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What your signers see

Signers get four screens and no account. Knowing what they see is how you answer "what do I do now" on the phone, and how you write a message that gets the thing signed.

Each signer gets an email with a link of their own. It opens the document in their browser: no sign-up, no password, nothing to install. Whoever opens the link signs as that person, so ask them not to forward it.

The message you typed when you sent the request is in that email. A line saying what the document is and why it needs signing does more for your completion rate than anything else you can do.

The first screen shows the document's name, your company as the sender, your message, and the electronic-signature consent.

They have to tick the consent box before Continue does anything. That tick is recorded with a timestamp and their IP address, and it is what makes the signature stand up later. It appears in your audit timeline as Consent accepted.

Screen two, their marks​

Next they make their marks, on one screen headed Capture your marks. Your signature and Your initials sit side by side, so they can see which one they are doing. Your initials only appears if the document has initial fields for them.

Each panel has three ways to make the mark:

Draw is a box to draw in, with a mouse or a finger. On a phone this is the one everybody uses.

Type takes their name and renders it in a handwriting font they pick.

Upload takes an image of a real signature, PNG or JPEG, up to 2 MB.

They do this once and it is reused for every field of that kind in the document. Continue waits until every mark is done.

Smile and Sign on the capture screen​

If Allow Smile and Sign was on when you sent the request, the capture screen has two tabs: Draw or type your signature and Smile and Sign.

Smile and Sign takes a selfie instead. They tick to agree to the photo being kept as proof that they signed, then choose Start camera, fit their face in the oval and choose Take photo. A device with no camera lets them choose a photo instead. The one photo stands in for their signature and their initials, and it shows in your audit timeline as Selfie captured.

If the browser blocks the camera, Draw your signature instead takes them back to the other tab.

Screen three, signing the document​

Then they see the document itself, with a marker on every field that belongs to them: Sign here for a signature, Initial for an initial, Date for the date, which fills itself in.

Two arrow buttons take them to the previous or next of their fields, and a count such as "1 of 3 signed" shows how far they have got. Finish and submit only works once every required field is filled, so they cannot half-sign something.

Only their own fields are stamped. A document with three signers shows each of them their own boxes.

Screen four, done​

The last screen confirms it: they will get a copy when everyone has signed. It lists the other signers by name and says how many are still to go, so nobody has to ask you what happens next.

Nothing is emailed to them at this point. The signed copy goes out when the last person signs.

Download the signed copy​

When everyone has signed and the document is sealed, each signer gets an email with a link to their copy. The link opens You've already signed, with Download signed document to save the sealed PDF.

Declining​

Decline to sign sits on every screen up to the point they submit, and next to Finish and submit on the document itself. They give a reason, confirm, and the screen tells them you have been notified.

If they open their link again afterwards, they see Decline recorded rather than the document. See void a request or handle a decline.

A link that has expired, or has been replaced by a newer email, opens Signing link unavailable, with a message saying the link is invalid and to contact the sender.

If the request is still Sent, resending from the request issues a fresh link. If it has Expired, send a new request. See track signatures and send reminders.

Somebody who has already signed and opens their link again gets You've already signed rather than a second chance to sign.

Reloading the link over and over in a short space can lock it for up to a minute, and the error can look like a dead link. Ask them to wait a minute and try once more before you send a new one.

What you control on these screens​

There is no branding, no logo and no wording to set on the signer's screens. What you control is the document itself, the request name, the message in the email, and whether Allow Smile and Sign offers the selfie option on the capture screen.