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How-to
Get a guide approved
Send a guide to a reviewer by email, or approve it yourself, and keep the revision history and sign-off with the document.
- Plan
- Pro
- Reading time
- 2 min read
- Checked against Thoth for Windows on
- October 23, 2026
A guide moves from Draft to Pending approval to Approved. Approving fills in the document’s revision, effective date, revision history and approval table, so a PDF or Word export shows who signed it off and when.
Ask someone to review it#
- 1
Open the approval dialog
Choose the approval chip in the guide’s header. It shows the current state, such as Draft.
- 2
Send for review…
Choose Send for review…. Tick Email the reviewer and enter their address under Reviewer email, the Revision to review, and a note saying what to look at. Choose Email review request. To keep it inside Thoth instead, untick Email the reviewer, type who should approve it and choose Mark for local review.
- 3
The reviewer decides
They get a private link that works for 7 days. They sign in with the same address, read a copy of the guide as it was when you sent it (with blurs applied), and choose Approve or Request changes. Opening the link decides nothing.
- 4
Thoth records it
Open the guide, or choose Check review status, and the decision arrives with the reviewer’s name, email and the date. The SOP’s revision, history and sign-off fill in by themselves.
While you wait#
- Send reminder emails the reviewer again, with a fresh link. There is a five-minute wait between emails.
- Withdraw email request cancels it and deletes the copy that was uploaded.
- If the link expired, the state reads Expired. Resend expired request renews it.
- The library’s Awaiting approval view lists every guide still pending.
Approve it yourself#
For a guide that only you sign off, choose Approve now…. Enter the Revision and What changed, then choose Approve revision with that number. Thoth approves as the name in Settings → General (or your Windows user name), on today’s date, and saves a version.
After approval#
- If you edit the steps, text or document information afterward, the guide shows Changed since approval until it is approved again. Thoth compares the current guide with the approved one, and can show what changed.
- Restoring an old version doesn’t rewrite who approved it.
- PDF and Word exports of a guide that is in draft, pending or changed say DRAFT across the page, unless you turn that off in Settings → Documents & export.
- Every step is in the History: requested, approved, changes requested, reminded, withdrawn, with who and when.