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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?

New Here ,
Oct 01, 2015 Oct 01, 2015

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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?

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Oct 01, 2015 Oct 01, 2015

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

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Community Expert ,
Oct 01, 2015 Oct 01, 2015

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

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New Here ,
Oct 01, 2015 Oct 01, 2015

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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?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 01, 2015 Oct 01, 2015

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‌Reader extend the form.

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New Here ,
Oct 02, 2015 Oct 02, 2015

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We have changed to save the PDF as Reader Extended to get around this. My understanding is that we should not have to reader extend the form to be able to sign it in DC - that version should just work on regular PDFs (not reader extended). So - is there some kind of bug in DC, or has that functionality been removed so you have to reader extend the form for all versions of Reader, including DC?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 02, 2015 Oct 02, 2015

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Did you create the form in Acrobat or LiveCycle Designer?

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New Here ,
Oct 05, 2015 Oct 05, 2015

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The document was originally created in MS Word and saved as a PDF. It was then opened with Acrobat and saved as a Reader Extended document. After that, LiveCycle Designer was used to add the signature locations and saved. The last thing that was done before the user with Reader DC got it was that another user opened it with Acrobat to sign his part and then just saved it. Is that where things went wrong? Even opening it with Adobe do sign the document and saving it would negate the reader enablement?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 05, 2015 Oct 05, 2015

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Add the signature field with Acrobat, not LiveCycle Designer.

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New Here ,
Oct 05, 2015 Oct 05, 2015

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OK. That seems to work when having a single signature on the PDF. The original form we were having trouble with has multiple signature lines and progression logic that had to be added using LiveCycle Designer. Basically, so each part of the form is activated only for the person who is next to sign (based on the previous form being signed). In this circumstance, do we just have to always save it as reader extended to make everything work in Reader DC, or is there something else that needs to be done to make it so Reader DC can sign these types of documents?

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Community Expert ,
Oct 05, 2015 Oct 05, 2015

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I don't use LiveCycle Designer.

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New Here ,
Jan 16, 2019 Jan 16, 2019

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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.

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New Here ,
Apr 01, 2020 Apr 01, 2020

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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. 

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New Here ,
May 21, 2021 May 21, 2021

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Thanky you from the future! You have saved me many hours of searching!

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New Here ,
Aug 27, 2021 Aug 27, 2021

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Thanks a milion for mentioning this here! Took me an hour searching why I cannot sign the document with my certificate. Using "Fill & Sign" seemed as an obvious option but you are right. You have to use side panel > More Tools > Certificates.  Such a shame that the "Certificates" option is not even present in the standard old-school menu.

I think I had the same problem a year ago... Really unintuitive from Adobe 😞

 

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New Here ,
Jan 25, 2022 Jan 25, 2022

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This should be the highlighted answer

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New Here ,
Nov 10, 2022 Nov 10, 2022

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Certificates is also greyed out for me.

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New Here ,
Feb 03, 2023 Feb 03, 2023

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Certificates is also greyed out for me ... none of the options are available: Digitally Sign, Time Stamp, Validate All Signatures

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New Here ,
Mar 23, 2023 Mar 23, 2023

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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?

 

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