Getting started with Acrobat Sign

Getting started with Acrobat Sign is specifically for Business Enterprise users. This tutorial is broken into seven specific topics. Signing in, the homepage, setting up your profile, how to send a document, adding fillable fields, the signing experience, and finally accessing support and resources. Let’s start by logging into Acrobat Sign using a web browser on Adobe.com. All you need to do is select Sign In in the upper right corner of the page. Enter your Adobe ID or credentials and then select Open under Document Cloud. At this point you might be taken to the Acrobat Sign login page, directly into Acrobat Sign, or just like me, you might see a Go to Acrobat Sign link. If you land on the Sun page, just select the Home tab in the upper left corner. Let’s start by walking through all the elements of the homepage. At the top of the homepage you have shortcuts into all the documents that are in progress. Selecting this takes you directly to the Manage tab with In Progress documents selected. The Waiting for You link also goes to the Manage tab with all the documents that are waiting for your signature listed. And the bell is a link to all the events and alerts associated with your account. Here you can toggle between events and alerts. Events are actions that have occurred, like when someone has signed a document, and it’s a quick way to see the progress on a particular document. Alerts are actions that have not happened yet, like when a document has not been signed or even viewed. Anywhere you see a wrench, you can select it and you’re taken directly into the settings for that notification. Now going back to the homepage, there are two actions you’ll probably be using the most. Request e-signatures, which is exactly the same as selecting the Send tab. And Start from Library. At the bottom of the page you have quick access to Fill and Sign a Document, which is handy when you are assigning a document someone has sent you that you need to fill in. Publish a Web Form allows you to embed a signable document on your website. Send in Bulk allows you to click signatures from hundreds of signers at once. Next you have Create a Reusable Template, which can save you a lot of time. Manage and Track All Agreements is exactly the same as selecting the Manage tab. And the last tool, Enhance Your Account, takes you to the Settings and Profile section of your account. You can also select My Profile from the dropdown to enhance your account, which we’ll do right now. Completing your profile is the first thing you should do as a new user in Acrobat Sign. Select Edit Profile to complete the profile information. The only thing you cannot modify here is your first name or last name. This information comes from your Adobe ID login or Acrobat Sign administrator. You can also change your password here, specifically for Acrobat Sign. Walking down the column on the left, the next setting you’ll want to check are the My Notifications. These are the same events and notifications that we saw on the homepage. Instead of just seeing the alert on the homepage, you can also receive an email message for events that have happened, like when someone has viewed or signed a document. Below are alerts that you can set for events that have not happened yet. Perhaps you want to be notified when a document has not been signed after 24 hours, so you can set it here. Moving down the left column, the next section we’ll discuss is the My Signature section. This is where you can customize your personal signature. Selecting Create allows you to draw your signature using your mouse, which is pretty tricky, so I’ll go ahead and clear it. Or you can use an image or mobile, which allows you to capture your signature from your mobile device, which is probably easier than using a mouse. I’m going to select an image of my signature from the computer. Now, in addition to your signature, you can also create initials the same way, by drawing, using an image, or mobile device. I’ll go ahead again and select an image from my computer for my initials here. By setting your signature options here, the signature process will be quicker because everything is preset. Now let’s move on to sending a document. There are three ways to send a document. You can upload a document, send from a library, or send using a workflow. Workflows can significantly reduce errors, but they do require an administrator to set it up first. To start, let’s select Request e-signatures, or you can also select the Send tab. At the top, you enter the email addresses of your signers. You can also copy and paste multiple email addresses, which I’m going to do. If you need to sign the document as well, then select Add Me. The Add Recipient group is used when you want to send to a group of people and any one of them can sign, but they all don’t need to. I’ll create one called HR and copy and paste the HR emails again. And whoever sees the document first can sign on behalf of HR, which keeps the signature process moving along. Once you have your email addresses entered, there’s a lot of customization that you can do. First, you can change the role each signer plays using the dropdown next to their email address. By default, the pen is selected, which represents a signer. I’ll select an approver here. And if you’re not sure about a particular role, you can select the question mark to learn all about them. For example, the Delegator would be someone designated to sign on your behalf, which is useful if you plan on going on vacation and need to make sure documents are signed in a timely manner. After assigning roles, you can also change the routing order of the signatures. You do this simply by dragging and dropping the recipient box into the order that you would like. Notice when you do this, the number changes in the left hand side. And when you drag a signature box on top of another, the signature will route in parallel or at the same time. You can also just type out the order directly in the number area. And if the order doesn’t matter, you can toggle this button so everyone receives the document at the same time for signature. Once you have your routing order set, you can also select the authentication method for each recipient. By default, email is selected, so recipients receive a link in an email message to sign a document. You can also choose other options. You can select a question mark to see details on each type of authentication. Be aware when using password that this information is not stored in the system, so if you forget this password, you won’t be able to recover it. Phone offers a second level of authentication beyond email. In the US specifically, you can use knowledge base authentication by providing name, address, and answering questions. The Acrobat sign option requires signers to have an actual Acrobat sign account. Normally, they wouldn’t need an account to sign a document. Next, you can specify that the signer would need to show proof of their identity by scanning a government ID on their mobile phone, something like a driver’s license. And last, you can use a third party identification verification when you select digital identity gateway. Now to remove a recipient, just click on the X in the box. Today we’ll be sending out a telework