Macromedia Sign User Guide
Adobe Sign
User Guide
Copyright ©2017 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.
Last Updated: February 6, 2017
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Table of Contents
Welcome to Adobe Sign! ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Personalize your Account .................................................................................................................................................. 5
Page by Page Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 7
Dashboard Page .................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Send Page ................................................................................................................................................................................9
Manage Page ........................................................................................................................................................................ 10
Reports Page .......................................................................................................................................................................... 11
Sending Agreements ........................................................................................................................................... 12
Recipients Section .............................................................................................................................................................. 13
Hybrid Workflows ............................................................................................................................................................... 15
Recipient Groups ................................................................................................................................................................. 16
Message Section .................................................................................................................................................................. 17
Message Templates ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 18
Options Section ................................................................................................................................................................... 19
Files Section ......................................................................................................................................................................... 20
Preview & Add Signature Fields ............................................................................................................................................................... 20
Sending an Agreement to One Recipient .................................................................................................................. 21
Sending to Multiple Recipients ................................................................................................................................................................. 25
Signing Environment .......................................................................................................................................... 26
Managing Agreements ....................................................................................................................................... 30
Manage page structure .................................................................................................................................................... 30
Agreement Filters ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 31
Agreement lists ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 31
Agreement Metadata ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 33
Agreement Tools ................................................................................................................................................................ 34
Quick links to common tasks ........................................................................................................................................ 35
Reports (Adobe Sign – Business and Enterprise) ..................................................................................... 36
Report Parameters ............................................................................................................................................................ 38
Documents & Workflows ............................................................................................................................................................................ 39
Report Results ...................................................................................................................................................................... 41
Preview and Authoring Experience ............................................................................................................... 44
Using the Authoring Environment .............................................................................................................................. 44
Authoring Environment .................................................................................................................................................. 45
Form Field Template ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 45
Field Layout and Alignment ...................................................................................................................................................................... 46
Select Recipient (Role) .................................................................................................................................................................................... 47
Form Field menus .............................................................................................................................................................................................. 48
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Save to Document Library ............................................................................................................................................................................ 52
Zoom, Reset and Save/Send ....................................................................................................................................................................... 54
Library Templates ................................................................................................................................................ 55
Creating a Library Template .......................................................................................................................................... 56
Using a Library Template ................................................................................................................................................ 60
Alternate Workflows for Signatures .............................................................................................................. 62
Workflows ............................................................................................................................................................................. 62
Sending to Multiple Recipients ..................................................................................................................................... 62
Husband & Wife Signing ................................................................................................................................................................................ 62
Sending Using Only I Sign .............................................................................................................................................. 63
Sending Using Mega Sign (Adobe Sign – Business and Enterprise)............................................................... 68
Collecting Signatures with Widgets (Adobe Sign – Business and Enterprise) ............................................ 68
Mobile Devices..................................................................................................................................................... 69
Signing with a Mobile Device ........................................................................................................................................ 69
Adobe Sign Manager for iOS ..................................................................................................................................................................... 69
Adobe Sign Manager for Android .......................................................................................................................................................... 69
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Welcome to Adobe Sign!
Before you begin using Adobe Sign, we’ve got some basics to run through. The purpose of this
guide is to get you familiar with Adobe Sign and the functionality available to you as a user.
This guide covers all the important processes in Adobe Sign and familiarizes you with the user
interface. The Adobe Sign Help system provides more in depth information where needed. If you
are connected to the Internet, you can click on the links in the blue boxes that begin with the text
“Additional information …” to view the related help topics.
Note: Where applicable, features and functions specific to Adobe Sign – Business, Adobe Sign –
Enterprise, or both are noted. This guide documents the features and functions available
at the highest level of license agreement, Adobe Sign – Enterprise. To determine your
license type, go to My Profile. If you have questions about the features available for your
license, please contacts your Client Success Manager or Adobe Sign Support.
Adobe Sign is a highly customizable application with a wide range of features that may or may
not apply to how you do business. Your account administrator or group administrator may have
disabled some of the options described. If you have a need for something you don’t see available
to you, contact your group or account administrator. Our service supports different configurations
for different groups so even if it’s best to have a feature disabled for one group, it’s possible to
have it enabled for another.
By the end of this guide, you’ll be familiar with all of the standard “send” workflows in Adobe Sign
as well as how to manage your agreements, and how to generate reports so you can stay on top
of what’s complete, and what is still pending.
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Personalize your Account
When you first log into Adobe Sign, take a minute to review your personal user information. This
information is used in several templates, so it’s important to ensure it is correct.
