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Use drag-and-drop tools to create forms

 

Adobe Acrobat Sign Guide

What's New

  1. Pre-Release Notes
  2. Release Notes
  3. Important Notifications

Get Started

  1. Quick start guide for administrators
  2. Quick start guide for users
  3. For Developers
  4. Video tutorial library
  5. FAQ

Administer

  1. Admin Console Overview
  2. User Management
    1. Adding users
      1. Add a User
      2. Add Users in Bulk
      3. Add Users from your Directory
      4. Add Users from MS Azure Active Directory
    2. Create function-focused users
      1. Technical accounts - API driven
      2. Service accounts - Manually driven
    3. Check for users with provisioning errors
    4. Change Name/Email Address
    5. Edit a user's group membership
    6. Edit a user's group membership through the group interface
    7. Promote a user to an admin role
    8. User Identity Types and SSO
    9. Switch User Identity
    10. Authenticate Users with MS Azure
    11. Authenticate Users with Google Federation
    12. Product Profiles
    13. Login Experience 
  3. Account/Group Settings
    1. Settings Overview
    2. Global Settings
      1. Account tier and ID
      2. New Recipient Experience
      3. Self Signing Workflows
      4. Send in Bulk
      5. Web Forms
      6. Custom Send Workflows
      7. Power Automate Workflows
      8. Library Documents
      9. Collect form data with agreements
      10. Limited Document Visibility
      11. Attach a PDF copy of the signed agreement 
      12. Include a link in the email
      13. Include an image in the email
      14. Files attached to email will be named as
      15. Attach audit reports to documents
      16. Merge multiple documents into one
      17. Download individual documents
      18. Upload a signed document
      19. Delegation for users in my account
      20. Allow external recipients to delegate
      21. Authority to sign
      22. Authority to send
      23. Power to add Electronic Seals
      24. Set a default time zone
      25. Set a default date format
      26. Users in Multiple Groups (UMG)
        1. Upgrade to use UMG
      27. Group Administrator Permissions
      28. Replace recipient
      29. Audit Report
        1. Overview
        2. Allow unauthenticated access on the transaction verification page
        3. Include reminders
        4. Include view events
        5. Include agreement page/attachment count
      30. In Product Messaging and Guidance
      31. Accessible PDFs
      32. New authoring experience
      33. Healthcare customer
    3. Account Setup
      1. Add logo
      2. Customize company Hostname/URL    
      3. Add company name
      4. Post agreement URL redirect
    4. Signature Preferences
      1. Well formatted signatures
      2. Allow recipients to sign by
      3. Signers can change their name
      4. Allow recipients to use their saved signature
      5. Custom Terms of Use and Consumer Disclosure
      6. Navigate recipients through form fields
      7. Decline to sign
      8. Allow Stamps workflows
      9. Require signers to provide their Title or Company
      10. Allow signers to print and place a written signature
      11. Show messages when e-signing
      12. Require signers to use a mobile device to create their signature
      13. Request IP address from signers
      14. Exclude company name and title from participation stamps
    5. Digital Signatures
      1. Overview
      2. Download and sign with Acrobat
      3. Sign with Cloud Signatures
      4. Include metadata for Identity Providers
      5. Restricted Cloud Signatures Providers
    6. Electronic Seals
    7. Digital Identity
      1. Digital Identity Gateway
      2. Identity Check policy
    8. Report Settings
      1. New report experience
      2. Classic report settings
    9. Security Settings
      1. Single Sign-on settings
      2. Remember-me settings
      3. Login password policy
      4. Login password strength
      5. Web session duration
      6. PDF encryption type
      7. API
      8. User and group info access
      9. Allowed IP Ranges
      10. Account Sharing
      11. Account sharing permissions
      12. Agreement sharing controls
      13. Signer identity verification
      14. Agreement signing password
      15. Document password strength
      16. Block signers by Geolocation
      17. Phone Authentication
      18. Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA)
      19. Allow page extraction
      20. Document link expiration
      21. Upload a client certificate for webhooks/callbacks
      22. Timestamp
    10. Send settings
      1. Show Send page after login
      2. Require recipient name when sending
      3. Lock name values for known users
      4. Allowed recipient roles
      5. Allow e-Witnesses
      6. Recipient groups
      7. Required fields
      8. Attaching documents
      9. Field flattening
      10. Modify Agreements
      11. Agreement name
      12. Languages
      13. Private messages
      14. Allowed signature types
      15. Reminders
      16. Signed document password protection
      17. Send Agreement Notification through
      18. Signer identification options
        1. Overview
        2. Signing password
        3. One-Time Password via Email
        4. Acrobat Sign authentication
        5. Phone authentication
        6. Cloud-based digital signature
        7. Knowledge-based authentication
        8. Government ID
        9. Signer Identity reports
      19. Content Protection
      20. Enable Notarize transactions
      21. Document Expiration
      22. Preview, position signatures, and add fields
      23. Signing order
      24. Liquid mode
      25. Custom workflow controls
      26. Upload options for the e-sign page
      27. Post-sign confirmation URL redirect
    11. Message Templates
    12. Bio-Pharma Settings
      1. Overview
      2. Enforce identity authentication
      3. Signing reasons
    13. Workflow Integration
    14. Notarization Settings
    15. Payments Integration
    16. Signer Messaging
    17. SAML Settings
      1. SAML Configuration
      2. Install Microsoft Active Directory Federation Service
      3. Install Okta
      4. Install OneLogin
      5. Install Oracle Identity Federation
    18. Data Governance
    19. Time Stamp Settings
    20. External Archive
    21. Account Languages
    22. Email Settings
      1. Email header/footer images
      2. Permit individual user email footers
      3. Customize the Signature Requested email
      4. Customize the To and CC fields
      5. Enable Linkless Notifications
      6. Customize email templates
    23. Migrating from echosign.com to adobesign.com
    24. Configure Options for Recipients
  4. Guidance for regulatory requirements
    1. Accessibility
      1. Accessibility Compliance
      2. Create accessible forms with Acrobat desktop
      3. Create accessible AcroForms
    2. HIPAA
    3. GDPR
      1. GDPR Overview
      2. Redact a user
      3. Redact a user's agreements    
    4. 21 CFR part 11 and EudraLex Annex 11
      1. 21 CRF part 11 validation pack
      2. 21 CFR and EudraLex Annex 11 handbook
      3. Analysis of shared responsibilities
    5. Healthcare customers
    6. IVES support
    7. "Vaulting" agreements
    8. EU/UK considerations
      1. EU/UK Cross-border transactions and eIDAS
      2. HMLR requirements for deeds signed electronically
      3. The impact of Brexit on e-signature laws in the UK
  5. Download Agreements in Bulk
  6. Claim your domain 
  7. Report Abuse links

