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Automatic field detection after uploading a document

 

Adobe Acrobat Sign Guide

What's New

  1. Pre-Release Notes
  2. Release Notes
  3. Important Notifications

Get Started

  1. Quick start guide for administrators
  2. Quick start guide for users
  3. For Developers
  4. Video tutorial library
  5. FAQ

Administer

  1. Admin Console Overview
  2. User Management
    1. Adding users
      1. Add a User
      2. Add Users in Bulk
      3. Add Users from your Directory
      4. Add Users from MS Azure Active Directory
    2. Create function-focused users
      1. Technical accounts - API driven
      2. Service accounts - Manually driven
    3. Check for users with provisioning errors
    4. Change Name/Email Address
    5. Edit a user's group membership
    6. Edit a user's group membership through the group interface
    7. Promote a user to an admin role
    8. User Identity Types and SSO
    9. Switch User Identity
    10. Authenticate Users with MS Azure
    11. Authenticate Users with Google Federation
    12. Product Profiles
    13. Login Experience 
  3. Account/Group Settings
    1. Settings Overview
    2. Global Settings
      1. Account tier and ID
      2. New Recipient Experience
      3. Self Signing Workflows
      4. Send in Bulk
      5. Web Forms
      6. Custom Send Workflows
      7. Power Automate Workflows
      8. Library Documents
      9. Collect form data with agreements
      10. Limited Document Visibility
      11. Attach a PDF copy of the signed agreement 
      12. Include a link in the email
      13. Include an image in the email
      14. Files attached to email will be named as
      15. Attach audit reports to documents
      16. Merge multiple documents into one
      17. Download individual documents
      18. Upload a signed document
      19. Delegation for users in my account
      20. Allow external recipients to delegate
      21. Authority to sign
      22. Authority to send
      23. Power to add Electronic Seals
      24. Set a default time zone
      25. Set a default date format
      26. Users in Multiple Groups (UMG)
        1. Upgrade to use UMG
      27. Group Administrator Permissions
      28. Replace recipient
      29. Audit Report
        1. Overview
        2. Allow unauthenticated access on the transaction verification page
        3. Include reminders
        4. Include view events
        5. Include agreement page/attachment count
      30. In Product Messaging and Guidance
      31. Accessible PDFs
      32. New authoring experience
      33. Healthcare customer
    3. Account Setup
      1. Add logo
      2. Customize company Hostname/URL    
      3. Add company name
      4. Post agreement URL redirect
    4. Signature Preferences
      1. Well formatted signatures
      2. Allow recipients to sign by
      3. Signers can change their name
      4. Allow recipients to use their saved signature
      5. Custom Terms of Use and Consumer Disclosure
      6. Navigate recipients through form fields
      7. Decline to sign
      8. Allow Stamps workflows
      9. Require signers to provide their Title or Company
      10. Allow signers to print and place a written signature
      11. Show messages when e-signing
      12. Require signers to use a mobile device to create their signature
      13. Request IP address from signers
      14. Exclude company name and title from participation stamps
    5. Digital Signatures
      1. Overview
      2. Download and sign with Acrobat
      3. Sign with Cloud Signatures
      4. Include metadata for Identity Providers
      5. Restricted Cloud Signatures Providers
    6. Electronic Seals
    7. Digital Identity
      1. Digital Identity Gateway
      2. Identity Check policy
    8. Report Settings
      1. New report experience
      2. Classic report settings
    9. Security Settings
      1. Single Sign-on settings
      2. Remember-me settings
      3. Login password policy
      4. Login password strength
      5. Web session duration
      6. PDF encryption type
      7. API
      8. User and group info access
      9. Allowed IP Ranges
      10. Account Sharing
      11. Account sharing permissions
      12. Agreement sharing controls
      13. Signer identity verification
      14. Agreement signing password
      15. Document password strength
      16. Block signers by Geolocation
      17. Phone Authentication
      18. Knowledge-Based Authentication (KBA)
      19. Allow page extraction
      20. Document link expiration
      21. Upload a client certificate for webhooks/callbacks
      22. Timestamp
    10. Send settings
      1. Show Send page after login
      2. Require recipient name when sending
      3. Lock name values for known users
      4. Allowed recipient roles
      5. Allow e-Witnesses
      6. Recipient groups
      7. Required fields
      8. Attaching documents
      9. Field flattening
      10. Modify Agreements
      11. Agreement name
      12. Languages
      13. Private messages
      14. Allowed signature types
      15. Reminders
      16. Signed document password protection
      17. Send Agreement Notification through
      18. Signer identification options
        1. Overview
        2. Signing password
        3. One-Time Password via Email
        4. Acrobat Sign authentication
        5. Phone authentication
        6. Cloud-based digital signature
        7. Knowledge-based authentication
        8. Government ID
        9. Signer Identity reports
      19. Content Protection
      20. Enable Notarize transactions
      21. Document Expiration
      22. Preview, position signatures, and add fields
      23. Signing order
      24. Liquid mode
      25. Custom workflow controls
      26. Upload options for the e-sign page
      27. Post-sign confirmation URL redirect
    11. Message Templates
    12. Bio-Pharma Settings
      1. Overview
      2. Enforce identity authentication
      3. Signing reasons
    13. Workflow Integration
    14. Notarization Settings
    15. Payments Integration
    16. Signer Messaging
    17. SAML Settings
      1. SAML Configuration
      2. Install Microsoft Active Directory Federation Service
      3. Install Okta
      4. Install OneLogin
      5. Install Oracle Identity Federation
    18. Data Governance
    19. Time Stamp Settings
    20. External Archive
    21. Account Languages
    22. Email Settings
      1. Email header/footer images
      2. Permit individual user email footers
      3. Customize the Signature Requested email
      4. Customize the To and CC fields
      5. Enable Linkless Notifications
      6. Customize email templates
    23. Migrating from echosign.com to adobesign.com
    24. Configure Options for Recipients
  4. Guidance for regulatory requirements
    1. Accessibility
      1. Accessibility Compliance
      2. Create accessible forms with Acrobat desktop
      3. Create accessible AcroForms
    2. HIPAA
    3. GDPR
      1. GDPR Overview
      2. Redact a user
      3. Redact a user's agreements    
    4. 21 CFR part 11 and EudraLex Annex 11
      1. 21 CRF part 11 validation pack
      2. 21 CFR and EudraLex Annex 11 handbook
      3. Analysis of shared responsibilities
    5. Healthcare customers
    6. IVES support
    7. "Vaulting" agreements
    8. EU/UK considerations
      1. EU/UK Cross-border transactions and eIDAS
      2. HMLR requirements for deeds signed electronically
      3. The impact of Brexit on e-signature laws in the UK
  5. Download Agreements in Bulk
  6. Claim your domain 
  7. Report Abuse links