• Mouse over your name in the upper-right corner to open the menu, and click My Profile
The profile page shows the specific values that Adobe Sign will use when personalizing any of
your transactions. Of particular interest are:
• Your full name – Used in email communications and for your default typeset signature
• Your job title – Automatically populates if you ever have a Title field to fill in
• Your company name – Reflected in email communications, this should be the full legal
company name
• Time Zone - Time/Date stamps will be cast in your time zone for better clarity when
running reports.
If you need to adjust any of the content, click the Edit button, make the required changes, and
then Save your edits.
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After configuring your personal information, take a quick look through the other personal
preferences you see listed on the left side of the screen. These options are specific to you as a
user, and may be useful automations:
• My Profile – Your personal identifying information
• Access Tokens – If you are a developer, this is where your API tokens are defined and
listed
• Twitter Integration – Send a Tweet every time an agreement is completed!
• My Email Footer – Add a custom (plain text) footer to the bottom of your email
templates when sending new agreements
• Auto Delegation – Automatically delegate any Adobe Sign agreements sent to you for
signature to the named party. Similar to an “Out of Office” forwarding process for Adobe
Sign agreements
• My Events/Alerts – Configure which types of events/alerts you want Adobe Sign to notify
you about, and how you want to be notified. You can get real time email, or log the event
and set up reporting on a daily or weekly cycle. (Events are triggers when something
happens. Alerts are triggered when a time interval passes and something doesn’t happen)
• Shared Events/Alerts –If another user’s account is shared with you, you can customize
which of their events and alerts you’d like to be informed of
• My Signature – Upload an image of your signature and initials. PNG files work best
• Language Preferences – There are two settings to consider under this heading:
o My Language Preference – This setting allows you to define the language used
for you within the Adobe Sign web application.
o Signing Language – This setting defines the default language used for the email
notifications and the recipient’s guided signing experience.
• View Other Accounts – If you need to view the agreements on another user’s account,
you can request that here. A list of all viewed accounts will be enumerated. This is a “read
only” perspective
• Share My Account – If you need to share your account to another person, you can
specify who can see your agreements here. Sharing your account is a view only. The
viewer cannot sign, cancel or delegate
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Page by Page Overview
Dashboard Page
The Dashboard is the first page that most users will sign in to. (The Send page is the other option
as configured by your account administrator.)
The Dashboard is a view composed of the following sections that give you quick view and access
to most of the Adobe Sign features:
• Get a Signature – A quick link to the Send page with the additional option to start the
process by attaching a Library document or start a Custom Workflow (if enabled for your
account).
• Additional Functions – A list of “special” workflows (all detailed later in this document)
o Add Template to Library – Allows you to create a document or field template for
repeated use. Templates can be saved for personal use, group use, or available to the
entire account
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o Create Widget – Widgets are documents/forms you can link to or embed into your
website that allow customers to generate a signed document. For example, a
membership application or a registration form on your website
o Only I Sign – Used when you need to apply your signature to a document, and then
send that signed document to another party. For example, filling out tax forms or
permission slips
o Archive a Document – Allows you to upload a document to Adobe Sign to be stored
in your account, so you can access it on the Manage page in the Archived section
o Mega Sign – A workflow that allows you to send a document for individual signature
to hundreds of people. Each person gets their own discreet agreement requesting just
their signature. For example, Annual Code of Conduct agreements
• Your Activity for This Month – Two dials that reflect your personal metrics for the
current calendar month. One shows the percentage of agreements sent this month that
have been signed, and the other shows the average time (in minutes) that each
agreement took to sign.
• Recent Alerts – If you have configured your Events/Alerts preferences to log Alerts, they
will be posted here.
• Waiting for Me – A listing of the agreements waiting for your signature or approval.
• Recent Events – If you have configured your Events/Alerts preferences to log Events, they
will be posted here.
• Account Sharing / Switch to shared account – If you have another user account shared
to you, it will be listed here so you can easily review those transactions
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Send Page
The Send page is where you create new agreements. The page is divided into four sections:
• Recipients – Recipients are the people that you need to interact with your agreement.
There are three types of “Recipients”:
o Signers – People who are required to apply at least one signature on the agreement
o Approvers – People that are expected to approve the agreement, but are not
required to apply their signature on it
o Delegators – People that are expected to specify who needs to sign or approve.