Send, Sign, and Manage Agreements

  1. Recipient Options
    1. Cancel an email reminder
    2. Options on the e-signing page
      1. Overview of the e-sign page
      2. Open to read the agreement without fields
      3. Decline to sign an agreement
      4. Delegate signing authority
      5. Restart the agreement
      6. Download a PDF of the agreement
      7. View the agreement history
      8. View the agreement messages
      9. Convert from an electronic to a written signature
      10. Convert from a written to an electronic signature 
      11. Navigate the form fields
      12. Clear the data from the form fields
      13. E-sign page magnification and navigation
      14. Change the language used in the agreement tools and information
      15. Review the Legal Notices
      16. Adjust Acrobat Sign Cookie Preferences
  2. Send Agreements  
    1. Send page overview
    2. Send an agreement only to yourself
    3. Send an agreement to others
    4. Written Signatures
    5. Recipient signing order
    6. Send in Bulk
      1. Overview of the Send in Bulk feature
      2. Send in Bulk - Configure a parent template
      3. Send in Bulk - Configure the CSV file
      4. Cancel a Send in Bulk transaction
      5. Add reminders to Send in Bulk
      6. Reporting for Send in Bulk
  3. Authoring fields into documents
    1. In-app authoring environment
      1. Automatic field detection
      2. Drag and drop fields using the authoring environment
      3. Assign form fields to recipients
      4. The Prefill role
      5. Apply fields with a reusable field template
      6. Transfer fields to a new library template
      7. Updated authoring environment when sending agreements
    2. Create forms with text tags
    3. Create forms using Acrobat (AcroForms)
      1. AcroForm creation
      2. Creating accessible PDFs
    4. Fields
      1. Field types
        1. Common field types
        2. In-line Images
        3. Stamp Images
      2. Field content appearance
      3. Field validations
      4. Masked fields values
      5. Setting show/hide conditions
      6. Calculated fields 
    5. Authoring FAQ
  4. Sign Agreements
    1. Sign agreements sent to you
    2. Fill & Sign
    3. Self-signing
  5. Manage Agreements
    1. Manage page overview
    2. Delegate agreements
    3. Replace Recipients
    4. Limit Document Visibility 
    5. Cancel an Agreement 
    6. Create new reminders
    7. Review reminders
    8. Cancel a reminder
    9. Access Power Automate flows
    10. More Actions...
      1. How search works
      2. View an agreement
      3. Create a template from an agreement
      4. Hide/Unhide agreements from view
      5. Upload a signed agreement
      6. Modify a sent agreement's files and fields
      7. Edit a recipient's authentication method
      8. Add or modify an expiration date
      9. Add a Note to the agreement
      10. Share an individual agreement
      11. Unshare an agreement
      12. Download an individual agreement
      13. Download the individual files of an agreement
      14. Download the Audit Report of an agreement
      15. Download the field content of an agreement
  6. Audit Report
  7. Reporting and Data exports
    1. Overview
    2. Grant users access to reporting
    3. Report charts
      1. Create a new report
      2. Agreement Reports
      3. Transaction Reports
      4. Settings Activity Report
      5. Edit a report
    4. Data Exports 
      1. Create a new data export
      2. Edit a data export
      3. Refresh the data export content
      4. Download the data export
    5. Rename a report/export
    6. Duplicate a report/export
    7. Schedule a report/export
    8. Delete a report/export
    9. Check Transaction Usage

