External Contributors

Key terms

Document: Documents can be created by users from their available suite of templates. These documents can then have their content edited based on the Inputs that are available in that template. The starting point for a document's content is the template's default content. An admin can limit the user's access to only certain template variations.

Export: Documents converted to their finished file format e.g. HTML files being converted into PDF documents.

Team: A selection of users belonging to a certain department, location or sub-brand.

Note: Not all accounts will have this feature enabled, and not all users will have access to it, if you have any questions about this, speak to your account manager. 

What is an External Contributor?

An External Contributor user role is a once-off invitation to a single project. 

You can invite existing Outfit users or non-Outfit users to be external contributors to your project, and set up their permissions to edit and export. 

Example uses:

• You can invite non-users  such as freelance writers, content, or PR agencies and allow them to view, edit and export your project, 
• You can invite an existing user who isn't on your team to view your project without having to get them added to your team

The contributor user role is a one-off invitation to a single Outfit project

You can invite external contributing authors to specific projects and give them permission to export if you want to. Examples of uses include inviting content and PR agencies and freelance writers.

How to invite an External Contributor 

1. From inside your project, click over to project settings
   
   
   
   
2. From here, you can add the emails of the external contributors you wish to add to the project
   
   
   
   
   
3. Once you have added them, click on the gear icon to edit what they can and can't do:
   
   
   
   By default, these will both be turned off, but if you want to allow this particular contributor to export, you will need to toggle this on. 
   
   If you only want your contributor to access certain documents in your project, toggle the second toggle and then select which documents you wish for them to be able to edit: 
   
   
   
   
4. Once you have set up your external contributor, they will present in a list view which also displays their name, status, who they were invited by, and what permissions they have:
   
   
   
   External contributors expire 14 days after you add them to the project, however, you can re-add them again if required. 

Things to remember:

• You should explain to a contributor exactly what you would like their input on
• An External Contributor is essentially an Author with a scaled-down range of permissions
• As a contributor, they will be able to:
  • See all Documents in the Project you have invited them to
  • Edit documents that have been approved or are unapproved
  • They will not be able to edit documents that are pending approval
  • They can edit or comment on the documents, the same as an Author can
  • They can duplicate Documents but they cannot delete documents or the project

Supporting video tutorial

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I stop contributors from exporting? 

Yes you can set this anytime in your project settings

Can I re-add someone who was previously a contributor on the same or another project? 

Yes, if the user has expired you can re-add them the same way you did the first time