Adding an Elec­tron­ic Sig­na­ture in Word

Elec­tron­ic sig­na­tures allow you to sign doc­u­ments from any­where in the world. Wheth­er it's a con­tract, a letter of agree­ment, or any of­fi­cial doc­u­ment, an elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture veri­fies your con­sent or ap­prov­al without having to print, phys­ic­ally sign, and scan the doc­u­ment.

The good news is, you can add an elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture dir­ectly in a Word doc­u­ment, which is per­fect for straight­for­ward doc­u­ments need­ing a sig­na­ture.

Elec­tron­ic Sig­na­tures Are Leg­ally Valid

In the UK and glob­ally, elec­tron­ic sig­na­tures are leg­ally valid for most doc­u­ments.

For very im­port­ant doc­u­ments, con­sider using an elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture plat­form like Aatos Sign, rather than Mi­crosoft Word to elec­tron­ic­ally sign the doc­u­ment.

These plat­forms provide an ex­e­cu­tion cer­ti­fic­ate for extra se­cur­ity, con­firm­ing who signed, when, and the exact doc­u­ment ver­sion that was signed.

How to Create an Elec­tron­ic Sig­na­ture in Word?

Below you can find a step-by-step in­struc­tions on how to add elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture to a Word doc­u­ment.

1. Pre­par­ing Your Doc­u­ment

Before you add your elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture in Word to a doc­u­ment, make sure it's all set for sign­ing:

• Fi­nal­ise the Con­tent: Double-check the doc­u­ment's con­tent, making sure everything is ac­cur­ate and as in­ten­ded. Once signed, making changes be­comes much more com­plic­ated.
• Layout Ad­just­ments: Make sure that there's enough space for your sig­na­ture. If you're using the sig­na­ture line fea­ture, place it at the end of the doc­u­ment or near the rel­ev­ant sec­tion.

2. In­sert­ing an Elec­tron­ic Sig­na­ture

If you’re won­der­ing how to make an elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture in Word, you have two op­tions:

1. to use the built-in sig­na­ture line fea­ture to create an elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture in Word, or
2. to insert a hand­writ­ten sig­na­ture as an image.

We'll provide in­struc­tions for both meth­ods.

Using the Built-In Sig­na­ture Line Fea­ture to Create an Elec­tron­ic Sig­na­ture in Word

1. Go to the "Insert" tab.
2. Click "Sig­na­ture Line" in the "Text" group.
3. Fill in the signer’s de­tails in the pop-up box and click "OK".
4. Double-click the sig­na­ture line in the doc­u­ment to sign.

In­sert­ing a Hand­writ­ten Sig­na­ture as an Image

1. Sign a piece of paper and scan or pho­to­graph it.
2. Save the image to your com­puter.
3. In Word, go to "Insert" > "Pic­tures" and select your sig­na­ture image.
4. Resize and po­s­i­tion the image where you want your sig­na­ture.

3. Saving and Shar­ing

Once signed, save your doc­u­ment as a PDF to pre­vent fur­ther edit­ing. You can do this by click­ing “File” > “Save As” and then using the drop-down menu for the doc­u­ment format. Where it says “word doc­u­ment (*.docx), select PDF (*.pdf) in­stead.

Make sure that you only share the signed PDF via secure means. Email is con­veni­ent, but con­sider en­cryp­ted ser­vices for sens­it­ive doc­u­ments. You’re also able to pass­word pro­tect your PDF for an extra layer of se­cur­ity if you wish.

And that’s how to add an elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture in Word.

💡 The use of e-sig­na­tures is ex­pec­ted to grow by 25% in the next decade.

Lim­it­a­tions and Con­sid­er­a­tions for Adding Elec­tron­ic Sig­na­ture in Word

While adding an elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture in Word is straight­for­ward, there are lim­it­a­tions.

Firstly, there are always se­cur­ity con­cerns. Word doc­u­ments can be altered, which might com­prom­ise the in­teg­rity of your sig­na­ture. That’s why it’s safer to save the doc­u­ment as a PDF.

Secondly, if the doc­u­ment is edited after sign­ing, it could call into ques­tion the sig­na­ture's valid­ity.

Using Word's sig­na­ture fea­ture works for some situ­ations, but for more im­port­ant and bind­ing agree­ments, using a ded­ic­ated elec­tron­ic sig­na­ture solu­tion that offers ad­di­tion­al se­cur­ity and veri­fic­a­tion meas­ures is a no-brain­er.

Easier Al­tern­at­ives for eSign

Moving past the basics, let's ex­plore a top-notch al­tern­at­ive for your esig­na­ture needs: Aatos Sign.

Aatos Sign plat­form takes the concept of elec­tron­ic sig­na­tures a few steps fur­ther, of­fer­ing a blend of se­cur­ity, ef­fi­ciency, and legal com­pli­ance that Word simply can't match.

Why Choose Aatos Sign?

✅ En­hanced Se­cur­ity: Aatos Sign en­sures your doc­u­ments and sig­na­tures are pro­tec­ted with top-level en­cryp­tion, keep­ing your sens­it­ive in­form­a­tion safe from un­au­thor­ised access.

✅ Ease of Use: Forget about the fuss of print­ing, sign­ing, and scan­ning. Aatos Sign allows you to sign doc­u­ments di­git­ally in just a few clicks, saving you time and hassle.

✅ Legal Com­pli­ance: Rest easy know­ing that Aatos Sign ad­heres to UK and in­ter­na­tion­al laws re­gard­ing elec­tron­ic sig­na­tures, en­sur­ing your doc­u­ments are leg­ally bind­ing.

How Does Aatos Sign Work?

1. Upload your doc­u­ment to Aatos Sign's secure plat­form.
2. Spe­cify the sign­ees and where they need to sign.
3. Each party re­ceives a no­ti­fic­a­tion to sign the doc­u­ment di­git­ally.
4. Once all sig­na­tures are col­lec­ted, every­one gets a copy of the signed doc­u­ment for their re­cords.

Wheth­er you're run­ning a busi­ness or hand­ling per­son­al mat­ters, Aatos Sign stream­lines the sign­ing pro­cess while en­sur­ing your doc­u­ments stay secure and leg­ally sound. It's an ideal solu­tion for anyone look­ing to mod­ern­ise their doc­u­ment man­age­ment system.