Advanced Agreement Capabilities and Workflows

  1. Webforms 
    1. Create a web form
    2. Edit a web form
    3. Disable/Enable a web form
    4. Hide/Unhide a web form
    5. Find the URL or script code 
    6. Prefill web form fields with URL parameters
    7. Save a web form to complete later
    8. Resize a web form
  2. Reusable Templates (Library templates) 
    1. US Government forms in the Acrobat Sign library
    2. Create a library template
    3. Change a library template's name
    4. Change a library template's type
    5. Change a library template's permission level
    6. Copy, edit, and save a shared template
    7. Download the aggregate field data for a library template
  3. Transfer ownership of web forms and library templates
  4. Power Automate Workflows 
    1. Overview of the Power Automate integration and included entitlements
    2. Enable the Power Automate integration
    3. In-Context Actions on the Manage page
    4. Track Power Automate usage
    5. Create a new flow (Examples)
    6. Triggers used for flows
    7. Importing flows from outside Acrobat Sign
    8. Manage flows
    9. Edit flows
    10. Share flows
    11. Disable or Enable flows
    12. Delete flows
    13. Useful Templates
      1. Administrator only
        1. Save all completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save all completed documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save all completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save all completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save all completed documents to Box
      2. Agreement archival
        1. Save your completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save your completed documents to One Drive for Business
        3. Save your completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save your completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save your completed documents to Box
      3. Webform agreement archival
        1. Save completed web form documents to SharePoint Library
        2. Save completed web form documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save completed   documents to Google Drive
        4. Save completed web form documents to Box
      4. Agreement data extraction
        1. Extract form field data from your signed document and update Excel sheet
      5. Agreement notifications
        1. Send custom email notifications with your agreement contents and signed agreement
        2. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in a Teams Channel
        3. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Slack
        4. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Webex
      6. Agreement generation
        1. Generate document from Power App form and Word template, send for signature
        2. Generate agreement from Word template in OneDrive, and get signature
        3. Generate agreement for selected Excel row, send for review and signature
  5. Custom Send workflows
    1. Custom Send Workflow Overview
    2. Creating a new Send Workflow
    3. Edit a Send Workflow
    4. Activate or Deactivate a Send Workflow
    5. Send an agreement with a Send Workflow
  6. Share users and agreements
    1. Share a user
    2. Share agreements