agreement, so I’ll use this title. You can include standard messages if your administrator has set them up. To include your document, select the add files link. You can upload PDF files, Microsoft Office files, and numerous other file formats like RTF, JPEG, and TIFF. You can upload a file from your computer, a library template, and other storage platforms like Box, Dropbox, Google, and OneDrive. The options you see here on the left hand side are dependent on what your administrator has turned on. A really easy way to add a file is just to drag and drop it in the box here as well. I’m going to go ahead and select this file from my computer. And once you have attached a file, you can set specific options for your file on the right. You can password protect the file. Just be sure to remember the passwords because this information is not stored in the system. You can set reminders that will be sent to recipients if the document isn’t signed. And you can also choose the language. This is the language that is used for the notification and emails, not the language of the document. Again, you can select the question mark to learn more about the document options. Now at the bottom, be sure to check preview and add signature fields. If you don’t, Acrobat Sign will automatically just add a signature field to the bottom of your document. We don’t want to do that. Instead, we want to place various fields in exact locations on the document. When you select next, the file is uploaded into Acrobat Sign. Here you’ll see the authoring environment. This is where you can add signature and various other types of fields. The blue button tells you that Adobe Sensei, the artificial intelligence in Acrobat Sign, is automatically detected locations on the document that are probably fields. Select the button to place them on the document, which will save you a lot of time. If this authoring environment is not the same as what you see, just select the link to switch to the new authoring environment. You can change and delete the fields that were automatically detected. If you need to add more fields, you can use the tools on the left to manually drag fields onto your document. Before you add a field, be sure to select the recipient’s email first. These are the emails that were entered in the previous page, and you can see them in the top left corner. Now many of the fields are self-explanatory, but I’ll call out a few. Under e-signature, in the dropdown you can add an e-signature field that also includes the fields for the signer’s email. Below you can add a checkbox or radio button. Radio buttons are different than checkboxes because they operate as a group, where you can select only one option in the group. At the bottom you can add a dropdown field or hyperlinks. Now many of the fields were auto-detected, but you’ll still need to double check them for accuracy. Double select a field to edit, and you can set more options here. For the telephone number, we’ll add validation to make sure the format of the number is entered correctly. We’ll set this field as an email field, which means the information will be automatically added to the system, again eliminating possible errors. We’ll turn this into an initial field, and then down at the bottom, make sure that the first signature and date fields are tied to the correct signer. And below, I’ll do the same. If it’s a work in progress, you can select save, but otherwise you can just hit the send button. After sending the document out for signature, you’ll see a confirmation page with several details. You’ll see any reminders that you’ve set and alerts. Remember, alerts are events that have not happened yet. At the bottom, there are links to send another document, manage this agreement, which takes you to the manage page, and to modify the agreement. Now that we’ve seen what it’s like to send a document, let’s take a look at what it’s like for someone to sign a document that you’ve sent them. I’m here in Outlook, and a signer just selects on the review and sign link, and the document opens in another window. Where they simply follow the yellow start button. Signers don’t need to be logged in or to be licensed for Acrobat Sign at all. The experience is seamless. I quickly fill out the form fields. Notice how my email is automatically entered, and I’ll add some initials. When you get down to the signature, they’ll be able to type, draw, use an image, or sign from a mobile device. I’ll just type my signature, and the date will automatically be entered from the system. And then select click to sign, and that’s it. A copy of the final agreement is emailed to all the parties involved. Now let’s take a look at how to manage the files you’ve sent on the manage page. On the left rail, you’ll see a list of all the transactions you’ve been involved with. From those documents that are in progress, waiting for your signature, completed, canceled, expired, and even in draft. Then toward the bottom, you can see any templates, web forms, or bulk sends you’ve initiated. You can also use a filter to find documents by date range. Now what you see in the right hand pane will change depending on what selection you’re in. Let’s go ahead and select a completed document from this list to see what you can manage about the transaction. At the top you’ll see the name, date, status, and anyone that was cc’d. Under the action section, you can open the agreement, download a PDF of the agreement, or open an audit report of the agreement. Audit reports have valuable insight on each transaction. Let’s open one to see the detailed history of the transaction. Here you can see when and who created the form, who completed it, exactly when it was signed, and even the authentication method. It’s a really valuable legal history of the transaction. Let’s go ahead and close this and go back to the actions you can perform in the right hand pane when a document is selected. For a completed document, you can export form data, if any exists in the document, hide an agreement from the list, share it, send reminders, add notes, and open individual files if you had multiple files in your transaction. Below the actions is a list of everyone that received the document. And finally below that is a chain view of the activity for that particular document. Again, remember what you see here on the right changes depending on the document you have selected and the state of that document, like if it’s in progress or complete. And the final topic for today is how to access support resources from within the platform. You can access support resources by going to the question mark above your name and selecting the dropdown. Here you’ll find a user guide, tutorials, and a link to contact support. Each one of these links takes you out to the help or support page where you can start a live chat with us. Also under the question mark you can view release notes, which are detailed information about what’s new in the particular release of Acrobat Sign. To take quick product tours, just like the blue graduation cap. Now if you’re an administrator of Acrobat Sign, we encourage you to view the Getting Started with Acrobat Sign for Administrators tutorial on Experience League. We hope you found this tutorial valuable for getting started with Acrobat Sign.