Simple approval form workflow

People submit short stories or novels for our editorial evaluation. I'd like to add a field (hidden to the submitter) allowing us to note the reader (Editor #1 or Editor #2) and the final decision (accept/reject).

This has been discussed on JotForum before, but I can't make heads or tails of the instructions. Every suggestion involves email (not just a simple field we can edit), or steps that don't resemble the current JotForum controls.

Any ideas where to go forward?

Hello @BoldVenture - Will it be a two-stage form only? Meaning when the user submitted it, you will edit the submission, add a comment then approve/disapproved. Is that correct?

If so, you can add a GET FORM PAGE URL widget to your form. This will capture what URL each time the form is submitted.

Then using the value of that widget, we will show/hide some fields.

So if you only want to show an approval field when the form is edited, meaning the user can't see it when they fill out the form, you can add this condition below:

Regarding the emails, you're planning to send another email to the user when you approve/disapprove the submission, right? If so, you need to create three autoresponder emails for that.

The first email will be sent to the user when he submits the form. The second email will be sent to him after you edit the submission and you approve it, while the third one will be sent if you disapprove it.

How to do that? You need to associate each email template with a condition. Here's example condition you can use:

Create three conditions, one for each autoresponder email.

GUIDE: How-to-Send-Email-Based-on-User-s-Answer 

Here's a demo form for you try: https://form.jotform.com/201088004062947 

Ok ... once I add the "get page form button" AFTER the "submit" button, I'm kind of lost. I can type the question "Approve" but where and how do I add the "yes" or "no" values?

This seems complicated ... can I just add an "accept" or "reject" button for internal use? I can always email the submitter on my own, since we should comment on our reasons for rejecting their submission.

More importantly, I'm adding fields for accept/reject, and hiding them from the submitter ... but then I can't see them or use them to decide "yes" or "no."

Approved field, should be a Single Choice field with options Yes and No.

Your users will not be able to see the hidden fields, but you as the form owner will see them when editing submissions. 

How to Hide Form Fields

Also, please note that you need to set Send on Edit option to Yes, in the Autoresponder Emails, if you want to send them when the submission is edited. 

I would also suggest you to check the following guide:

A General Approach on Building an Approval Process Workflow