Delegators do not apply a signature/approval themselves
• Message – Where you define the name of the agreement and a message you want to
deliver to the recipients
• Options – These options help control the agreement
o Password Protect – You can secure your signed documents by providing a password
that is applied to the final PDF to prevent unauthorized viewing
o Completion Deadline – When an agreement has to be signed by a specific date, you
can use this option to automatically cancel the agreement after a specified number of
days
o Send Reminder – You can set up reminders on a daily or weekly basis to be sent to
the current active recipients
o Recipient’s Language – The language you choose is used in the recipient’s emails
communication and on the eSign page
• Files – This is where you select the actual documents you are sending for signature
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Manage Page
As a sender, recipient or even as a CC’d party, if you were a participant with an Adobe Sign
agreement, it will be available on your Manage page. As a portal to all agreements tied to your
user, the page is designed with two goals in mind: find the agreement you want to examine, and
performing management tasks for that agreement.
The main body of the page is the listing of your agreements, divided into collapsible sections
roughly based on their current status (Out for Signature, Signed or Cancelled) as well as any
documents uploaded to Archive, created as Widgets or saved as templates in your library.
Filters at the top of the page will help locate your individual documents and tools down the right
side will give you access to view, share and protect the document.
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Reports Page
Regularly scheduled reports can help you quickly assess how your documents are progressing,
and where your attention is needed. Reports can be custom designed to trigger any day at any
time to include the scope from all agreements to only documents with a specified name.
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Sending Agreements
Sending documents and collecting signatures and approvals is what Adobe Sign is all about!
Every customer has different requirements regarding who needs to interact with the document
and in what order, so there are a number of workflow features available in the Send page
interface you should know about.
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Recipients Section
Sending an agreement starts with defining the recipients and the order in which they gain access
to interact with the document.
In the Recipients section, the very top switch asks you select the basic signature order:
• When Complete in Order is selected (as shown above), a sequential signing process is
observed from one signing step to the next and recipients are numbered to indicate the
exact participation order
o Within the sequential steps, it is possible to define steps that allow:
A subset of signers to sign in parallel (Hybrid Workflow)
A group of people, any one of which can participate on behalf of the entire group
(Recipient Group)
• When Complete in Any Order is enabled, parallel signing can take place and recipients are
not numbered to indicate that there is no specific participation order.
To the right of the signature order switch, you will see two links:
• Add Me – Click this link to include yourself as the next recipient in the participation order
• Add Recipient Group – Click this link to create a group of recipients where one needs to
participate on behalf of the entire group. For example, create a group for the HR team,
where only one person from HR actually needs to sign the agreement.
Note: To change the order of the recipients, you can click and drag the recipients to the correct
stack order, or you can directly edit the numbers and the stack will adjust accordingly.
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Each recipient is created with five elements:
A. Participation Order – When Complete in Order is selected the participation order
provides a clear indication of when each recipient will interact with the agreement
B. Role – What do recipients need to do when they interact with the agreement?
• Signers (default)– Recipients that are expected to apply at least one signature
• Approvers – Recipients that review and approve the agreement, but may not be
required to sign
• Delegators – Recipients that are expected to know who needs to sign or approve.
Delegators can’t fill out any information and can’t sign or approve.
C. Email address – This is the recipient’s identifying email address and is used for all email
communication with the recipient, including the request to sign.
D. Authentication Methods – How should the recipient be vetted?
• Email (default) – Authentication is based on access to the email box
• Password – A sender generated alpha/numeric password that has to be
communicated to the recipient out of band
• Social – Authenticate using a third party social network like Facebook or LinkedIn
• KBA (USA only) – Knowledge Based Authentication requires the recipient to enter
their Social Security Number and then generates a number of non-trivial questions
based on public databases
• Phone – Requires the sender to supply the recipient’s phone number so an SMS code
can be sent when their signature is needed
E. Private Message (optional) – The sender can supply individual instructions to each
recipient which appear when the recipient is viewing the agreement
The Show CC link under the recipient list exposes a field where you can carbon copy (CC) any
email address that you want to view the agreement, without them having signing/approval
authority.
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Hybrid Workflows
A “Hybrid” workflow is an instance of the sequential participation order where one or more of the
steps includes two or more recipients gaining access to the document at the same time. All of the
signers/approvers of the “parallel” step will need to complete their part before the sequential
process moves to the next step.
For example, in the above image we have a three step signature cycle:
• Step 1 is fclarke@gmail.com. When the agreement is sent out for signature, only fclarke
will be notified. Once fclarke signs the document, we proceed to the next step.
• Step 2 is the hybrid step. You can see that all three recipients are given the same number
(2), and this means that Adobe Sign will notify all of these recipients at the same time.
They can apply their signatures in any order, but all of them must complete their part
before the signature cycle moves to the next step.
