The PDF QA Tool lets you upload a PDF for a project's target language and review it in place — adding comments and markup directly on the PDF — instead of emailing files back and forth.
It's built for In-Layout Review: checking how the translated text actually looks once it's placed back into a PDF layout (a brochure, a datasheet, packaging artwork, and so on), where line breaks, text expansion, and formatting can only really be judged in context. Markup goes straight to whoever is responsible for updating the source file, every comment is tied to who made it, and each new upload for the same language becomes a new, selectable version — so a team can track exactly what changed across review rounds until the PDF is approved.
💡 Who is this for? This guide is for Project Managers and Account Admins who upload a PDF for review, and for Vendors and other linguists who open and mark up that PDF inside the Editor.
Uploading a PDF for Review
A Project Manager or Account Admin uploads the PDF from the project itself:
Open the project and go to its Reference Files tab.
In the Review Files section, click Upload PDF.
Choose the target language the PDF belongs to, then select the PDF file from your computer.
Once uploaded, the file appears in the Review Files list with its language, upload date, and who uploaded it. It's now available for anyone with access to that language in the Editor.
Uploading a new PDF for the same language doesn't replace the old one. Both versions stay available, so you can compare rounds of feedback or confirm what changed between them — see Tracking Multiple Versions below.
Opening the PDF in the Editor
From inside a work unit in the wxrks Editor, open the Review icon — the PDF-shaped icon in the right-hand menu (see wxrks Editor Menu for Vendors for the full icon-by-icon tour of that menu).
Click Available Files to see every PDF uploaded for this work unit's language.
Select a file by its name and upload date to load it.
If Available Files shows No Files Available, no PDF has been uploaded yet for this work unit's language — ask your Project Manager to upload one from the project's Reference Files tab above.
Reviewing and Marking Up the PDF
Once a file loads, it opens in wxrks' built-in PDF viewer with its own toolbar for navigating and marking up the document:
Thumbnails view — switch to a page-by-page thumbnail list to jump around a long document quickly.
Page counter — shows your current page out of the document's total.
Pan — click and drag to move around a zoomed-in page.
Zoom out / Zoom in — adjust magnification.
Fit to width — resize the page to fit the panel.
Annotate — opens the markup tools: highlighting, freeform drawing, notes, text boxes, lines, stamps/images, and a saved signature.
Print — print the document as currently loaded.
[SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER: close-up of the Annotate tool group open, showing the individual highlight/draw/note/text/line/sign icons] Click Annotate to open this tool group, then pick a tool and click or drag on the page to add your markup.
Every comment and markup you add is saved automatically and is visible to anyone else who opens that same PDF — including the Project Manager, who can pass the consolidated feedback to whoever updates the original file.
Tracking Multiple Versions
When a PDF goes through more than one round of layout changes, upload the updated file to the same language rather than trying to reuse the old one.
Each upload appears as its own entry in Available Files, labeled with its own upload date and uploader.
Older versions stay selectable, so you can go back and check what was marked up on a previous round.
This gives the whole team visibility into how many iterations a PDF has been through before it's approved — without anyone needing to track version numbers in a filename or a separate spreadsheet.
Troubleshooting
I don't see an Upload PDF button on the project. Uploading a review PDF is done from the project's Reference Files tab, which Project Managers and Account Admins can access. If you're a linguist reviewing a PDF, ask your Project Manager to upload it — you'll then see it under Available Files in the Editor.
Available Files shows No Files Available. No PDF has been uploaded for this specific work unit's target language yet. A PDF uploaded for one language doesn't appear for other languages in the same project.
The PDF won't load or the viewer stays blank. Wait a few seconds — the viewer can take a moment to load a large file. If it still doesn't appear, try selecting the file again from Available Files, or check that the uploaded file is a valid PDF.
Still stuck? Search the wxrks Community or reach out to [email protected].
Related Articles
wxrks Editor — a full tour of the Editor where the PDF QA Tool lives.
wxrks Editor Menu for Vendors — the full icon-by-icon tour of the Editor's right-hand menu, including the Review icon.