Proofing attachments in Airtable

What is Airtable Proofing?

Airtable 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.

Proofing transforms how teams manage creative review and approval processes by centralizing all feedback, annotations, and version history in one place. Instead of juggling multiple tools, your team can track project progress and gather stakeholder feedback without ever leaving Airtable.

Key capabilities:

• Version management - Track multiple iterations of the same file with automatic version numbering

• Side-by-side comparison - View different versions simultaneously to easily spot changes

• Rich annotation tools - Add comments, highlights, shapes, and freehand markups directly on files

• Automatic text change detection - Identify text differences between PDF versions automatically

• Collaborative reviews - External stakeholders can participate in reviews without full Airtable access

Enabling proofing in an attachment field

1. Open a base containing an attachment field where you want to enable proofing.

2. Click the dropdown menu next to the name of the field and select Edit field to open the field configuration menu.

3. Under the “Format” setting, select Versions.

4. Click Save.

Note

Enabling proofing changes the field behavior from supporting multiple independent attachments to supporting multiple versions of the same file. We recommend testing this on a duplicated base first to understand the implications.

Opening the proofing viewer

1. Add files to the attachment field as usual. Each new file uploaded becomes the next version automatically.

2. Click the Review button on your attachment field to open the enhanced proofing viewer. The viewer provides a full-screen experience with annotation tools and version controls.

3. You can then move onto annotating, commenting, and comparing attachments.

Adding annotations and comments

Note that all annotations are automatically linked to your comment. To add annotations:

1. Select an annotation tool from the toolbar. Available annotation tools include:

   1. Note - Click anywhere to add a comment

   2. Rectangle - Draw rectangles to highlight specific areas

   3. Freehand - Create custom markups and drawings

   4. Text highlight - Select and highlight text within PDF documents

2. Click or draw on the file where you want to add feedback.

3. Type your comment in the text box that appears.

4. Click Enter to save.

Comparing attachment versions

1. Click into a cell containing multiple attachment versions.

2. Click on the specific attachment version that you want to review.

3. The attachment review screen will open up the version you clicked.

4. Click the dropdown menu next to the version number to either:

   1. Change to another version - Click on the version name

   2. Compare two versions side by side - Click the Compare option next to the name of a different version.

      1. You can annotate or comment on either version.

      2. In PDF documents, text differences between versions are automatically highlighted, making it easier to spot revisions.

A few important notes to call out:

• Versions are automatically numbered in the order they're uploaded

• View version history and navigate between different iterations

• Upload new versions by adding files to the same attachment field

• Each version maintains its own set of annotations and comments

Downloading attachments after proofing

You can download attachments with or without annotations directly from the proofing viewer:

1. From the attachment viewer click the … menu.

2. Hover over the Download option.

3. Select either:

   1. Download with annotations - Downloads the file with all markup and comments visible

   2. Download without annotations - Downloads the original file without any markup

Proofing feature limitations

• Supported file types

  • Images - JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF

  • Documents - PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLS

• Attachment storage limits

  • An individual attachment can be no larger than 5GB

  • Each version counts toward your attachment storage limits just like regular attachments

  • Your workspace plan will determine a base’s attachment storage limitation

• External collaboration - Users with commenter permissions or higher can fully participate in the proofing workflow. Read-only users cannot utilize this functionality, since annotations work via comment functionality.

• As noted in the introduction table to this article, this feature is only available on Web/Browser, Mac app, and Windows app. Mobile functionality is not available.

FAQs