Document certification settings

SigningHub lets you certify your digital signature. The certified signature is used to restrict the recipients to perform only the specific changes in a document, as the system won't allow them to perform any other changes. In this regard, the first signature of each document in a workflow package will be a certified digital signature that will determine the allowed permissions on the document, while the rest of the signatures will be normal digital signatures. A document having a certified digital signature is called a certified document.

The system might show the pre-selected options as laid out in your Enterprise Settings. (In the case of an Individual user, the options specified in the web.config file will be followed.) You may change the default settings as required before sharing.

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Certification preferences

Fields	Description
Certify with no changes	Select this option to disallow any changes to the document after the Certified Digital Signature has been applied. The recipients will not be able to add any annotation to the document, fill out PDF forms, or include additional signatures. This option is intended for documents requiring only one signature.
Certify with form filling and signing	Select this option to allow the recipients to only fill in PDF forms, and sign empty signature fields after the Certified Digital Signature has been applied. They will not be able to add any new annotations to the document. This option is intended for documents requiring one or more signatures.
Certify with form filling, signing and annotations	Select this option to allow the recipients to fill in PDF forms, sign empty signature fields, and add annotations to the document after the Certified Digital Signature has been applied. This option is intended for documents requiring one or more signatures.

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Certify a document

After you have added documents to a workflow package:

1. Click the 'Certify' option appearing in the options menu, against each document in a package which you want to certify.

2. Toggle on the 'Certify the document' option, and choose the required certification preference from the dropdown. For details, see the 'Certify options' table above.

3. Enable the 'Lock the document upon workflow completion', if you want to lock all the form fields of your document after the last signature. The document locking feature is specifically related to PDF documents with form fields. This checkbox will be disabled when the "Certify and allow no changes" option is selected from the above drop-down.

4. Click the 'Save' button.