Product updates

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We’ve rolled out several new features to make PDF files easier to navigate in CoLab:

Automatic Microsoft Office File Conversion

Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files will now automatically convert to PDFs upon upload, giving you the ability to share and review Office files as PDFs alongside your 2D and 3D CAD files.

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Page Thumbnails, Bookmarks, and Tables of Contents

‍We've added a side panel containing page thumbnails, interactive table of contents, and bookmark support. Use these features to quickly navigated to specific sections of large PDFs, or bookmark important sections for future reference.

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New Search Capabilities

We've upgraded the PDF search feature. The new PDF search now includes result previews, case sensitivity, and whole word matching for faster, more precise searches.

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Marquee Zoom

You can now focus on specific areas of a PDF by selecting a section to magnify, providing a detailed view of the selected content.

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For more information on how to navigate and interact with PDFs in CoLab, check out this article in our knowledge base.

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Draft Feedback

CoLab now automatically saves in-progress feedback on PDFs as a draft, ensuring your feedback is preserved even if you navigate to another page before saving.

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Display Markups with Feedback

• Markups are now associated directly with feedback cards.
• Feedback cards indicate the number of associated markups.
• Users can navigate between markups associated with a specific feedback item.

Keyboard Shortcuts

We've enabled the following keyboard shortcuts to make feedback creation and deletion more efficient:

• ESC Key Cancels Feedback: Pressing Esc cancels ongoing feedback. A confirmation prompt appears if there are multiple markups, and the Enter key confirms cancellation.
• Enter Key Submits Feedback: The Enter key saves ongoing feedback instantly. Shift + Enter enables line breaks in text markups.
• Escape Key Reverts to Select Tool: Pressing the Escape key reverts to the select tool after creating or canceling feedback to maintain continuity.

Selecting Feedback (or Markup) Displays Markup with PDF View State

• PDF view state (zoom level and rotation) is preserved when creating markups.
• Selecting a markup or feedback returns users to their last PDF view state.
• Multi-selection adjusts to the view state of the topmost markup for efficiency.

Preference to Show Only One Feedback Card

• Option to toggle visibility of feedback card when the side panel is open.
• User preference persists across sessions for personalized workflow.
• Feedback card visibility adjusts dynamically based on the side panel state.

Preference to Retain Selected Markup Tool

• Selected markup tool persists after creating or canceling feedback.
• Tool selection remains active until changed by the user.
• Escape key reverts to the select tool to maintain continuity.

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Workspace admins can now create reusable review templates to streamline the review creation process. Here’s how it works:

• Create Templates: From the workspace settings menu, you can create templates that include predefined review titles, descriptions, checklists, and reviewers.
• Apply Templates: When starting a new review, simply select a template from the "Select a template" menu to apply all the predefined settings.

For more details on using review templates in CoLab, please refer to this knowledge base article.

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You have a review in CoLab. Your team added high priority issues. Now,  you’re moderating a design review meeting to assign these tasks. While the issues live in CoLab, you have action items from this meeting that live in Word or paper.

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Not anymore.

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Starting today, every review in CoLab includes a “live” collaborative notebook. With review notebooks, you can create review pre-reads, track meeting minutes, and assign action items without leaving CoLab – or even your review. 

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You can also see any reviewer leave notes, resolve action items or add follow-up tasks right on the document. 

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Made a mistake? Not to worry. CoLab also saves the version history of every edit made to the notebook. 

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More key features include:

• Rich text capabilities: Add hyperlinks, lists, text formatting, and tables.
• Image support: Attach images to support your notes.
• Collaborative editing: Like in Google Docs, you can see the cursor and activity of other users in real time.

To learn more about review notebooks, check out this knowledge base article. It includes feature walkthroughs and FAQs. 

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Exciting news! CoLab now integrates with Teamcenter Active Workspace. This integration allows users to send CAD data directly from Teamcenter’s Active Workspace client to any CoLab workspace.

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If your team uses Active Workspace, here are a few reasons you should consider integrating with CoLab: 

• Version control: Files shared to CoLab will maintain version information from Teamcenter, ensuring you always work on the latest revision.
• Preserved metadata: The integration preserves associated metadata for shared files, such as part dimensions and material specifications.
• No need for file conversions: Upload native design files to CoLab directly from Active Workspace, eliminating the need for tedious file conversions.

Interested in using the CoLab integration for Active Workspace? Contact your Customer Success Manager to get started.

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We have implemented several enhancements this month to improve the feedback creation process and make it easier for you to filter issues and reviews:

• ‍Sort option in feedback panel: A new sort option has been added to the feedback panel in workspaces, allowing you to sort all feedback on a file by date, status, priority, and more.
• New Review Owner Filter in Track: Users can now filter Track by the review owner, making it easier to find and manage specific reviews.
• Speech to text for Google Chrome users: Google Chrome users can now use speech to text functionality when creating feedback titles and descriptions, simplifying the feedback submission process.

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Reviews can now be scheduled in advance without an attached file.

We're delivering this update to make it easier for you to schedule upcoming reviews, even if your design file(s) aren't ready to be uploaded to CoLab.

• The "Request Review" icon has been changed to "Create Review" on the home page, in Track, and in the  menu
• Users can still request a review on a specific file or package of files
• Reviews can be created from the Home page, from Track, or from a workspace.