Integrate with other products

  1.  Acrobat Sign integrations overview 
  2. Acrobat Sign for Salesforce
  3. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft
    1. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft 365
    2. Acrobat Sign for Outlook
    3. Acrobat Sign for Word/PowerPoint
    4. Acrobat Sign for Teams
    5. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft PowerApps and Power Automate
    6. Acrobat Sign Connector for Microsoft Search
    7. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft Dynamics 
    8. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft SharePoint 
  4. Other Integrations
    1. Acrobat Sign for ServiceNow
    2. Acrobat Sign for HR ServiceNow
    3. Acrobat Sign for SAP SuccessFactors
    4. Acrobat Sign for Workday
    5. Acrobat Sign for NetSuite
    6. Acrobat Sign for VeevaVault
    7. Acrobat Sign for Coupa BSM Suite
  5. Partner managed integrations
  6. How to obtain an integration key

Acrobat Sign Developer

  1. REST APIs 
    1. Methods documentation
    2. SDK/Developer Guide
    3. API FAQ    
  2. Webhooks 
    1. Webhook overview
    2. Configure a new webhook
    3. View or edit a webhook
    4. Deactivate or reactivate a webhook
    5. Delete a webhook
    6. Two-way SSL certificates
    7. Webhooks in the API

Support and Troubleshooting

  1. Customer Support Resources 
  2. Enterprise Customer Success Resources 

The in-app drag-and-drop authoring environment is available to all levels of service.

Use the in-app authoring tools to create forms

One of the most powerful aspects of Adobe Acrobat Sign is the ability to create reusable forms and form overlays to define the fields that your signers need to complete.

Taking a little time to think through your signing process and carefully build your forms ultimately saves you and your signers time, improve signer adoption and ultimately get your documents completed in a shorter time frame.

When building a form, there are four stages you move through, and they are detailed below:


Reusable documents versus field overlays

Reusable Documents vs Field Layers… which is best for you?

Ultimately, this decision will likely be made by your forms and how you produce your documentation.

If you are using a boilerplate document where the content of the document does not change, then you want to create a reusable document.

This would include documents like credit card charge forms, tax forms, applications, and so on.

In these examples, there is no unique content for the signer other than the information the signer is entering into the fields.

The form field layer on the other hand is just a layer of fields placed over an uploaded form/file. You would use this when you have a form that includes variable content. Like a rental agreement where you have custom information through the document content, but the fields for the customer are the same and in the same place.

In this case, you would be generating a new document that you upload, and then apply the layer of fields on top of the document.

Note:

Any one file can have multiple field layers applied to it, so you can build modular field layers if that fits your use case.


Roles—Participants and how to properly identify them

Roles define how the parties (signers, sender, and so on) can interact with the document/transaction. With regards to forms (especially multi-signer forms), it’s critical that you understand how roles inform the Agreement as to which fields should be made available to each signer. 

Every field has a role assigned to it.  Only the signer with the correct role can access the fields assigned to them. 

The concept itself isn’t too obscure, but the logic is computer logic, so you may need to divorce yourself from the human meaning of some words to really get the process. Click here for more detailed information on roles.

There are three key roles to understand:

Prefill (by Sender) – This role defines fields that you want the sender to fill out before the first signer.  If you have pricing or discounts that you are dropping into the document on-the-fly, Prefill fields can be useful.

Prefill fields can only be filled in by the sender at the time they attempt to send the document, and if there are Required prefill fields, the document cannot be sent until they are filled in.

Prefill fields are not available for editing after the Prefill stage. No subsequent signer to the document will be able to edit prefill fields. Click here for more information on the Prefill process.

Participant N (where N is an incrementing number starting with 1) – This is where it gets a little slippery….

Participant 1 is the first person (e-mail address) you send the document to for either Signature or Approval. 

Participant 2 is the second person you have approving or signing the document

The trick to remember is that the role of the signer based on the order you enter then in the To: field on the Send tab.

The first e-mail address in the To field will be Participant 1. The second will be Participant 2 and so on….

Simple enough, right?

Now, once you are familiar with the sending process, you will notice that there is an optional check box on the Send tab that says I need to sign, and that check box will insert the sender into the signature flow. 

If you stick with the default option, then the sender will be the last signer.

If you have two customers that need to sign first, they will be Participant 1 and 2, and the sender will be participant 3.

If you opt to change the setting so that the sender has to sign first, then the sender is Participant 1, and in the example above, the customers will be participant 2 and 3.

 

Now consider the case where the document is being sent for three signatures, but you want to send the document with a parallel signature workflow.  All parties are notified at the same time, and there’s no expectation as to which signer will sign first.  Who is Participant 1?

