Approver, a new document collaboration application
Shan Sadiq | Monday September 25, 2006 | 401 Views |Categorized under , Approver
Approver is a document collaboration application launched by Jeffrey McManus, a former Yahoo developer. It lets you create or upload documents and request feedback on them. It’s a rather simple but useful application.
The sign up process is short. Once you verify your email and login, you are taken to a simple “My Documents†page. From this page, you can create or upload a new document.
Once you create a document, Approver requests you to list the email addresses of friends or colleagues you would like to share the document with as shown below. You can either have a friend or colleague review a document or approve it. Approver also lets you choose whether to allow the friend or colleague to edit the document.
Approver then gives you the option to set a deadline for the document. You can also add comments to the document. Once you save the document, the collaborators are sent an email alert. If you request a review of a document, all the reviewer can do is look over the document and comment on it. If you request an approval of a document, the approver can simply select “approve document†once they approve of it. If you give a reviewer or approver editing capabilities, they can make changes to your document.
I did catch a few bugs in the system. Unfortunately, I was not able to review all the collaborative mechanics of Approver because of a database error. I would have really liked to see how one approves and edits a document.
To create more then one document, you must become a paid member. A premium account is $5.95 a month or $39.95 a year. With a premium account, you can create and share up to 50 documents at one time and invite up to 50 people at a time to review your documents.
All in all, I like Approver. I do think its pay model may be problematic. Writely is a more evolved document collaboration platform that’s completely free. But the collaborative features on Approver do stand out. Its ease of use also stands out. I’ll be sure to keep my eyes Approver.
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