From download to your first renamed file.

The person who normally issues drawings is away — can someone else issue on the same project?

Yes. The project's issue sheet lives in your project folder on your shared drive, not on your computer, so revision numbers and the drawing register carry on exactly where you left off — no clashes, no duplicate numbering, no manual reconciliation needed when whoever's away is back. In an emergency, and only as a temporary measure, your colleague can download ViewTwo and use its free 30-day trial, which is fully functional, so they can start issuing straight away. This only works on a PC that has never had ViewTwo on it, because the trial runs once per PC from the first install and reinstalling does not reset it. It is not a substitute for a licence: a licence covers the named user it was bought for, so anyone who will issue regularly needs their own licence (the Team licences cover several people). Your own licence includes a spare device slot, so you can use it on a second PC of your own, such as a home PC and a work PC. If both slots are already in use, contact us and we'll free one up for you.

I already have my own Excel drawing issue sheet template — can I keep using it instead of ViewTwo's own layout?

Yes. ViewTwo doesn't lock you into its own layout — every issue is recorded in a plain, well-structured ViewTwo_IssueSheet.json file (with a plain-text export alongside it) sitting right there in your project folder, so your existing register stays entirely usable. Mark up a disposable copy of your template with ViewTwo's plain-text markers (the guided prompt in ViewTwo's Help does this with Claude), then drop your original as ViewTwo_CustomTemplate.xlsx and the marked-up copy as ViewTwo_CustomTemplate_Markup.xlsx into your Pre-Issue Repository — ViewTwo recognises the pair automatically and works out where everything goes from the markers. There's no mapping file to write. It's active on your machine straight away; Settings → Custom Template → Roll Out to Firm makes it the default for your colleagues' new projects.

From then on it's automatic: every real push also writes straight into a working copy of your own template — matching drawings up by drawing number, opening a new dated column each time, exactly the way ViewTwo's own sheet does. No script to run yourself, nothing to remember. ViewTwo keeps a backup of that file before every write, and if it ever finds a row or column already holding something it doesn't recognise, it leaves that push out of your template rather than guess — ViewTwo's own official Audit Trail and Drawing Issue Sheet still update as normal either way, so nothing you push is ever lost. Undo Last Push reverses your custom template copy too, alongside ViewTwo's own documents.

Updated your template since it was first rolled out? Already-pinned projects pick that up on their own too — each one checks itself against the latest rolled-out version and switches over automatically on its own next push, no action needed from you. The one exception is a genuinely different layout (a different sheet name, header row, or set of columns) from whatever a project's own issue history was built on — ViewTwo refuses that switch rather than risk mixing the two, and leaves the project on its existing template until you've had a chance to look. Decided to stop using a custom template for a project altogether? Settings → Custom Template → Revert a Project… rebuilds ViewTwo's own built-in Issue Sheet immediately — your custom-template workbook and its history are archived alongside the project, never deleted.

One thing to watch for when you're building your template: if it includes a logo, insert it as a normal floating picture (Excel's Insert → Pictures) rather than the Place in Cell option. A cell-anchored picture doesn't survive being read and re-saved by the engine that drives your working copy, so it silently disappears from your template the next time a push writes to it — a normal floating picture is unaffected and comes through on every push.

Ready to set one up? Open ViewTwo and click the ? in the panel's top-right corner — the guided prompt to paste into Claude lives there, tailored to your installed version and ready to copy.

My revisions are P01, P02… but a colleague's are P0, P1… — which does ViewTwo use?

Both. New drawings follow the UK National Annex form by default — P01.01 while in progress, P01, P02… when shared, C01, C02… for construction. If your office has always used one digit, choose One-digit — P0.01, P0, C0 in Settings → Revision numbering. A drawing that's already under way always keeps the style it started with, so P09 goes to P10 and P1 to P2. Neither series ever starts again: after C01, the next shared issue carries on from the last P (P03 → C01 → P04), and the next construction issue from the last C.

How do I uninstall ViewTwo — and do I lose anything?