Send, Sign, and Manage Agreements

  1. Recipient Options
    1. Cancel an email reminder
    2. Options on the e-signing page
      1. Overview of the e-sign page
      2. Open to read the agreement without fields
      3. Decline to sign an agreement
      4. Delegate signing authority
      5. Restart the agreement
      6. Download a PDF of the agreement
      7. View the agreement history
      8. View the agreement messages
      9. Convert from an electronic to a written signature
      10. Convert from a written to an electronic signature 
      11. Navigate the form fields
      12. Clear the data from the form fields
      13. E-sign page magnification and navigation
      14. Change the language used in the agreement tools and information
      15. Review the Legal Notices
      16. Adjust Acrobat Sign Cookie Preferences
  2. Send Agreements  
    1. Send page overview
    2. Send an agreement only to yourself
    3. Send an agreement to others
    4. Written Signatures
    5. Recipient signing order
    6. Send in Bulk
      1. Overview of the Send in Bulk feature
      2. Send in Bulk - Configure a parent template
      3. Send in Bulk - Configure the CSV file
      4. Cancel a Send in Bulk transaction
      5. Add reminders to Send in Bulk
      6. Reporting for Send in Bulk
  3. Authoring fields into documents
    1. In-app authoring environment
      1. Automatic field detection
      2. Drag and drop fields using the authoring environment
      3. Assign form fields to recipients
      4. The Prefill role
      5. Apply fields with a reusable field template
      6. Transfer fields to a new library template
      7. Updated authoring environment when sending agreements
    2. Create forms with text tags
    3. Create forms using Acrobat (AcroForms)
      1. AcroForm creation
      2. Creating accessible PDFs
    4. Fields
      1. Field types
        1. Common field types
        2. In-line Images
        3. Stamp Images
      2. Field content appearance
      3. Field validations
      4. Masked fields values
      5. Setting show/hide conditions
      6. Calculated fields 
    5. Authoring FAQ
  4. Sign Agreements
    1. Sign agreements sent to you
    2. Fill & Sign
    3. Self-signing
  5. Manage Agreements
    1. Manage page overview
    2. Delegate agreements
    3. Replace Recipients
    4. Limit Document Visibility 
    5. Cancel an Agreement 
    6. Create new reminders
    7. Review reminders
    8. Cancel a reminder
    9. Access Power Automate flows
    10. More Actions...
      1. How search works
      2. View an agreement
      3. Create a template from an agreement
      4. Hide/Unhide agreements from view
      5. Upload a signed agreement
      6. Modify a sent agreement's files and fields
      7. Edit a recipient's authentication method
      8. Add or modify an expiration date
      9. Add a Note to the agreement
      10. Share an individual agreement
      11. Unshare an agreement
      12. Download an individual agreement
      13. Download the individual files of an agreement
      14. Download the Audit Report of an agreement
      15. Download the field content of an agreement
  6. Audit Report
  7. Reporting and Data exports
    1. Overview
    2. Grant users access to reporting
    3. Report charts
      1. Create a new report
      2. Agreement Reports
      3. Transaction Reports
      4. Settings Activity Report
      5. Edit a report
    4. Data Exports 
      1. Create a new data export
      2. Edit a data export
      3. Refresh the data export content
      4. Download the data export
    5. Rename a report/export
    6. Duplicate a report/export
    7. Schedule a report/export
    8. Delete a report/export
    9. Check Transaction Usage

