helpful things that could be uploaded to make the proofing experience more efficient!

Hi ​@AmyL_CB – that can be very simply achieved by adding a linked record. e.g. a record linked to the asset that needs proofing carrying the extra information (Copy decks, nutritional panels, reference artwork, etc.)

Happy to chat more about it if you need help.

 

Matteo CrOps

matteo@crops-ag.com

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