Adobe Acrobat 7 TIPS and TRICKS THE 100150 BEST [Electronic resources]

Donna L. Baker; Kristin Kalning; Becky Morgan; Judy Ziajka

نسخه متنی -صفحه : 203/ 166

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TIP 144: Adding a Signature Field and Signing a Document

If you are the creator of a document, you can certify it with a digital signature, as shown in the previous tip. You can also sign a document as part of a review process, specifying whether you are the author or have reviewed the document, and so on.

Make It Validand Quick

If your work includes a lot of signature validation, it can be time-consuming to repeatedly choose commands to validate a signature or signatures in each document you open. Instead, set a preference to have signatures validated automatically when the document opens. Choose Edit > Preferences (Acrobat > Preferences) and click the Security category in the list. Click the Verify signatures when the document is opened check box at the top of the dialog and click OK to close the preferences. Next time you open a document that contains signatures, they are verified automatically.

Instead of adding a single certifying signature, you add a blank signature field, which is a specialized type of form field. You can use the same field for collecting signatures from others.

To add a signature field, follow these steps:

Activate the Digital Signature Field tool. You can choose a menu option or select the tool directly:

Click the Sign task button to display its menu. (To display the Sign task button, choose View > Task Buttons > Sign.) Choose Create a Blank Signature Field from the menu, and Acrobat activates the Digital Signature Field tool.

Next, draw a signature field on your document (Figure 144a). The Digital Signature Properties dialog opens.

Figure 144a. Draw a field for a signature on a document to open this dialog.

Figure 143a, and then specify whether you want the field to be visible or invisible. Click Locked at the bottom left of the dialog if you want to lock the signature field to prevent changes after you sign the document.

Note

I always supply a tool tip as well. When recipients move their mouse over the field, they see a prompt to sign the document. Tool tips serve as good reminders.

More Digital Signatures Properties

The Digital Signatures Properties dialog includes two more tabs: Actions and Signed. The Actions tab lets you add mouse actions to the signature field. For example, you can set an action to have the user go to another page in the document when he or she clicks the signature field. (See Chapter 12 for tips on using triggers and actions.) The Signed tab includes options that let you reset fields as read-only or execute a custom JavaScript. The options on this tab are compatible with Acrobat 6 and 7 only.

Choose other characteristics for the signature field if required:

On the Appearance tab, choose options for the field's display, such as color and line thickness.
Choose a trigger and actions from the Actions tab.
Click the Signed tab and select options for the document's function as the field is signed (Figure 144b). (Read the sidebar "More Digital Signatures Properties.")
Figure 144b. In addition to setting appearance and action options, you can specify how your document behaves once it is signed.

Click Close to dismiss the dialog and complete the signature field. The new signature field and its characteristics are listed in the Signature pane.

Save the document with its signature field.

When you move the pointer over the field's location on the page, it changes to a pointing hand, and the tool tip added in the dialog appears (Figure 144c).

Figure 144c. Add a tool tip to display information for your reviewers.

Quick Check

When there are a number of signatures in a document that you need to check, instead of selecting and validating them individually click Options in the Signatures menu and choose Validate all Signatures in Document. Acrobat processes the signatures and displays their status.

If you've created and originated the document, sign it as well. You can use a certification process (covered in Tip 142), or you can use the blank signature field and sign it. Click the field on the document and follow the signature prompts. When the process is complete, your signature appears in the field. Also, the information in the Signatures pane now includes the information about your signature (Figure 144d).

Figure 144d. Read about the signature in the Signatures pane.

[View full size image]

Notice the checkmark at the top left of the signature appearance. This checkmark indicates that the signature is valid. At the bottom left of the document status bar, you see a signed document icon . Hold the pointer over the icon to read the tool tips,and click the icon to read more information about the signature.

When you modify, close, and reopen the document, the signature information as well as its appearance will change, as you can see in Figure 144e. Instead of the checkmark at the upper left of the signature, you now see a question mark. In the Signatures pane, Acrobat tells you that the validity of the reviewer's signature is unknown. You may see the Modified Signature icon overlaying the signature field after you validate the signature; in this case, the original signatory is still valid, but changes have been made since signing.

Figure 144e. The question mark over the information means the validity of the signature has to be confirmed.

To check the validity of your signature (and that of others, coming up in the next tip):

Select a signature in the Signatures pane. Right-click/Control-click the signature or click the Signatures menu to open it.

Choose Validate Signature. The signature is tested, and Acrobat displays the results in a dialog (Figure 144f).

Figure 144f. Acrobat displays the results of a signature validation in a dialog.