Fill & Sign Greyed Out. What can i

[jackiem12659037]

Hi there,

I'm trying to sign a document that has been signed by another party by using the 'Fill & Sign' tool but the icon is greyed out and it won't allow me to sign. Why and what can I do to add my signature as another signature? I am using Adobe Acrobat Pro DC.

Thanks

Jackie

[Adorobat · Accepted solution]

Hi Jackie,

It seems the first signature has effectively locked down the PDF. In order for you to sign over the top of another persons signature, you would need to have blank signature fields (one for you AND another user) already placed in the PDF before the first signature is signed.

You may also try signing pdf using digital ID. Please visit this link for more info on: Digital IDs in Acrobat

Let us know if you need any help.

Shivam

[Ron in VA]

Good to know that we need to put in all of the blank signature fields up front.  The question becomes how to do it.  Sure you can go into Tools-Fom and hit the 10th icon across to insert the signature fields.  However, I have found it easiest just to sign the form digitally in every location that I want a signature.  Then I right click on the signature field or fields that need to be signed by others.  I choose “Clear Signature” on each block that I want cleared. I am then left with a signature in the slot I want and open signature fields for others to sign in.

[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.

[william11]

Juanmadg Thank you so much!  Very frustrating going through all these forums telling you to use the Fill and Sign tab when its greyed out and your Certificates direction worked.  Thanks again!

[ideation123]

You are a lifesaver, exactly the info I needed.

[Christopherjonas100]

Adobe - this is an incredibly counter-intuitive process!  This is really an issue, just fix it. 

[kellieangel99]

Juanmadg = LIFESAVER!!!!!  I have been trying to get this figured out for a few weeks now!  Was about to go postal on Adobe.  Thank you!  

[Heather Watson]

@juanmadg you are a hero among men.  Thank you for saving me a lot of time today. 

[tim.mckenna]

may have to Review first.

UI may appear to have greyed out all buttons, but some may be active like "Review"

See Preferences > Signatures > Creation & Appearance > Prevent Signing Until Warnings Are Reviewed.

[fifi la bonne]

OMG this had been driving me crazy for ages. I always had to be the first signer for every doc. Now the problem is solved! Certificate!!!

Thanks you for ever!

[decio.emiliano]

Thanks a lot, JUANMADG.

Adobe, kindly find a solution to simplify this process, the users cannot lose hours in 2020 for inserting an e-signature...thanks

[lydiadetello]

Thanks Juanmadg. For me, certificates were greyed out too.  I solved this by open the pdf in chrome, then printing it to pdf. It unlocked everything for me.

[Ivo5E94]

Oh, my god, thank you very much! I'd buy you a beer!

[mpompey]

Thank you so much for posting this.

I must have wasted an hour before hitting the Internet to find out

what I was doing wrong.

I guess Acrobat's latest update change or removed some functionality

regarding this. 

But your message was exactly what I needed to do. Thanks!

...

MP

[Michele_B]

I spent too much time on this issue, I was supposed to work instead of googling all morning, Adobe fix your user interface!

[sarahc22]

I've tried the Certificates tool and even the Digitally Sign tool is greyed out.  Validate All Signatures doesn't do anything.  This is so frustrating!  Help!

[sandeep5E2A]

i also have the same problem.

If u rectified it can u please share with me how u did?

[Stuart5FB0]

lifehack i'd also buy you a beer but we are now in lockdown 3.0

great clear explanation of problem

clear workaround

once I had read your'e workaround I had a 20 page pdf digitally-signed in < 20 mins.

[ronaldc22414896]

OMG- I just wasted an afternoon trying to figure this out! Thanks so much for this, it saved the day!

[Andreas2235166408v1]

To me, working with e-Sign is nothing but a tremendous waste of time. It's outrageous that Abobe even has the audacity to market sh** like this. Why does this need to be so complicated Adobe?

[Fabio257192891a55]

@juanmadg , where have you been all my life???

[idefaye]

thank you. I can't believe that after 3 years Adobe still hasn't fixed this. You would expect using a digital form would be easier than paper nowadays.

[defaultkettm7gx6cxz]

Thaaaaank you! This issue drives me crazy. I typically convert the PDF to a Word doc to get rid of the security settings that won't let me use Fill & Sign. Then I re-convert it to a PDF and can sign. I'm starting to have to sign more high-level documents and can't be removing security features on PDFs. I've spent so many hours banging my head against this problem in the past few months. Finally, a way to do it! Thank you thank you thank you! 

[LarissaSoto]

Where is "Certificates"???