Uninstall it from Windows' Installed apps as usual, or use Remove ViewTwo from this PC… at the very bottom of Settings (it is not how you update: use Check for Updates). ViewTwo asks what to do. Keep my setup (the default) leaves your pins, settings and licence in place, so a reinstall carries on exactly where you were. Remove completely takes ViewTwo's menus, shortcuts and settings off the PC and keeps a copy of ViewTwo's own records in a saved folder. Install ViewTwo again and it asks once whether to restore that setup (your licence key has to be entered again). Either way, your project folders, issued drawings and Issue Sheets are never touched — they're ordinary files that open and edit normally without ViewTwo. Updating to a new version never asks and never removes anything.

Do I have to use the UK status codes (S0–S5 and A), or can I use something else?

Either. ViewTwo runs the UK National Annex codes by default, but the international ISO 19650 standard itself doesn't actually prescribe a fixed code set — it leaves that to each project's own Information Standard (see International vs UK for the full explanation). Open Settings → Project Status Codes to define your own codes for a project, or click UK Standard there to start from the fixed S0–S5 set and add your own A-code meanings on top — exactly the way the Annex itself expects those to be project-defined. B codes are deprecated in the 2021 UK annex, so ViewTwo doesn't build them in; if your project still uses them, add them there too.

Like a custom template, whatever's active on your machine becomes the default for any new project the moment you Roll Out to Firm. Unlike a custom template though, an already-pinned project's status codes never change on their own — Update a Project's Status Codes… is there if you've updated your codes and want one specific project to pick up the change.

Don't forget the Issue Sheet legend. ViewTwo puts your codes in the Status dropdown and the sheet's Status column, but the printed legend at the top of the Drawing Issue Sheet only explains S0–S5 and A by itself. After you add or change status codes, update that legend by hand — there's a spare row for it — or the legend in your own template. The ? in the push window always lists the codes actually in use.

How do I record why a set of drawings was issued?

Every push belongs to an issue set, numbered by date (261007-01, 261007-02…), so several sets can go out on the same day. In the push window, the set you last used today on that project is offered first; choose New set to start another, pick its Purpose of issue (the list is grouped — type a few letters to jump to one) and add a note if you like. Both are optional and never stop a push. Bump to Next Issue asks the same; Strip title and Short name copies don't. Each set is a row on the Issue Log tab of the project's Audit Trail. Your issue folders are named exactly as before. Undo Last Push on a set's only push removes that set when it's the newest of the day, so the next new set takes its number. To change the list, or correct a purpose picked by mistake, open Settings → Purposes of Issue; a correction keeps the earlier purpose in the log.

Can my own issue sheet template show the purpose of issue?

Yes. On the marked-up copy of your template, type [PURPOSE] into one cell in the same column as your date marker, on a row of its own — at the head of the sheet or at the foot under the drawing list, wherever your layout shows it. From then on every date column shows the purpose chosen for that issue (two in one column read “For Comment / For Tender”). It's for your own template only; ViewTwo's own issue sheet lists purposes on its Issue Log tab instead.

How do I log drawings I've received or sent — and who from, or to?

Click To Record at the foot of the panel and paste the files in (or right-click a pin and choose Send to To Record). Filing an email with File Messages? Leave Also send to To Record ticked and its attachments arrive there by themselves, with who the email was from or to and its date, ready for Record It. ViewTwo shows each drawing's title, number and revision without you opening anything, and leaves the files where they are. Press Record It: ViewTwo names the project the files belong to, asks once where that project keeps its log, and fills in Received or Sent, who from or to, and the date for you to check. Right-click a file you don't want logged and choose Don't record. Recording them against a different project needs you to type that project's number. The project's Received Log — its own workbook in that incoming folder — opens from the Received Log button.

I recorded something by mistake — how do I put it right?

Straight away: press Undo Last Record in To Record. It shows the rows your last recording added and takes them back out of the Received Log. Anything older: right-click the ticked file and choose Recorded in error…, with a reason if you like. The row stays in the log, struck through with your name and the date, so the record shows what happened — and the file can be recorded again properly.

