Downloading files while a review is open

Approvers often need the file itself, not just the preview: to open a spreadsheet, run a presentation, or check a print file in another tool. Plan can allow that while the review is still open, and it is off unless someone turns it on.

Turn it on for a project

1. Open Plan and go to Approval projects.
2. Point at the project in the left panel, click the three dots and choose Edit project.
3. Switch on Download during review.
4. Click Update project.

The setting allows downloading of submitted material during the review process. Turning it on shows a warning worth reading: enabling downloads of unapproved files can result in the unintended distribution of off-brand or incomplete materials. That is the trade you are making, so turn it on where reviewers genuinely need the file and leave it off elsewhere.

You do not need to be a portal administrator to do this. Anyone who can edit the project can set it.

This setting exists on Place approval projects only. A Produce approval project has no archive and no download setting, because its material lives in Produce.

Download a single item

Open the material from the project list. With the setting on, a Download button sits in the top right, between the status control and the More menu.

Download several at once

In the project list, tick the rows you want. A bar appears above the table with Download on it. A single row's three-dot menu also carries Download asset.

When there is nothing to download

If the setting is off, none of these appear: no Download button on the review screen, no Download in the selection bar, and no Download asset in the row menu. If you expected one and cannot find it, the project setting is the thing to check.

An approved item also has no Download button in Plan. This setting is about downloading while the review is running. Once the material is approved it sits in the Place archive at status Ready, visible to everyone with access to that folder, and you download it from there like any other asset.

Which files this is useful for

The archive accepts presentations and spreadsheets as well as images and video: ppt, pptx, doc, docx, xls and xlsx among others. The full list is shown at the top of the Place Uploader. These are the files a preview cannot really do justice to, and the ones reviewers most often want in their hands. ZIP archives are not an accepted file type, so material cannot be submitted as a bundle.