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Updated authoring environment when sending agreements

 

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Overview

The new Adobe Acrobat Sign in-application authoring experience is designed to improve the user's overall process of building documents.

  • Field placement has been dramatically improved with the ability to place multiple fields of the same type without the need to drag and drop them individually.
  • Field properties (size, color, and style) are persistent after being configured, so individual field configuration is significantly reduced.
  • Editing the default field value has been improved to simply click into the field and type the value.
  • Field properties are listed in the left-hand rail to expose the options better.

Availability

  • New Acrobat web accounts and free Acrobat users enable the environment automatically.
  • Enterprise tier accounts in the Acrobat Sign solution can enable the new authoring experience in Account Settings > Global Settings
New authoring controls

Note:

While the new environment is currently useful for most transactions sent through the Acrobat Sign system, it is still being developed. Improvements to the experience will be coming in the following releases.

There are several limitations that users should be aware of, mainly that the environment is only available when sending an agreement (vs. template building), and only the most common field types are available. A more exhaustive list of limitations is below.

Recipients and field assignment

The recipient list is at the top of the left-hand rail and displays a color-coded dot corresponding with the recipient's assigned field color. The box surrounding the selected recipient is color-coded when the recipient is selected for field placement.

Selecting a recipient informs the Acrobat Sign system to assign any placed fields to that recipient, allowing the rapid placement of all fields for a recipient.

Color coded fields

Changing field assignment

The field assignment can be changed for any placed field by double-clicking the field you want to change (exposing the field options menu), mousing over the Change recipients option, and selecting the new recipient.

The color-coded relationship is also visible in the recipient selection menu options.

Change recipient assigned to field

Placing fields

To place fields into the form structure, select a field type from the left-hand rail, and then click into the form where you want to put the field.

  • The top left corner of the field is placed on the spot you click.
  • Every time you click in the form space, a new field is placed.
  • Each field replicates the field height and font size, color, and style of the previous field of any type, excluding signatures, checkboxes, and radio buttons (which maintain their own height characteristic). This type of field property inheritance allows you to configure the first field you place and then populate the rest of your form without individual field customization.
Placing fields

Moving a field

You can move a field by mousing over it and click-holding it. (The cursor changes to a four-directional arrow.) While holding down the mouse button, move the field to any location. The field will remain in the new location when the mouse button is released.

Move field

Adjusting field size

You can adjust the field size by selecting the field and mousing over any edge of a field to expose the resizing arrow. Click and drag the field edge to the appropriate size. When the mouse button is released, the field size is set.

Adjust field size

Clone and link fields to automatically populate repetitive fields

Suppose you have a set of documents that asks for the same information multiple times (e.g., Name, Address, etc.). In that case, you can clone and link the fields so that when the recipient enters their information in one field, it is automatically populated to all of the other lined clones.

To create cloned/linked fields:

  1. Double-click the field to open the menu of options.
  2. Select the ellipsis.
  3. Select Clone and link fields.
This produces one additional field that is linked.
Clone and link fields

Checking the cloned field exposes the menu of options where you find additional controls to manage the cloned fields.

  • Click the clone icon (highlighted below) to add a third clone (or more. Highlighted below).
  • Clicking Previous or Next arrows jumps to the next (previous) cloned field in the series.
  • Under the ellipsis, there is an option to delete all instances of the cloned field (including the original).
Cloned field menu

Repeat a field on every page

There is an option to replicate a field in the exact x/y coordinates on every page in the document set.

  • These fields are not cloned and linked; they have unique field names and can accept unique values.
  • Individual fields can be deleted if you only require the field on some (but not all) pages.
Repeat field on all pages

Inserting default values

Fields that accept text allow for default values to be inserted.

To insert a default string, double-click into the field, and it becomes an input field.

Type in your default value, and click outside the field to save it.

Insert default value

Making a default value read-only

To make a field read-only, insert your default field value, and after you click outside the field, there is a lock icon at the far right of the field.

By default, the field is not locked so that the participant can interact with it.

If you click the lock icon, it changes to indicate the field is locked and is read-only for the recipients.

Lock default value

Field options and properties

Double-clicking a field (or right-clicking) opens a menu of field options for the field clicked.

This short menu offers quick access to the (field-specific) options most commonly used when designing a form.

At the bottom of the menu is an option to Customize field. This option opens the field properties in the left-hand rail.

  • You can also triple-click the field to open the properties.
v4 Authoring

All options in the options menu are replicated in the left rail properties (with the exception of Customize field).

Note:

All field have a property called Name of field type.

This property is the name of the field and is the string used at the top of the columns when the field-level data is exported in reporting.

By default, the value is a generic field type name with an incrementing number.

Providing a meaningful field name is immensely useful if you ever intend to pull report data.

Changing field type

The field type can be changed for any placed field by double-clicking the field you want to change (exposing the field menu), mousing over the Change field type option, and selecting the new type.

Change field types

Available fields

Text search within the document

Searching the text of the uploaded documents is possible by clicking Ctrl/Cmd + F.

A search dialogue opens, allowing for the input of a text string that searches against the text within the uploaded document(s).

  • Only the text of the uploaded document is searched. Field content is not searchable.
  • Documents created from images produce no searchable results.
  • Strings that match the search value are highlighted, and a numerical count is displayed to the right of the search field.
  • The left and right arrows jump the view to the next or previous instance of the found values.
Text search

How to enable/disable the feature for the group/account

Pro and small business/teams tier accounts have the option enabled by default.

Enterprise and business tier administrators can make the environment available to users at the account and group level (group-level settings override account settings).

Navigate to Account Settings > Global Settings > New authoring experience to enable the feature.

New authoring controls in the admin menu

Switching between environments as a user

Users (with the feature enabled) can switch between the new and classic experience.

  • In the classic environment, the switch link is at the top of the right-hand rail (above the recipient list).
  • In the new authoring experience, the switch link is at the bottom of the left-hand rail (under the Save/Back/Send buttons).

Users can switch between the environments but must save their changes beforehand, or they will be lost.

  • Users are warned to save their updates if they attempt to switch before saving.
  • Switching from the classic experience is disabled if any field types that are unsupported in the new environment have been added to the form.
User toggles between experiences

Limitations

The feature is currently in development, and the below line items are expected to be resolved, bringing the new experience into parity with the classic experience over the subsequent releases.

Currently, the new authoring experience does not support:

  • Template building
  • Anyone assigned fields
  • Recipient groups
  • Electronic seals
  • Notary workflows
  • Self Signing
  • Web forms
  • Send in Bulk
  • Library templates
  • Text tags
  • Conditional fields
  • Calculated fields
  • Regular expression validation
  • Only two font styles
  • Field types:
    • Stamps
    • Title
    • Company
    • Images
    • File attachments
    • Participation stamps
    • Transaction numbers
    • Payment fields

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