There’s a built-in feature in Microsoft Word that allows users to sign a document electronically. Electronic signatures or e-signatures are nothing but a digitalized form of paper-based signatures and make signing quite easier. This article is a step-by-step guide on how to add signature in word for free, with Docusign and PandaDoc.
People find e-signatures much better as it makes the document look more professional, and it’s crucial in the business world. In the previous guide, I demonstrated how to remove section breaks in a word document, have a look at that if that’s something you are looking into as well.
Why use e-signatures?
E-signatures are a lot faster than compared to traditional signatures as you need not sign the document physically and scan the paper before sending it online somewhere. It would help if you created an e-signature once, and you can use it anytime in the future to sign a document.
E-signatures come quite in handy when you are frequently sending documents. Digital signatures can also be encrypted, and it is safe to use them in sensitive documents.
How To Add Signature In Word Document Using Docusign
Microsoft Word is widely used by the business world and individuals to create documents. Because of its high usage, many people prefer e-signatures to enhance their document processing and efficiency. One thing you need to check is checking whether the organization or wherever you’re sending the document supports e-signature.
READ: How To Electronically Sign A PDF File
Now let’s look at the steps you need to follow to sign a Word document:
Install DocuSign
- First things first, install DocuSign.
- Go to the “insert” tab and look for “Get add-ins.” This will lead you to the office store.
- Search for DocuSign. Click “add DocuSign” and confirm the installation. This won’t cost you a thing.
- After adding DocuSign, you will see a new option called “DocuSign.”
- Click on “DocuSign” and choose “sign a document.”
You will have to create a free account on DocuSign before you can continue. Please bear in mind that the final product after signing a word file will be a PDF file.
- Click “Create Account”
Create your account for free in DocuSign for a free trial. It also allows you to send forms and contracts to others for signature with no credit card required
- Enter your details and click on “ACTIVATE”
- You will receive an email to activate the DocuSign and create a password
- Once that’s done go back to the document that you would like to digitally sign and log in
- It will start uploading the document and will open a new window once done
- Click on “Signature” from the options on the left-hand side of the window
- Click on the place where you would like to place the signature. But you can also move the signature later
- You can either select the style you would like or draw one with the mouse or a pen if you are using a touch screen device
- Once you have selected the type of signature you would like to use for the document, click on “ADOPT AND SIGN”
- Now the signature is placed on the document, you can move around and place it perfectly as you prefer
- After placing the signature perfectly, click on “FINISH”
- If you would like to send it to someone, enter the details and send it or just click on “NO THANKS”
- The document you just signed is saved to your DocuSign account
- Click on the “Download Document” if you would like to download the signed document and it will send the file as an email on your designated email account
READ: How To Type Exponents On Word, Powerpoint, Excel
How To Add Signature In Word File With PandaDoc
PandaDoc is a fantastic application that allows you to do so much more than DocuSign. DocuSign can be a bit confusing and there are more steps involved when you are quickly getting to get a document signed.
PandaDoc is an online service that allows you to quickly sign and send or download a word document.
First you need to start by creating a free acount on PandaDoc as you would on the DocuSign.
Signing a word document using PandaDoc:
- Open the document in PandaDoc. You can either drag or drop the document or upload it directly from the storage.
- Select and drag the signature field wherever you want in the document. You can also add some other fields if you like.
- Choose the recipients and click “send”
- Recipients receive an email, and they just need to click the signature field and upload or draw their signatures
- With updating the sender’s document automatically PandaDoc makes the document more legitimate, by creating a digital certificate showing date and digital ID.
READ: How To Sign A PDF Document electronically
Limitations of using Microsoft Word
Imagine you have to send a business proposal to some client, and you have to create a document, electronically sign it, and then send it to multiple recipients.
The clients receive the document, and then after going through the document, they will decide, and if they are interested, they will sign it and revert the documents. To put it in a much simpler way, you send a document to targeted clients and then see how they react to that document before signing. Sadly, this isn’t possible with Word.
The Biggest drawback is that Word is not the fastest way to electronically sign a document. It’s not an issue if you are not sending documents daily, but for companies that need to work with an enormous volume of data, it’s time-consuming.
Finally
Microsoft Word is widely used for creating documents both for businesses and individuals, but still, it’s not one of the best software for electronically signing any document.
Hope all your queries regarding how to add signature in word have been cleared out. If you have any further questions or if you run into any issues, please leave a comment down below.
There is plenty of software dedicated to creating e-signatures and adding them to the documents. Alternatives like DocuSign and PandaDoc make e-signatures look easy, and it surely enhances your efficiency of creating, sending, and closing tons of documents with ease.