• Step 3 is another individual recipient, but this time they are defined as an Approver (the
check icon vs the pen tip). Once the “Step 3” recipient applies their approval, the
agreement is completed, it is fully executed, and all parties will be notified with a copy of
the agreement in PDF format.
To create a hybrid group, enter the email addresses of each party as if they were individual
recipients, and then click and drag the recipient field over another one in the hybrid group. You
will see on screen the message that you are creating a parallel group. Manually changing the
index numbers to the same value will also create the hybrid group.
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Recipient Groups
Recipient Groups are useful when you need sign-off from a team or an organization, but not from
a specific individual in that group. Any member in the group is authorized to sign or approve on
behalf of the entire group.
For example, in the above image you can see a three step signature cycle:
• Step 1 (JohnDoe) is a signer and will be notified that their signature is required as soon as
the agreement is sent. Once JohnDoe applies their signature, the agreement moves on to
step 2
• Step 2 is an approver Recipient Group given the name “HR Group”. Four individuals have
been entered into the group, and each has been given a different verification process (just
as an example). Once any one of the identified recipients applies their approval, the
agreement will progress to the third step
• Step 3 is an individual signer. Once this final signature is completed, the agreement is
fully executed, and all parties will be notified and receive a copy of the agreement in PDF
format.
To create a Recipient Group, click the Add Recipient Group link at the top-right of the recipient
field. This creates the container where you will be asked to enter the group name, and the
potential recipients
Note: All members of the Recipient Group will receive the final PDF copy of the signed
agreement even if they did not specifically participate.
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Message Section
The Message section contains two fields that can dramatically improve your success.
The Agreement Name field allows you to enter any string that will identify the agreement. This
string will populate in the Subject line of the recipients’ email (highlighted in yellow below), and
also as the name value on the Manage page. Providing a unique and meaningful agreement
name will help your recipients identify your email more readily, and can improve your ability to
search for the agreement if needed.
Note: If no agreement name is entered before a document is attached, the agreement name will
adopt the file name of the first file attached. This value can be edited until the agreement is sent.
The Agreement Message is a plain text field where you can enter any instructions or comments
that are warranted (highlighted in green below). This message appears on the Please Sign email
sent to all recipients (unlike the Private Message which only appears for the recipient it is
configured for).
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Message Templates
Enterprise level customers will have access to Message Templates which are configured by your
Administrator. Message templates are directly tied to the Recipient’s Language feature in the
Options sections, so when you select “Spanish” from the language drop-down, all of your Spanish
templates will become available.
Note: If you have a language selected that has no templates tied to it, the Message Template
option will not be visible on your Send page.
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Options Section
The Options section allows you to better control the agreement after it has been sent:
• Password Protect - Require recipients to enter a password to open and view the signed
PDF file. This password is defined by the sender and would be communicated out of
band. Adobe Sign does not record this password, so don’t forget it!
• Completion Deadline - Set the number of days after which the agreement expires and
can no longer be completed.
• Set Reminder - Set the frequency (daily or weekly) of reminders to be sent until the
agreement is completed. Only the current recipients will be notified
• Recipients' Language - Select the language to be used in emails sent to recipients and
during the signing experience.
o This setting also defines the visible Message Templates if your account is
configured to use them.
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Files Section
The File section is where you attach the documents to the transaction.
Adobe Sign will combine all documents into one inclusive PDF agreement for the signature
process, and will build that PDF based on the order that the documents are listed. Documents
can be rearranged by clicking and dragging one document to a new list location.
Files can be attached from the Adobe Sign library, Google docs, Box.net, Dropbox, uploaded from
your local system using file search, or you can drag and drop a file anywhere on the Send page.
File types allowed are: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, PDF, JPG, GIF, TIF, PNG, BMP, TXT,
RTF, HTML
Preview & Add Signature Fields
Just under the Files list you will see the Preview & Add Signature Fields check box. This option
allows you to open the documents that you upload and place form fields as needed on them.
You should place at least the signature fields, but there are many other fields you can use to
build complex forms if you like.
Note: If no signature fields are placed, Adobe Sign will automatically add a new page to
accommodate the signatures at the end of the document.
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Sending an Agreement to One Recipient
Sending a document to just one recipient is one of the most common agreement workflows and
a great way to learn the basic process. All you need is:
• The recipient’s email address
o This email must be different than the email you log in with (you cannot send to
yourself)
• A document or file that you want signed
1. Navigate to the Send page by clicking the Send tab, clicking the Get a Document Signed
link on the Dashboard page, or by selecting a library document and clicking the Start
button
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