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Participant
October 19, 2020
Question

Combining signed PDFs

  • October 19, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 550 views

Hi,

We have just started using Acrobat's fill and sign functionality in our organisation.

The process for creating orders means a purchase order form is completed and usually requires two or three signatures. When that's done, a formal purchase order can be raised. This then needs to be saved in the same file as the original purchase order form, but this can't be done because the file is finalised due to being signed. So the user currently takes a screen shot of the signed purchase order form and adds that to the same file as the formal purchase order. However, within the same file, an invoice and delivery note (if applicable), also signed, have to be added; the finance software allows only one file to be uploaded containing all of the above to be linked to one purchase order number). As each have to be signed, this means the user has to get PDFs sent out for signing and then has to screen shot them to add them all to the same PDF document for saving in the finance software.

An alternative we've considered is the use of a PDF Portfolio, but it seems these can't be viewed within a web browser, as as they're heavily dependent upon viewing these files from SharePoint, it makes things more complicated for them.

Does anyone have any solutions to how the above process can work better? Will purchasing licenses for the full Fill and Sign do what we need it to do?

Many thanks in advance for any words of wisdom!

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Legend
October 19, 2020

(Accidental reply to wrong forum removed. Sorry!)

Legend
October 19, 2020

This is a limitation of digital signatures, by design, not an accident, and completely non negotiable. The reason is that a digital signature is like a wrapper or seal around a complete file. There is no way at all to add other stuff (like more pages) without destroying the signature. On the other hand, if you have a system with no signature security (or security so weak that it accepts screen shots as proof), you can use stamps or scribbles and combine the files, so long as you don't digitally sign anything. Really, your system needs to accomodate a "paper trail" of PDFs, all attached to the work item, and kept separate.

Lisa5ED1Author
Participant
October 27, 2020

Thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately we have no way of changing other aspects of the system (we work in an LA-maintained school and are restricted by which finance software we use). I suspect Portfolios are the way forward but it's finding a way that they work well for us. The issue we have with them is users cannot view them within a web browser and have to open in Acrobat. I've shown users an easier way to do this i.e. link the SharePoint library in question within Acrobat, but this doesn't help users that need to view the Portolios and don't have Acrobat provisioning, unless there is some sort of browser extension available for Edge which will allow in-browser Portfolio viewing? (I appreciate this is not down to Adobe and is an issue on the browser-provider side of things!)

try67
Community Expert
Community Expert
October 19, 2020

It's impossible to do that and still maintain the signatures, unless you use a Portfolio.

Another option is to use a more distributed process of handling signatures, like Adobe Sign.

Lisa5ED1Author
Participant
October 27, 2020

Thanks for your reply. We are using Adobe Sign, but it's where different documents have to be signed at different stages and then combined. Portfolios will do this for us, but then they're not readily accessible within a web browser which causes further issues for those working with them, although I do think Portfolios are probably the best way forward.