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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 

Overview

The Limited Document Visibility (LDV) settings allow an agreement to contain multiple files that are selectively visible to the recipients depending on which settings are enabled and how the agreement is configured.

Example use cases include:

  • Sales agreements that require internal oversight or approval before being sent to the customer.
  • New hire documentation to be delivered after the offer letter is accepted.
  • HR documents that require internal processing outside the initial signer's scope.

Here's a quick video that captures the high-level use:

Availability:

Limited document visibility is available for the enterprise license plan only.

Configuration scope:

LDV can be enabled at the account and group levels.

Limited Document Visibility involves several particular terms:

User vs. UserID

  • User is a generic term for anyone who accesses Adobe Acrobat Sign by direct login, federated authentication, or integration. A user may have multiple email addresses they use to authenticate to Acrobat Sign (thus, a user may have numerous userIDs).
  • UserID is a specific, authenticated object in Adobe Acrobat Sign. The actual ID is a system-assigned number that ensures the identification of a unique (user) object. UserIDs are often equated to the email address as both are unique values in the system, but a user can change their email address; they may not change the userID.  All assets are logically related to their creating userID.

Internal vs. External parties

  • Internal parties are userIDs that are part of the same Acrobat Sign account as the sending userID.
    • It's worth noting that users in the same company may be in different Acrobat Sign accounts. Acrobat Sign does not make assumptions based on email domains or company names. The only relevant association is if the userIDs are related to the same accountID.
  • External parties identify any userID that isn't a member of the sending userIDs account. 
    • If the participant's email isn't listed in the User list for the account, the participant is external by definition.

How document visibility works

LDV rules can be enabled at the account and group level.

LDV rules only expose the file content explicitly assigned to any given recipient.

File content is assigned to a recipient by adding at least one field assigned to that recipient.

  • LDV is file-based, not page-based. If a file has 40 pages, and the recipient has one field assigned to them on one page, the recipient can see all 40 pages of the file.
  • If the file contains no fields for the recipient, the entire file is excluded from that recipient's view.
  • If there are four files, and the recipient needs to see all four, then at least one field must be applied to one of the pages of each file.
  • If page-level control is required, the file must be divided into individual files, each containing one page.
LDV example

In the example to the right, there are two signers and two documents in an agreement.

Signer 1 sees both documents, as there is a field assigned on both docs (Field 1 and Field 2)

Signer 2 will only see Doc 2 because they don't have an assigned field on Doc 1. 

  • Doc 2 is visible because Field 3 is assigned to Signer 2.
Note:

LDV rules expect two prerequisites:

  • There must be more than one recipient
    • Recipients include any user added to the signature/approval process
    • CC'd parties are not recipients.    
  • There must be more than one file added to the agreement
    • Files are any attachments used to build the agreement (.doc, .xls, .pdf, PNG, etc.)

If either of the above requirements isn't true, LDV rules are suspended for that agreement.

Configuration

The controls for this feature can be assessed by navigating to Global Settings > Limited Document Visibility

Global Settings tab highlighting the LDV controls.

Signers will only see files containing signature, initials or data entry fields assigned to them is the root control that enables the LDV experience and the set of subordinate controls. If this control is disabled, LDV as a whole is disabled in the recipient experience.

All recipients and CC'd parties see all files all the time.

LDV is disabled

Participant

During the signing process

When the agreement is completed

Sender

All documents

All documents

Internal Recipient

All documents

All documents

External Recipient

All documents

All documents

Internal CC

All documents

All documents

External CC

All documents

All documents

External Archive Recipient

NA

All documents

After enabling the root LDV control, there are three additional configurations to control visibility depending on your preferred experience:

When only Signers will only see files containing signature, initials or data entry fields assigned to them is enabled:

  • The Sender can see all file content all the time
  • Recipients can only see the files they are explicitly included in during signing, and after the agreement is complete
  • CC'd parties do not see any file content.
LDV is enabled

Participant

During Signing

Completed Agreement

Sender

All documents

All documents

Internal Recipient

Assigned documents

Assigned documents

External Recipient

Assigned documents

Assigned documents

Internal CC

None

None

External CC

None

None

External Archive Recipient

NA

All documents

When Signers and CCs in my account will see all files is enabled:

  • All internal userIDs (relative to the sending user) can see all file content.
  • External recipients only see the files content assigned to them, during signing and after the agreement is complete.
  • External CC'd parties see no file content.
LDV allows internal agens to see all files

Participant

During Signing

Completed Agreement

Sender

All documents

All documents

Internal Recipient

All documents

All documents

External Recipient

Assigned documents

Assigned documents

Internal CC

All documents

All documents

External CC

None

None

External Archive Recipient

NA

All documents

When Signers and CCs will see all files when receiving the signed agreement is enabled:

  • Recipients only see their assigned file content during the signature process
  • CC'd parties do not see any file content during the signature process

Once the agreement is completed, all recipients and CC'd parties can see all file content.