Advanced Agreement Capabilities and Workflows

  1. Webforms 
    1. Create a web form
    2. Edit a web form
    3. Disable/Enable a web form
    4. Hide/Unhide a web form
    5. Find the URL or script code 
    6. Prefill web form fields with URL parameters
    7. Save a web form to complete later
    8. Resize a web form
  2. Reusable Templates (Library templates) 
    1. US Government forms in the Acrobat Sign library
    2. Create a library template
    3. Change a library template's name
    4. Change a library template's type
    5. Change a library template's permission level
    6. Copy, edit, and save a shared template
    7. Download the aggregate field data for a library template
  3. Transfer ownership of web forms and library templates
  4. Power Automate Workflows 
    1. Overview of the Power Automate integration and included entitlements
    2. Enable the Power Automate integration
    3. In-Context Actions on the Manage page
    4. Track Power Automate usage
    5. Create a new flow (Examples)
    6. Triggers used for flows
    7. Importing flows from outside Acrobat Sign
    8. Manage flows
    9. Edit flows
    10. Share flows
    11. Disable or Enable flows
    12. Delete flows
    13. Useful Templates
      1. Administrator only
        1. Save all completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save all completed documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save all completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save all completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save all completed documents to Box
      2. Agreement archival
        1. Save your completed documents to SharePoint
        2. Save your completed documents to One Drive for Business
        3. Save your completed documents to Google Drive
        4. Save your completed documents to DropBox
        5. Save your completed documents to Box
      3. Webform agreement archival
        1. Save completed web form documents to SharePoint Library
        2. Save completed web form documents to OneDrive for Business
        3. Save completed   documents to Google Drive
        4. Save completed web form documents to Box
      4. Agreement data extraction
        1. Extract form field data from your signed document and update Excel sheet
      5. Agreement notifications
        1. Send custom email notifications with your agreement contents and signed agreement
        2. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in a Teams Channel
        3. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Slack
        4. Get your Adobe Acrobat Sign notifications in Webex
      6. Agreement generation
        1. Generate document from Power App form and Word template, send for signature
        2. Generate agreement from Word template in OneDrive, and get signature
        3. Generate agreement for selected Excel row, send for review and signature
  5. Custom Send workflows
    1. Custom Send Workflow Overview
    2. Creating a new Send Workflow
    3. Edit a Send Workflow
    4. Activate or Deactivate a Send Workflow
    5. Send an agreement with a Send Workflow
  6. Share users and agreements
    1. Share a user
    2. Share agreements

