Sharing and watching together

Every review and canvas can be shared in two ways. A personal link is for talking, a general link is for showing.

A personal link belongs to one named person, listed under People with a link. It is made the moment you add somebody, at no extra step or cost. Sending it is always a separate act: Email link on that person's row, or copying the address yourself. A personal link greets its owner by name and lets them comment with that name attached. Withdrawing one person's link never touches anyone else's.

A general link carries nobody's name. Whoever opens it types a name for themselves, and nothing checks it, so it suits a producer who will forward it around an office. It only exists when you tick Also make a general link, and it is view-only unless you say otherwise.

Every link can carry a passphrase. It is optional, and it is "the only thing between the link and whoever it gets forwarded to." Guessing is slowed down after a few tries.

You choose how long a link works: 3 days, a week, two weeks (the default for a review), a month, or Never expires. A link to a transfer always ends; see Transfers.

Besides its end date, a link closes together with the work behind it:

• archiving a project closes the links to its reviews, canvases and transfers;
• losing a deal closes the links on it;
• finishing or filing away a review closes its links, and the client sees a short thank-you instead;
• deleting a canvas closes its links.

Anybody opening a closed link sees "This link is no longer available" and is asked to request a new one from whoever shared it. Restoring the work opens its links again.

The first thing anyone meets behind a link is a small window asking their name: "Your name, so the studio knows who is looking and who is speaking. No account, and nothing else is kept." It cannot be clicked away.

On a personal link the name is already filled in and the person presses Accept. On a general link they type it and press Continue. A name buys no extra access; it is what lets the studio know who is in the room, and what puts a name on a comment.

Behind a review link, a guest sees the versions released to them, never a draft or an internal round. They can comment, pin a remark to a moment, draw on the frame, approve, compare released versions, and download the file if you allowed downloads. A view-only link shows none of the writing controls. A link with commenting off shows the reader only their own remarks.

Behind a canvas link, you choose how much shows: The whole canvas, or Only basic nodes ("Text, titles, images, video and PDFs. Shot, film and other production cards stay home."). Cards meant for the crew only never reach a client link, whichever you pick. Pen drawings are a switch of their own: Include the drawings is off by default when you make a link, and the Drawings switch on the link's row turns them on or off later. Anything your studio hid from clients stays hidden unless that one link is set to Send the hidden things anyway. More on canvas links in The canvas.

Open a review's video, and everyone on the same page can watch together, live. It starts by itself as soon as there is more than one person. The WATCH TOGETHER panel lists everyone with a coloured pill: your own row says (you), your colleagues are marked studio, and people from outside are marked guest.

One person at a time is In control: their play, pause and scrubbing is followed on everybody else's screen.

• Anyone from the studio can take control with the switch.
• A guest cannot take it, only be given it. They press Ask for the controls, and the person in control sees Give to Anna on that guest's pill. Pressing it hands over at once; ignoring it is the answer.
• A short notice appears whenever control changes hands.

Anyone can step out at any moment: scrub, pause, look around. A bar offers to jump back to the presentation; press it, or Escape, to follow again. Sound always starts muted, and each viewer controls their own.

A room holds at most 8 people on the free plan, 30 on Studio and 50 on Pro. If it is full, the next person is told so and everything else on the page keeps working: the video, the remarks, the approval. Pressing Join again tries once more. Nobody already inside is ever removed.

Your studio's crew can always see who is browsing a review, client included. A client sees others only once a watch-together session is running.

When you want a client's full attention, switch on Premiere in the watch-together panel. It brings down a curtain over the whole room: the comments step aside, a single title line names what is on screen and who is presenting, and you take control. Press F to go full screen, title line included.

When you move to another version, guests follow, as long as that version was released on their link; otherwise they stay where they are. If you compare versions during a premiere, the comparison follows to the guests too.

End it with End premiere (or Escape). If the presenter leaves, the curtain lifts by itself after about twenty seconds. A premiere can be started by anyone in the studio who may share the review with the client.

During a session, everyone's mouse over the video shows as a small coloured cursor with a name, in the same spot on the picture whatever the window size. It only appears while that browser tab is in front.

If the same personal link is open in two tabs at once, you see two pointers with the same name. That is how you can tell a link has been passed around.