Create and Manage Private and Public Markup Layers in the Documents Tool

Previously, documents had to be downloaded and annotated in third-party applications and uploaded back to the Documents tool making the markup process more tedious. The introduction of Private and Public Markups in the new Apryse Viewer enables markup directly within the Procore ecosystem. The Documents tool supports annotating PDF documents in the Unified Viewer without relying on third-party applications. Private markups are visible only to their creator, while public markups are visible to all users. Only users with the appropriate granular permissions can create public markups. The feature also supports organizing markups into groups filtering annotations, managing layer visibility and downloading and sharing documents with or without markups.

In addition to markup, the Documents tool supports document comparison enabling project teams to annotate cross-reference and compare files without leaving Procore.

• Required User Permissions:

  • 'Admin' level permission has automatic access to both the ‘My Markups’ (private) and ‘Shared Markups’ (public) layers.

  • Users with 'Standard' or 'View' level permissions to a document have automatic access to the ‘My Markups’ (private) layer, and and Admin can give access to the ‘Shared Markups’ (public) layer with the following permission added by an Admin:

    • 'Edit, create, and delete public markup layers'

  • 'Read Only' level permissions or higher on the project's Documents tool. 

• Bulk downloading with markups is not supported for Documents tool files in this release.

• Private markup will be enabled for all the users with access to the Documents tool.

• Admin cannot turn off user access to the My Markups layer. If a user has permissions to view a document, they can also add private markups.

• Promote Groups (One-Way): You can promote a group from private to public, but you cannot move a public group back to private.

• Permissions: You can promote a group if you have permission to do Public Markup. 

• Markup Modification Rules: No user, including admins, can edit or modify another user's private markups. Any user with permission to create public markups can edit or modify public markups, even if they were created by another user, because those markups exist in the public layer.

Create Markups

1. Navigate to the project's Documents tool.

2. Click on the name of the document.

3. Open the information panel and click the Preview icon to launch the viewer. 

4. Click Add Markup in the top header or click the Layers icon on the left markup side panel.
   Note: Clicking Add Markup launches the markup tools as a floating vertical panel on the right side of the viewing screen. You can click and drag the handle at the top of the toolbar to reposition it anywhere across the document window. Opening side panels (such as Layers or Info) will automatically shift the position of the vertical toolbar so it remains fully visible on screen.

5. This displays the My Markups section, which contains My Markups (private) and Shared Markups (public) layers:

   • My Markups: These markups are created by you and are private and visible only to you. Even the Admin will not be able to view it.

   • Shared Markups: These are visible to everyone with access to the document and with appropriate granular permission enabled. If you don't have the required permissions, you won't be able to add public markups, but you can still view public markups. 
     Note: Markups imported from a finalized Bluebeam Studio session appear under a dedicated Bluebeam section as public, read-only layer groups. They cannot be converted to private layers or edited within Procore.

Manage Markups

Procore automatically organizes your Private and Public Markups into groups. If you don’t have a group selected, your markups are automatically added to a group in your private layer.     

1. Click on the + icon next to My Markups/ Shared Markup to create a new markup group.

2. Click the eye icon next to a group to hide or show its markups.

3.  Select a markup tool from the floating vertical toolbar (such as Text, Highlight, or Cloud). The selected element will automatically be added under your active private markup group. You can add multiple markup elements to a single group.

4. Type a group name in the search bar to filter the list and display only the markups belonging to that specific group.

5. Drag and drop groups to arrange them in your preferred display order.

6. Click the vertical ellipsis icon next to a group and select Duplicate to create a copy with all original markups intact.

7. Click the vertical ellipsis icon next to a group and select Delete to remove it.

8. Drag a group from the private section into the public section to make it public.

9. Hover over a group name, click the edit icon, type the new name, and press ENTER or click outside the text box to save.

10. Use the Header to:

    • Add Markup: If you click Add Markup, it automatically starts a session in a private 'To Me' session.

    • Default Behavior: If you haven't manually selected where you want to edit, the system defaults to private.

    • Keyboard Shortcuts: Use keyboard shortcuts to copy and paste markups within the document.

      • For Windows, use Copy: Ctrl + C and Paste: Ctrl + V

      • For Mac, use Copy: Command +C and Paste: Command + V

      • Click the keyboard icon in the bottom right corner (or press ?) to display the full keyboard shortcuts menu. You can use the following standard viewer shortcuts:

        • Navigation & View:

          • Marquee Zoom: Hold Z

          • Eraser Tool: Shift + Z

          • Toggle Search: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + F

          • Toggle Markup Filter: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + U

          • Turn on Markup: Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + M

          • Toggle Info Panel: Cmd/Ctrl + I

          • Open Shortcuts Help: ?

        • Measurement Tools:

          • Distance: Shift + D

          • Arc Measurement: Shift + A

          • Perimeter: Shift + C

          • Area: Shift + O

          • Scale Calibration: When selecting any measurement tool, click Calibrate in the Scale modal to set a custom scale by drawing across a known distance on the document.

        • Markup Styling:

          • Apply Pre-save Styles 1–4: Shift + 1 / Shift + 2 / Shift + 3 / Shift + 4

        • Connected Items Panel Toggles:

          • Toggle Connected Items Panel: I

          • Connected Items in a Workflow: Shift + I

          • Observations: Shift + Alt/Option + O

          • Coordination Issues: Shift + Alt/Option + C

          • RFIs: Shift + Alt/Option + R

          • Inspections: Shift + Alt/Option + I

          • Inspection Items: Shift + Alt/Option + N

          • Punch / Snag List: Shift + Alt/Option + S

          • Correspondence: Shift + Alt/Option + L

          • Photos: Shift + Alt/Option + P

          • Incidents: Shift + Alt/Option + D

          • Assets: Shift + Alt/Option + T

          • Action Plans: Shift + Alt/Option + A

11. Click the vertical ellipsis icon next to the information (i) icon and select Download to export the document with or without markups.
    Note : If you download a file from the Documents list page, you can choose to download it without markups or with public markups.

12. Publish a public markup to display a markup indicator icon next to the file on the Documents list page.

Filter markups

1. Click the Filters icon on the markup panel. The filter Markup panel will appear.

2. Select one or more markup filters that you want to apply:

   • Company: The company that an individual who added the markup is associated with in Procore.

   • Authored By: The individual who added the markup. For imported Bluebeam Studio markups, filtering by author isolates markups created by specific Bluebeam session participants, preserving their original Bluebeam display names and timestamps.

   • Color: The color of the markup.

   • Type: The type of markup.

3. Click Apply.
   The markups are automatically adjusted on the document and in the List tab based on the filters. If you want to clear the filters, click Clear Filters and then click Apply.

4. (Optional) When viewing markups in the List tab, click the Sort menu to choose an attribute to organize your markup list.

Markup Options

The floating vertical toolbar provides quick access to annotation tools, 2D measurements, shapes, callouts, and style presets. This table lists markup tools and keyboard shortcuts to use when adding markups to PDF files: