Support for IE7 and IE8 has ended

As previously communicated in our monthly technical update since September 2015, eSign services is aligning with Microsoft's policy on end-of-life for older versions of Internet Explorer.

Accordingly, as of January 12, 2016 we ended support for IE7 and IE8. With this release, users attempting to use IE7 or IE8 to access eSign service will be blocked and will receive the following error message informing them that their browser is no longer supported:

"You are trying to access Adobe Document Cloud using an unsupported browser. We highly recommend you download and install a modern browser ensuring support for new technologies, increased speed, performance, privacy and security."

For more information see the list of Adobe supported browsers.

ACTION REQUIRED:  Please upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer or use another Adobe supported browser. 

Added support for global data centers

As eSign usage is growing globally, we are scaling our infrastructure and adding international data centers. The expanded service will operate from a new set of IP Addresses beyond those currently in use by the service.

ACTION REQUIRED:   If your existing network or firewall configuration explicitly whitelists the IP addresses for eSign services, please update your network configuration to include these new IP addresses:

• Existing IP Addresses:

• Additional IP Addresses:

The existing IP addresses will continue to be in service and must not be deleted or removed from your network configuration.

Known Issues

Resolved Issues

New and Improved Capabilities

Expanded new Send agreement experience

The expanded new Send experience builds on the powerful, yet simple-to-use, new capabilities introduced last November, such as hybrid routing order, on-the-fly document correction, and signer delegation. See the Adobe Document Cloud eSign Services New Feature Guide for the November 2015 Release for more information. 

The Send experience now includes more of your favorite Send options including the following: set authentication methods on a per signer basis, use message templates, select files from your document library or online storage accounts, define a password to open signed PDFs, select the signer language, and enable the vaulting option. 

You can enable this new Send experience and optionally allow users to switch between the new and classic Send experiences using the New Send Experience setting (in Send Settings). Users can switch back to the Classic Send page if they need to use any of the capabilities that have not yet been implemented.

The Send options now available in the enhanced new Send experience are shown and explained below.

  1. Use message templates—You can now select a message template to send a custom message to all participants for an agreement. 

   2. Select files from your document library or online storage accounts—You can now click Add Files to access the Select Files dialog and all the file sources that are enabled. 

   3. Define a password to open signed PDFs—You can now password protect signed documents. If you enable this option on the Send page, you must enter and confirm the password.

   4. Set signer language—Select the signing language to be used for the communication with recipients. 

Per signer authentication

All senders will now use per signer authentication, which allows senders to assign a different authentication method for each recipient. P2 customers may also have phone authentication and knowledge-based authentication enabled for their accounts. 

Enhanced signing experience

All participants will now be able to view the sender's message on the eSign page. If private messages are being used, they will also be displayed on the eSign page. 

The ability to view senders’ messages and private messages is enabled by default. Administrators can suppress messages from displaying by disabling the Show message to recipients when e-signing setting under Additional Settings (in Signature Preferences).

Private messages

Senders can create unique messages for each recipient in the signing process before sending documents for signature or approval. If private messages are enabled, senders can click the Add a private message button.

In the Private message dialog, the recipient specific private message can be entered.

Recipients can easily read the private message during the signing experience. 

The private message is also included along with the general message in the email to the recipient. 

The ability to create private messages is disabled by default. Administrators can enable it using the Private Messages to Recipients setting (in Signature Preferences).

New Preview and Authoring experience (Beta)

Speed document preparation with an all-new, modern form authoring experience. This new authoring experience works in tandem with the new Send experience and incorporates a responsive design that adapts itself automatically to fit different window sizes across computers and tablet devices. The new beta authoring experience supports the standard Signature Fields (including signature, initials, and signature block), Signer Info Fields, Data Fields (including text fields, drop-downs, check boxes, and radio buttons) and Stamps. It also allows senders to save authored documents to their document libraries.

Automatic signature cleanup

When images of your signature or initials are uploaded from My Signature, the background is removed to create a crisp, clean image of your signature or initials.

The image below shows signature and initials images uploaded in a previous release.

The image below shows signature and initials images uploaded in the current release. Note that the images have been optimized for size and clarity.

Improved account sharing

Advanced account sharing was introduced last November in limited release for P2 customers. Advanced account sharing makes it possible for administrators and users with advanced sharing enabled to delegate send, modify, and view permissions to alternate users. These alternate users can then act on behalf of others, for example when users take leave or go on vacation and that user’s responsibilities need to be assumed by someone else. Advanced sharing can also be used to assign privileges to a virtual user account, for example, a Human Resource Management user. That virtual user’s account can then be shared with the group.  

In this release, account sharing users can now also do the following:

• Choose files from the libraries of the users they are acting on behalf of.
• Send documents for signature from the custom Send pages of the users they are acting on behalf of to comply with their Send workflows.

Additional information in CSV report files

When you create a report and export the report data, additional information can optionally be included in the CSV export files. Please consult your Client Success Manager (CSM) to have this capability enabled.

The additional information that can be included in the CSV file is as follows:

• Sender‘s company, title, IP address, time zone, and device used
• Number of participants, completed signatures, remaining signatures, and agreement level messages
• For each recipient, the recipient’s time zone, time received, time viewed, device used, and rejection reason (if any)
• Number of documents sent
• Number of pages

Group admin access for Workflow Designer

Group administrators can now use Workflow Designer to build and edit workflow templates for senders so signature process steps can be followed consistently every time.

REST API parity with SOAP

The REST Document Services APIs have been completed, and several new REST Partner Service APIs have been added. You can use these REST APIs to do the following: replace participants, delegate signing, delete library templates, cancel agreements sent out as Mega Sign, fetch form data for agreements sent out as Mega Sign, and activate and deactivate users. For more information on the Adobe Document Cloud REST API Methods, click here. 

Strengthened password complexity

The new password rules require that passwords be at least 8 characters—but can be up to 100 characters—and contain the following:

• At least one lowercase character
• At least one uppercase character
• At least one number
• At least one special character

Also, the following logic will now be applied:

• Passwords will be matched against a list of the most often used passwords.
• Password history is now 10. You cannot reuse any of your previous 10 passwords.
• Passwords cannot contain the user's first name, last name, or email address.

As mentioned above, users have 90 days to comply with the new standard.

New developer portal

This new eSign services developer center provides developers the information they need to get up and running quickly including documentation, API tools, and more. 

Enhanced mobile productivity

Both eSign for iOS and Android have been enhanced.

eSign Manager for iOS

• Use the more intuitive, reorganized dashboard to access your documents. The new dashboard also works better with iOS 9 and iPad Pro.
• Use the improved Send experience to more easily send documents for signature

• Provides support for the Delegator role:

○ As a sender, when a signer's email address is not known or an intermediary is required, you can now route documents to a delegator to assign a signer.

○ As a delegator, you can delegate signing to another person.

eSign Manager for Android

• Is now localized into 19 languages to match Acrobat Mobile.

• Provides support for the Delegator role the same as eSign Manager for iOS (see above).

Feature Availability by Document Cloud eSign Services Plan

Resolved Issues

Rebrand to Adobe Sign

Adobe Document Cloud eSign services has been rebranded to Adobe Sign. Adobe Sign is an Adobe Document Cloud solution. You’ll see Adobe Sign where you previously saw Adobe Document Cloud eSign services in your web and mobile applications. Adobe Sign also has a new logo.

All the e‑signing capabilities you currently have remain the same. If your account has been customized with your organization’s branding, you will see no change to your logo. If you use a co-branded logo, showing both your brand as well as the Adobe brand, the older brand (Powered by Adobe DocumentCloud eSign services) will continue to be used. This logo will be updated in a future release. 

New and Improved Capabilities

New Authoring experience capabilities (Beta)

In addition to the standard Signature Fields (including Digital Signatures), Signer Info Fields, Data Fields, and Stamps, the new beta authoring experience now supports More Fields (Attachments and Hyperlinks). Also, form field templates are now supported and can be applied to documents    

Expanded global certificates

Deliver trusted documents with tamper-evident seals that comply with country-specific regulations. Adobe Sign now works with additional digital certificates issued by trusted certificate authorities in India and Switzerland so recipients can confirm that signed documents haven't been altered.

Customer approved access to accounts

Customers can now use a new tool to grant permission to Adobe Support to access their accounts for troubleshooting purposes. Adobe Customer Support Representatives will use this tool to initiate a request for permission. Based on this request, an email will be sent to the customer requesting permission. Customers will be able to click on a link in this email to access the tool and grant permission.

Workflow designer enhancement

When creating workflows, Admins can now control which emails will be sent during the signature and approval process. Admins will specify who needs to receive email notifications based on various events. For example, Admins can specify that notification emails will be sent to recipients and CCs when an agreement is cancelled.

Feature Availability by Adobe Sign Plan

Existing customer accounts, settings and customization will not be impacted by any new features included in this release. Most features, when rolled out to an account, will be available for the account administrator to enable.   

Account administrators can gradually rollout new features within their account after completing appropriate validation and testing.

Resolved Issues

The following table describes issues that have been resolved in this release.

Resolved Issues

New and Improved Capabilities

Recipient group

The Recipient group capability is automatically enabled for Adobe Sign – Enterprise accounts when the new Send experience is enabled. (To enable the new Send experience for your group or account, navigate to: Account > Account Settings > Send Settings or search for New Send)

A recipient group allows multiple team members to have the authority to sign or approve on behalf of the entire group. Add a “recipient group” as a single signing step, then add multiple recipients to that group. Any one of the recipients listed can participate on behalf of the entire group and ensure your transactions aren’t being held up waiting for just one person.  Recipient groups can be defined as signers or approvers, and authentication methods can be individually designated for each member of the group as needed.

Set reminders from the Send page

The new Send experience will allow senders to set automated daily or weekly time-based email reminders to recipients directly from the Send page before sending documents for signature or approval.  

Modify agreements in flight

Originally released to selected customers in the November 2015 release, all Adobe Sign - Enterprise account and group administrators can now empower senders to save time when the wrong document is in the draft state, or has already been sent by mistake. As long as the agreement hasn’t been signed yet, modifying agreements allows documents to be added, rearranged, removed and/or have their fields edited without having to cancel one transaction and sending another. Administrators will have to enable the new Send experience first, and then can allow on-the-fly document modification at the account or group level.

New Authoring experience

Speed document preparation with an all-new, modern Authoring experience. The "beta" Authoring experience introduced in the April release is now the standard. By adding the ability to set conditional fields, calculated fields and advanced validation rules, the new Authoring experience is in feature parity with the classic Authoring experience.  Administrators can enable the new experience from Account > Account Settings > Send Settings

The new Authoring experience offers more than just a responsive interface and parity to the classic version. There’s an improved page layout for the building tools that will make the process of creating and sending forms significantly easier:

Drag and drop form fields from the right hand pane, giving more vertical space for the document.

Multi select fields by holding the SHIFT key and marking an area with you mouse to align, delete or move the fields on the document.

Field management tools are exposed above the document:

1. Align selected field vertically or horizontally
2. Size selected fields to match in height or width (or both)
3. Align selected fields relative to the page
4. Navigate to a field anywhere in the document from a drop down list of field names

Templates can be accessed and saved during the authoring process:

1. Use pre-existing form field layer templates to place fields on your documents
2. Create a new document template to store in your document library

Advanced Form Fields

Adobe Sign – Enterprise and Adobe Sign – Business accounts will gain access to advanced field types. Advanced fields include fields that can calculate values dynamically, fields that can be conditionally visible or hidden based on other fields’ values, and fields that can contain custom validation patterns.

New Create Widget experience

Available when the new Send experience is enabled, the Widget creation page has been redesigned with a new, modern UI and a responsive design that automatically adjusts itself to fit different window sizes across computers and tablet devices.

Expanded counter-signer options with Widget

Users that create Adobe Sign Widgets using the new Create Widget experience will be able to add multiple counter-signers and counter-approvers into the signing process with a clear graphical signing order. Each counter-signer can independently be assigned their own role and authentication method, depending on your needs.

Sign with a signature image or stamp

In addition to typing and drawing a signature, signers can now select an image of their well-prepared signature or stamp signature. To apply a stamp type signature, the signer will select the Image option above the signature panel and then click the signature panel.

A browsing box will open to allow the signer to browse to the image file they want to use and attach it as the signature image. Adobe Sign will clean up the background to extract the best form of the signature image or stamp for display.

Once done, the image signature will be displayed in the signature panel. Check the Save Signature to your profile option if you would like to use this stamp in future transactions, and then click Apply to apply the image as your signature. You will be returned to your document, signature image in place! Perfect for signers that have a legal requirement for a stamp type signature!

Smooth signatures

Delight customers and employees with signatures that look smoother and more true-to-life when people sign with a mouse or stylus.

Strengthened password complexity

New, more stringent password rules have been introduced. At a minimum, passwords must be 8 characters—but can be up to 100 characters—and must contain the following:

• At least one lowercase character
• At least one uppercase character
• At least one number
• At least one special character

Also, the following logic will now be applied:

• Passwords will be matched against a list of the most often used passwords.
• Password history is now 10. You cannot reuse any of your previous 10 passwords.
• Passwords cannot contain the user's first name, last name, or email address.

Users have 90 days to comply with the new standard

Strengthened phone authentication

Phone based signer authentication is improved to a six-digit code, increasing by a hundredfold the strength of the verification code. This upgrade will automatically be applied to all transactions using phone based authentication. And if the signer needs to delegate the signature to a new person, they can provide the new signer’s phone number directly from the delegation workflow.

Complete Localization

The entire application has complete localized content for all thirty-six supported languages, including, audit trails, a localized Reports page, extended character support, additional date and currency formats in form fields and more.

508 Accessibility

Users and signers with mobility and/or sight related impairments will find the new web interface to be dramatically easier to use with top to bottom improvements starting with the Log in, and extending through the Dashboard, the new Send experience and the Signing experience. 

The new accessibility experience improves compliance, which benefits organizations – such as government agencies – that endeavor to comply with accessibility standards such as WCAG 2.0 AA, Europe’s EN 301 549, and the US Rehabilitation Act Section 508.

Improved Keyboard Navigation

Users with mobility impairments will be able to use the keyboard to log in, send and sign agreements, as well as manage their dashboard without outside help. No mouse required! Tabbing has been enabled for all fields and clickable buttons and icons to ensure full accessibility to the features they need.

Screen Reader Support

Let disabled users open and read documents with a screen reader in Adobe Acrobat Reader, then fill, sign, and submit the form in Adobe Sign.

During the signing experience, signers can tab through fields in the correct order, read the field names aloud so they can understand what information is being requested, and discover additional options such as delegating to another signer or declining to sign. To create the optimal experience, form authors need to create a tooltip or a meaningful name for each form field that - when read aloud - will make it clear what type of information is expected from the disabled signer when filling in the field.  

Developer Tools

Java SDK

Developers will be able to integrate into Java applications more quickly using our Java SDK. This SDK provides pre-built client-side Java objects that take advantage of Adobe Sign REST APIs. For more information, check out the Adobe Sign developer portal, look through our overview documentation, or jump straight to the Java SDK.

Mobile Updates

Split Screen

iOS iPad and iPad Pro - Increase productivity with new multitasking support for iPad and iPad Pro on iOS 9 devices. New split screen mode lets mobile users run two apps side-by-side. 

New mobile Help

New one-click Help gives iOS and Android mobile customers help when they need it. Now, users can quickly access help directly within the mobile app, from the home screen dashboard.

Feature Availability by Adobe Sign Plan

Resolved Issues

Resolved Issues

New Authoring experience for creating templates

The New Authoring experience has been extended to template creation. If you have authored a document through the send page recently, you have probably seen this slick new interface, and now it can be leveraged to build all of your widgets and library templates.

Creating templates starts on your Dashboard page, in the Additional Functions section:

Two types of templates can be created, either individually or both at the same time:

• Reusable Documents – Fully formed documents containing all form fields and printed content. Best used with boilerplate documents that don’t change the document content.
• Form Field Layers – An overlay layer of fields, but no content. Best used when you have document generation that changes the printed content, but always formats the document so that the fields lay in the same location on the page

Field Validation in Authoring

Within the New Authoring environment, you will have access to all of the Adobe Sign standard fields that you would normally have when building a form through the Send process.

Additionally, you will find that the template properties have been enhanced and exposed more conspicuously in the upper right corner of the window.

Adjustable properties include:

• Editing the template name
• Changing the template type
• Changing the access profile of the template

A new feature to indicate, and help correct, field level problems is being introduced to the Authoring environment.  When a new document with text tags or Acrobat fields is uploaded, Adobe Sign will perform a verification of all field properties to ensure that no errors (invalid font size, circular calculated expressions, etc.) exist.  When errors are found, a banner will be presented indicating the number of errors, and navigational icons so you can easily move between field errors. 

Below is an example of a form field with a validation rule looking for a social security number, but the default value provided was text.

By clicking the Next Error button on the right, the next erroring field is opened with the validation error explicitly stated at the top of the field.

508 Accessibility

Continuing our commitment to 508 Accessibility, this release will expand our tab control and screen reader support to additional pages, including the pre and post send pages, the Terms of Use, password and KBA authentication, and more!

Feature Availability by Adobe Sign Plan

Resolved Issues