Documents

Comment Sheets

Comment sheets in Document Ocean 360 are the formal, approval-only PDF record of a review — banded one page per approver, configurable from an organization template, and fully Arabic-capable.

A comment sheet is the formal, PDF record of an approval. It is an approval-only artifact: it is created by approvers while they act on an APPROVE step of a workflow — never from the document’s ⋮ menu, and it never lands in the Attachments tab. When several approvers comment, their sections are banded into a single PDF: one header for the document, then one page per approver. The result appears under the document’s Comment Sheet tab.

This replaces the old single-sheet model

Earlier versions generated a single comment sheet per document from the document’s actions menu. That path has been removed. Comment sheets are now produced only as part of an approval workflow, by the approvers themselves.

The Lifecycle at a Glance

1

A default is set

An organization admin decides whether APPROVE steps offer a comment sheet. Projects inherit this default and can override it.

2

The initiator chooses per step

Whoever starts the workflow sees an 'Allow comment sheet' toggle on each APPROVE step (pre-filled from the default) and flips it on or off as needed.

3

Each approver writes their section

On their APPROVE step, the approver writes a section (label, display name, rich-text comments), previews it, then approves or rejects — which locks the section.

4

The banded sheet is regenerated

As each approver finalizes, the document's banded comment sheet is rebuilt automatically and shown under the Comment Sheet tab.

Organization Settings

Admin

Organization administrators set the defaults that every project and workflow inherits, under Settings → Organization.

Organization comment-sheet settings

Comment sheet on approval steps Default

The organization-wide default for whether APPROVE steps offer a comment sheet. Every project and workflow inherits this unless it is overridden.

Comment sheet template

The default look of the PDF for the whole organization — see the template fields below.

The template controls the appearance of the PDF:

Template options

Sheet title

The heading printed at the top of every sheet.

Orientation

Portrait or landscape.

Field columns

Lay the header fields out in one or two columns.

Organization logo

Show or hide your organization's mark on the sheet.

Accent color

Applied to headings and rules for consistent branding.

Footer text

Free-text footer printed at the bottom of each page.

Page numbers

Show or hide page numbers.

Header fields

Which document fields appear in the header — Document No., Title, Revision, Status, Project, Date, and similar.

Project Overrides

Project Admin

Each project can override the organization defaults under Project → Project Config.

  • Comment sheet on approval steps — choose Inherit (follow the org default, so later changes flow through), On, or Off for this project.
  • Comment sheet template — optionally override the org template for this project, or reset back to inheriting it. This is useful when a joint venture or client contract requires different branding.

The Workflow Initiator

Contributor

When you start a workflow and assign steps, each APPROVE step shows an Allow comment sheet toggle. (It does not appear on Review, Sign, or Acknowledge steps.) The toggle is pre-filled from the project/organization default; flip it per step as needed. When it is on, that step’s approver can attach a comment-sheet section.

The Approver’s Section

Approver

When it is your turn on an APPROVE step that has comment sheets enabled, a comment-sheet section editor appears in the approve panel:

Section editor

Section label Optional

A short title for your part, e.g. 'Electrical review'.

Display name

Defaults to your real name. You can edit it (for example, if you are reviewing on someone's behalf) or remove it entirely.

Comments

A rich-text editor for your review notes.

Save / generate preview

Saves your draft and shows a preview PDF of your section.

Remove

Deletes your draft section.

You can edit and regenerate as much as you like until you submit your approve/reject decision — at that point your section is locked and joins the document’s banded comment sheet. Your latest text is saved automatically when you decide, so nothing is lost if you forget to click Save. Until you lock it, your draft is private to you.

Who can add a section

The step must be an APPROVE step with the toggle on, you must be that step’s assignee (or the person it was delegated to), and your project role must be Approver or higher.

Where the Sheet Appears

View it at: /documents/:id → Comment Sheet tab
  • Comment Sheet tab on the document — the combined PDF (one header plus a page per approver), regenerated as each approver finalizes. Download it from there.
  • Not in the Attachments tab — that tab is only for files people upload.

Arabic

Comment sheets render Arabic correctly — connected (shaped) letters, right-to-left layout, with embedded numbers, codes, and dates kept in their correct order — using the same PDF text engine as the workflow annotations. No extra configuration is required.