LDV exposes all files when completed

Participant

During Signing

Completed Agreement

Sender

All documents

All documents

Internal Recipient

Assigned documents

All documents

External Recipient

Assigned documents

All documents

Internal CC

None

All documents

External CC

None

All documents

External Archive Recipient

NA

All documents

This configuration enables LDV rules and allows all internal userIDs (relative to the sender) to view all file content during the signing cycle.

When the agreement is complete, all users can view all file content

LDV allows internal agens to see all files

Participant

During Signing

Completed Agreement

Sender

All documents

All documents

Internal Recipient

All documents

All documents

External Recipient

Assigned documents

All documents

Internal CC

All documents

All documents

External CC

None

All documents

External Archive Recipient

NA

All documents

If you are planning on accepting written signatures, you should enable this option, but be aware that LDV rules do not apply when a written signature is involved.

In all cases, when a written signature is involved, LDV rules are suspended for that agreement.

LDV for written signature

Participant

During Signing

Completed Agreement

Sender

All documents

All documents

Internal Recipient

All documents

All documents

External Recipient

All documents

All documents

Internal CC

All documents

All documents

External CC

All documents

All documents

External Archive Recipient

NA

All documents

Using LDV with the REST API v6

The sender can use the REST API v6 to explicitly grant visibility to documents.

REST API v6 calls ignore all document visibility settings in the UI, as the API call overrides account/group level settings.

The only carry-over behavior is that the sender must specify a document label if it specifies a form field for a particular recipient. 

POST /agreements REST API v6 endpoint has three parameters that can be used to control document visibility behaviors.

AgreementInfo

Parameter Name

Type

Required

Description

documentVisibilityEnabled

Boolean

No

Optional document visibility parameter for the agreement. This parameter must be specified and set to true to enable document visibility.


ParticipantSetInfo

Parameter Name

Type

Required

Description

visiblePages

String[]

No

A list of FileInfo.label that should be made visible for participants in this participant set.


CcInfo

Parameter Name

Type

Required

Description

visiblePages

String[]

No

A list of FileInfo.label that should be made visible for participants in this CC.


HTTP Status Code

HTTP Status Code

Reason

Description

400

INVALID_PARTICIPANT_SET_VISIBLE_PAGE_LABEL

One or more visible page labels in the participant set is invalid.

400

INVALID_CC_VISIBLE_PAGE_LABEL

One or more visible page labels in CC is invalid.

403

DOCUMENT_VISIBILITY_DISABLED

Document visibility enabled is set to false and thus file info index cannot be specified for any participant set or CC.

GET /agreements/{agreementId} REST API v6 endpoint can be used to retrieve relationship between participants and documents

AgreementInfo

Parameter Name

Type

Description

documentVisibilityEnabled

Boolean

If true, document visibility was enabled for this agreement.


ParticipantSetInfo

Parameter Name

REST Object

Description

visiblePages

String[]

A list of FileInfo.label that should be made visible for participants in this participant set.


CcInfo

Parameter Name

REST Object

Description

visiblePages

String[]

A list of FileInfo.label that should be made visible for participants in this CC.

If GET /agreements/{agreementId} is reporting CANCELLED status, it may be due to one or more invalid document visibility parameter values.

Use GET /agreements/{agreementId}/events to retrieve failure reason.

Error Message

Condition

fileInfoIndex <FileInfo index> is missing in one of the participantSets containing <participant email>

<label> must be specified as visiblePages for participant <participant email>

The above failure is logged with the Event.type value of AUTO_CANCELLED_CONVERSION_PROBLEM and Event.comment.

Things to know

Limited document visibility and digital signature certificates are incompatible.

When LDV is enabled, the digital signature object is removed from the in-app authoring environment.

If an agreement with a digital signature field is sent with LDV rules enabled, an error will be triggered:

Digital signature field <field name> is unsupported due to limited document visibility.

If the userID can view the file that contains the attachment field, they also have the authority to view the attachment content.

Replacing a recipient works the same as normal with one exception:

  • The Sender of the agreement may not replace themselves when they are a listed recipient with a non-signing role, and Signers and CCs in my account will see all files is disabled.

If Signers and CCs in my account will see all files is enabled:

  • Internal recipients can only delegate to another internal user
  • External recipients may not delegate to an internal user
    • Attempting to do so throws the error: "Your account admin does not allow delegation to this individual."

The files and fields can be edited (using the Modify Agreement feature) as long as the agreement hasn't been viewed by a participant.

LDV is role agnostic. 

If you have a non-signing recipient, then that recipient must have at least one field placed on every file that you intend for them to have access to.

If a recipient doesn't have any visible files (because no fields are placed), an error is triggered: 

Participant <email> (<participant role>) does not have any visible document

Send in Bulk works the same as other agreements. 

When an agreement is sent, there must be at least one required (not optional nor conditional) signature field for every recipient with a signing role.

If one or more signers don't have a required signature field, an additional page will be added to the end of the agreement and a signature block for every signer will be added (giving all signers a view of that last page).

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