The short answer is: Probably the first e-mail in the To field

The slightly longer answer is: The first e-mail in the To field (assuming you haven’t checked the I need to sign box and defined the sender to sign first).

 

Anyone – This role allows any signer to access the field (including the Prefill party).

The trick with the Anyone role is that the field is available to anyone until it’s filled in.  Once the field is filled in, the contents of that fields are locked in place and no subsequent signer can edit it.

Note:

If you make an Anyone defined field required, then the first person to have access to that field must fill it in. That will always be the Prefill party if you are using prefill fields, and will be Participant 1 otherwise.


Field types

There are a number of field types, many of which are for very specific functions (like the Signature field), and some few general purpose (like the Text field).

These fields are broken up into five tabs:

Signature Fields – These fields are the actual signature fields, the root of e-signing!

Signature fields just capture the signature value for the signer. If you have multiple signature fields for a signer, then they will need to fill in the first one, but the signer can just click any subsequent fields to apply the value.

Initials, just like signature fields, will need to be filled in once, and then additional fields can just be clicked.

Signature Blocks are actually container objects holding all of the fields that your account requires to complete a signature.  By default, the Signature block will hold just the Signature field and an e-mail field.  Optionally, the account admin can configure the signature preferences to require a title and/or company value. IF those values are required, the Signature block will contain them also.

Signer Info Fields – These fields collect or display information about the signer/signature.

These fields serve a special purpose towards making signing easier for users if they ever have to sign again.

Odds are you have seen your personal preferences page where your name, title, and company are defined.

These fields fill in that information for your signer’s profile.

Note: The Company field is not a generic input field to get a company name.  The field must be assigned to a role, and the content entered into the field will be stored as the company information for the participant role it is linked to.

If you place a title and/or company field for a participant, the service will store that content as the title / company information for the signer, and auto populate that the next time they are asked to sign with these fields.

The signer name field will display a typeset version of the contents the signer types into their signature field. The field will first appear as a blank section of the form until a signature is applied, and then the field will populate.

Think of this as the field you want on the “Print your name” line just under the signature line on many forms.

E-mail (address) will auto populate with the e-mail address of the signer. The e-mail address is a known value, so we can just insert it here.

Note: Just like the title and company fields, you should not use this to try to gather an e-mail address.  If you need to gather an e-mail address, then you should use a Text field (see below).

Date – This field will show the current date when the participant applies their signature to the document.  This is not a generic input field for a date.  If you need an input field, use the Text field.

Data Fields – Data fields allow the collection of information about the document beyond identifying the signer.  These are the tools you use to collect information from your customers and are by far the most used field types.

Text fields are the generic input field for content you need to get from your signer. Things like credit card information, addresses, phone numbers, notes or descriptions… Anything you need to complete the contract process.

Drop Down fields, useful for when you are offering a range of options, and the customer is allowed to pick one of them.

Check boxes are the object you use when you have an array of options, and you want the customer to select as many as apply.

Radio buttons are the counter point to check boxes, where you present an array of options, but the signer can select one and only one.

More Fields – Not quite data fields, the “More Fields” tab contains the option for File attachments or the ability to define a hyperlink “hot spot” on the document.

Stamps – These field types are populated by Acrobat Sign, to show transactional data that isn’t normally on the document.

The Participation Stamp shows the name, time and e-mail address of the participant the field is designated for (the role).

Transaction # will show the transaction number (handy if you have a problem and need support to track down your transaction).

Note:

Fields have a lot of properties that you can configure, and if you want to really climb into the world of options, you can start on this expanded article.


Layout / Alignment Tools

Once you have placed all of your fields, the last step is to make everything align properly so the form looks nice and professional.

At the left most of the field’s ribbon, you will see a ruler icon.  Click that to pop put the alignment tools.

Select one field (the one you want to be the “pattern”), then hold down your CTRL (or Command) button and select another field.  You will see the icons light up, and then you can click any one of the icons to align the fields respective to the little line you see in the icon.  For example the first icon shows the line at the top of the two fields, so the fields will align to their top edges.

The Size options will allow you to select multiple fields, and then snap them to the same size.

The first icon is for height of the fields, the second is for width, and the third icon is for both dimensions. The fields will size to the exact size of the first field selected.

 Adobe

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