Can I add my firm's codes from a spreadsheet instead of typing them into Settings?

Yes. ViewTwo keeps a workbook called ViewTwo_ISO 19650 Custom Codes.xlsx in your Default Templates folder (inside your ViewTwo folder), with a Functional Breakdown sheet and a Project Status Codes sheet. The codes built into ViewTwo are grey and locked; your firm's own codes sit in the white rows below them. Add yours, save, and drop the file into your Pre-Issue Repository. Within about a minute a message from the tray tells you what was added, and the file is moved to an Imported Codes folder.

New codes are added and a changed description updates the code that's already there, but a file never removes anything. It updates Settings on that PC only, so drop it on each PC that needs the codes. If you're also changing status codes, see the Issue Sheet legend note above.

How do I remove or change a code?

In Settings. For Functional Breakdown codes, select the code, click Remove, then Save. For status codes, Add and Remove take effect straight away, and UK Standard resets the list to the S0–S5 set. There's no Edit button, so to change a description, remove the code and add it again — or put the new description in the codes workbook and drop it in.

The codes workbook in Default Templates is rewritten to match whenever you change codes in Settings, so the two are always identical. If you'd typed codes into it that hadn't been imported yet, a copy is kept in a Previous versions folder first, so nothing you typed is lost.

A contractor uses their own status or naming codes — can I set those up for just one project?

Yes, without touching your firm-wide defaults. ViewTwo keeps a separate, always-present workbook in your Default Templates folder — ViewTwo_ISO 19650 Single Project Specific Codes.xlsx — for exactly this. Make a copy for the project, fill in whichever sheets it needs, and import it from Settings:

• Import Project-Only Status Codes… — pick your filled-in copy and the project's Issued folder. From its next push onward, that one project offers exactly the status codes in the file (built-ins plus your custom rows) instead of the firm-wide list. This replaces the project's codes rather than adding to them — leave a code out and re-import, and that project stops offering it. Your firm's own custom codes aren't carried over automatically; copy those rows in by hand if the project should still offer them.
• Import Project-Only Naming Codes… — the same workbook also has Level, Type and Role sheets for Re-Name. Fill those in, then use this button and type the project's number rather than picking a folder (Re-Name needs these before a file may have gone anywhere). Unlike Status, this adds to the firm-wide Level/Type/Role codes rather than replacing them — that project's Re-Name dropdowns show the built-in set plus whatever you imported, and other projects are unaffected.

Both only ever change the one project you point them at; your own machine's Settings and every other project stay untouched.

Can I fix a missed issue by typing it directly into the Issue Sheet workbook?

No — don't edit the generated .xlsx by hand. ViewTwo rebuilds the whole drawing table in that workbook from ViewTwo_IssueSheet.json every time the sheet regenerates, which happens on the next push anyone makes to that project — so any row you've typed in yourself will be wiped out, not merged in. The only thing ViewTwo deliberately keeps across a rebuild is your circulation list. If a drawing genuinely went out without going through ViewTwo, there's currently no in-app way to log it after the fact — make a note of what happened and get in touch with us so we can help, and we're looking at adding a proper way to record this.

I don't see the tray icon

Click the small up-arrow near the clock to show hidden tray icons — Windows sometimes tucks it away by default. You can drag it out to keep it visible permanently.

A feature says my trial has ended

Every feature needs an active licence once the 30-day trial ends — Re-Name, To Issue, Drop, Pinning, New Project and File Messages alike. Right-click the tray icon and choose Enter Licence Key, or click through from the trial-ended message to see pricing.

I entered my key and it wasn't accepted

Double-check the key was copied in full with no extra spaces, and that you're connected to the internet — activation needs to reach our licensing server the first time. If it still fails, use Report a Bug from Settings so we can look into it.

ViewTwo seems stuck or behaving oddly

Right-click the tray icon and choose 🔄 Restart ViewTwo — this closes and reopens it cleanly without you needing to find it in Task Manager.

Something else isn't working

Open Settings from the tray menu and use Report a Bug — this sends the details straight through so we can look into it.