Warning When Signing PDF Form Document

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
October 27, 2025
3 replies
1439 views

I have created a form in Adobe Acrobat Pro with a digital signature. It has several fields, including text boxes, drop-downs, and radio buttons, but no JavaScript. The last field is a Digital signature. When the user signs the form, it locks the form and saves it to a new file. The problem is that the user receives the following warning when they are signing the document.

“This document contains constructs which could affect its appearance. Review it before proceeding.”

I’m looking for a method to prevent/remove the warning.

N

nitish_6906

Adobe Employee

Thanks @Playful_uniqueness2723

We appreciate your response on this. Your feedback has been noted and taken up for discussion at our end(ADC-4534781).

P

Playful_uniqueness2723Author

Participant

I am attaching test.pdf, a document that shows the warning, and test_warning.png, a screenshot of the warning.

test.pdf

N

nitish_6906

Adobe Employee

Hi @Playful_uniqueness2723
The “Review” step before signing is intended to give users a quick look at certain dynamic elements in a document . This step has long been part of certifying signatures and was recently extended to approval signatures as well. We added it to help users stay informed about these elements before signing.

You can turn off this warning message using below steps:
Preferences(Ctrl+K) -> Signatures -> Creation & Appearance -> More
and then changing the value of Enable Review of Document Warnings to "When certifying a document" or "Never" as per your requirements.

MikelKlink

Participating Frequently

The “Review” step before signing is intended to give users a quick look at certain dynamic elements in a document . This step has long been part of certifying signatures and was recently extended to approval signatures as well. We added it to help users stay informed about these elements before signing.

Hi Nitish,

It surely is good to offer users the option to check for unexpected dynamics in a document they sign.

But the message you show - "This document contains constructs which could affect its appearance." - is misleading as it seems to imply that there is something special about this document that makes reviewing necessary while apparently you currently display that message for any document.

Doing it like this, i.e. trying to scare people into pressing the review button, IMO will eventually achieve the opposite: Yes, at the start more people may be scared into pressing the button, but when they only see the "This document does not contain any content that may affect its visual integrity" popup again and again thereafter, you'll eventually teach them that the scary message can be ignored and so can the Review button.

If you'd formulate it less scary and more rational - e.g. "PDF documents may contain constructs which could affect its appearance." - you probably will get fewer users who press review at the start. But as they do so based on a more rational decision, they IMO are more likely to keep reviewing even if only seeing that all-is-well popup again and again.

MikelKlink

Participating Frequently

Please share the document for analysis.

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