adding an electronic signature to a document

  • Thread starter Thread starter cherin
  • Start date Start date
C

cherin

I have a form created in ms word 2003 that will be completed then authorized
by the user. Rather than print the form, manually complete and sign we would
like to do it all electronically. Any suggestions on how I can set it up for
electronic signature?
 
Where to begin...

First, you have to understand that there is a difference between 'digital
signatures' as discussed in the Word Help topics and what you are trying to
achieve. Therefore, there is no "native" functionality to support your
concept of an "electronic" signature. The best you can do is to insert an
image of someone's signature into a document.

There may be several ways to do this, but probably the easiest is to set up
a series of AutoText entries that contain the signature images. Then you
would need some sort of mechanism to insert the appropriate image in the
correct location in the document. This can probably best accomplished by
using a macro, although it could be done manually. The advantage of a macro
is that you can more tightly control which AutoText entry is inserted -
usually by evaluating the value in a form field to determine who the
"author" of document is.

It's not all that complicated, but if your macro skills aren't the best you
may struggle a bit with the coding; it's not really something that you
record a macro for and then just tie it to a toolbar button.

Anyway, I hope this gives you an idea of how your stated goal could be
accomplished. If you want more detail, please post back.
--
Cheers!

Gordon Bentley-Mix
Word MVP

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