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Bill J PDI
Participant
October 1, 2015
Answered

Digitally sign is greyed out in Reader DC unless the document was saved with Reader Extended PDF - Enable More Tools option in Acrobat. Is the functionality to sign without Reader Extended options broken, or has it been removed?

  • October 1, 2015
  • 4 replies
  • 94212 views

If we simply save a PDF document, users with Reader DC can not sign it because the "Digitally sign" option across the top of the Certificates bar is greyed out. According to other information I have read, the ability to sign using older versions of Reader require the PDF to be saved as a Reader Extended PDF with the Enable More Tools option. If I save the document this way, our DC users can sign it. We are running the latest version (2015.008.20082). Has this functionality - the ability to fill/sign a regular (non Reader Extended PDF) document - been removed from the later versions, or is this a bug that has not been reported or fixed yet?

    Correct answer juanmadg

    Hi,

    Just in case anyone suffers the same problem and, eventually, drops by this post as I did and it doesn't give a clue of what you can be doing wrong... I've been loosing what I felt like a long part of yesterday's afternoon trying to sign a pdf document with the Fill & Sign (as mentioned above) or Review and Sign (as I've read it elsewhere)... all of the symptons are there (greyed out sign, no hand icon where you are supposed to sign, etc, etc...). Well, the case, is you don't have to go to 'Fill & Sign' or 'Review and Sign' but you should go to 'Certificates' then you will see a different toolbar with a Digitally Sign pen (plus other options) instead of the greyed out... That did the trick for me. Hope it helps... Adobe... please clarify your user interface... in its current form it leads to confussion.... it would be much better for example to group all signing options in the same bar (so you can have 'digitally sign' and 'sign' side to side... either of the two will be active... howda! alas! so much time saved! (sumup the time of every user that was asking for this here and at lots of blogs in the internet and the one of those who didn't ask, all in desperation)

    Thank you. Best regards.

    4 replies

    L
    LakeridgeHealthFoundation
    Participant
    August 28, 2024

    Hi, I created a pdf form and it has various answer boxes like comment, radio buttons, and check boxes. I also added the Signature Field. It is saved as a Reader Extendable PDF. Two issues, it only opens for me on my mobile phone (Google pixel 😎 in Firefox. I can fill in the answers and click checkboxes and radio buttons EXCEPT the signature field is greyed out. I would hate to send this to my clients like this. Please help on how to fix the greyed out signature field and the fact that I can only open in Firefox.  

    S
    Shari29032208tng9
    Participant
    March 23, 2023

    My boss is running into the same issue with not being able to digitally sign my PDF. I did notice that when I'm in version Adobe Acrobat Reader DC I am able to digitally sign my documents after clicking on Certificates and Open. But my boss is unable to sign the same document using Adobe Acrobat Reader Pro. I would think that the Pro version would have more functionality than the standard DC version, but when she opens in Pro, and click's 'more tools', and 'Certificates', The 'Digitally Sign' option is grayed out. Can some one please help me?

     

      C
      Charmeen37998326fzyk
      Participant
      June 12, 2024

      I have the same issue as user above, whereby I am unable to sign a document using Adobe Acrobat Reader Pro.  When I open document in Pro, and click on 'more tools', and 'Certificates', The 'Digitally Sign' option is grayed out.

      Can some one please advise?

        R
        randy_2096
        Participant
        August 12, 2024

        For my case, I just needed to digitally sign a tax form and had the same issue as you with everything listed grayed out. All I did was right click and select "Sign yourself". Only thing is I'm not 100% sure it's considered a "certified digital signature". I noticed on the right toolbar in the desktop app if you select the felt tip pen icon it doesn't list the signature under that and if you click the triple boxes a prompt asks "Are you sure you want to validate all signatures?" which might be relevant for a "certified digital signature".

        J
        juanmadgCorrect answer
        Participant
        January 16, 2019

        Hi,

        Just in case anyone suffers the same problem and, eventually, drops by this post as I did and it doesn't give a clue of what you can be doing wrong... I've been loosing what I felt like a long part of yesterday's afternoon trying to sign a pdf document with the Fill & Sign (as mentioned above) or Review and Sign (as I've read it elsewhere)... all of the symptons are there (greyed out sign, no hand icon where you are supposed to sign, etc, etc...). Well, the case, is you don't have to go to 'Fill & Sign' or 'Review and Sign' but you should go to 'Certificates' then you will see a different toolbar with a Digitally Sign pen (plus other options) instead of the greyed out... That did the trick for me. Hope it helps... Adobe... please clarify your user interface... in its current form it leads to confussion.... it would be much better for example to group all signing options in the same bar (so you can have 'digitally sign' and 'sign' side to side... either of the two will be active... howda! alas! so much time saved! (sumup the time of every user that was asking for this here and at lots of blogs in the internet and the one of those who didn't ask, all in desperation)

        Thank you. Best regards.

          E
          elabarenholtz
          Participant
          April 1, 2020

          Thank you for this. Just a note for Mac users:you need to select the Tools tab and then you will see a Certificates icon. 

          Bernd Alheit
          Community Expert
          Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          October 1, 2015

          You can use Fill & Sign on documents without form fields.‌

          B
          Bill J PDIAuthor
          Participant
          October 1, 2015

          Thanks for this info Bernd. The Fill & Sign doesn't seem to work for us. There is a bar across the top that includes "You cannot save data typed into this form. Please print your completed form if you would like a copy for your records.", and the only options available in the Fill & Sign area are "Send & Track" and "Get others to sign". When we hover the mouse over the signature area, it changes to a finger - but no matter what we do (left click, right click) nothing happens and the digital signature is not added. Is there something else we are doing wrong?

          Bernd Alheit
          Community Expert
          Bernd AlheitCommunity Expert
          Community Expert
          October 1, 2015

          ‌Reader extend the form.

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