Integrate with other products

  1.  Acrobat Sign integrations overview 
  2. Acrobat Sign for Salesforce
  3. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft
    1. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft 365
    2. Acrobat Sign for Outlook
    3. Acrobat Sign for Word/PowerPoint
    4. Acrobat Sign for Teams
    5. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft PowerApps and Power Automate
    6. Acrobat Sign Connector for Microsoft Search
    7. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft Dynamics 
    8. Acrobat Sign for Microsoft SharePoint 
  4. Other Integrations
    1. Acrobat Sign for ServiceNow
    2. Acrobat Sign for HR ServiceNow
    3. Acrobat Sign for SAP SuccessFactors
    4. Acrobat Sign for Workday
    5. Acrobat Sign for NetSuite
    6. Acrobat Sign for VeevaVault
    7. Acrobat Sign for Coupa BSM Suite
  5. Partner managed integrations
  6. How to obtain an integration key

Acrobat Sign Developer

  1. REST APIs 
    1. Methods documentation
    2. SDK/Developer Guide
    3. API FAQ    
  2. Webhooks 
    1. Webhook overview
    2. Configure a new webhook
    3. View or edit a webhook
    4. Deactivate or reactivate a webhook
    5. Delete a webhook
    6. Two-way SSL certificates
    7. Webhooks in the API

Support and Troubleshooting

  1. Customer Support Resources 
  2. Enterprise Customer Success Resources 

Overview

When uploading a new form to the authoring environment, Adobe Acrobat Sign evaluates the document and identifies landmarks on the page that indicate where candidate fields are likely needed.

Candidate fields that are in close proximity to a signature field type are further evaluated to determine if the field types are predictable and will attempt to place the logical field type (for example, Full names, Signature dates, Titles, Companies).

Candidate fields can be accepted as placed, deleted, or converted to other field types by the author.

How it's used

Field detection is automatic when a document is sent to the Authoring environment. This includes the process for creating a template, a web form, or during an individual sending event.

  • If candidate fields are identified, a "Place All Fields" pop-up dialog is displayed at the top center of the authoring window.
  • All pages in the document are evaluated, and all fields are placed if the Place All Fields button is selected.
  • Selecting the X at the upper-right of the pop-up closes the dialog without placing any fields.
    • If fields are manually placed where field detection initially assumed a field should go, that field will be placed and fit into the area that autodetection initially defined. This field can be resized and moved as normal.
    • If a field is deleted and then readded, the automatic size and fit of the field will not trigger, and the field placed will use the field's default size.
ML verison of automatic field detection

  • If the field placement dialogue is closed and you want to redisplay it, select the Reset Fields link in the lower-right corner of the window (above the Back and Send buttons).
Reset Fields link

  • If no candidate fields are detected, then the Place All Fields dialogue is not presented.
Note:

Field detection does not trigger if:

The author should evaluate each field to ensure the field is placed correctly and to set the field properties, particularly the field name, field assignment, and field type. Field assignment is critical when there is more than one recipient for the agreement.

  • Acrobat Sign does not intuit what the field name should be, so all fields have a generic name applied (for example, Custom Field 1). 
  • Acrobat Sign cannot determine which recipient the field should be assigned to. All fields are assigned to the first recipient in the recipient list by default
    .
Edit the recipient and field name

Note:

Automatically placed fields support all of the normal field options like field validation rules, conditional statements, font appearance tools etc.

  1. Delete any extra fields that were placed incorrectly.

    Often there will be lines or boxes that are interpreted as field candidates that need to be cleaned away or moved to other locations.

    Delete any extra fields

    There are three paths to delete a field:

    • Select the field and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
    • Double-click the field and select the Delete Field link in the properties panel.
    • Right-click the field and select the Delete option from the context menu.
    Field propeerties panel with the Delete field link highlighted

    Note:

    You can select multiple fields by holding down the Shift key, and then use your pointer to click into the form and draw a box. All fields that touch the described area are selected.

    You can then move or delete the group of fields.

    To delete multiple fields after selection, use the Delete key, or right click one of the selected fields and choose Delete selected feilds.

    To move multiple fields after selection, click and drag one of the fields. All of the selected fields will move as one unit.

  2. Resize and move individual fields that are poorly placed.

    Resize and move fields as needed

    To resize a field, hover your pointer over the bottom right corner of the field, then click-drag the corner to adjust the field shape.

    Move a field by click-dragging the center of a field to the desired location.

    Tip:

    In many cases it may be easiest to

    1. Resize a field to a much smaller size
    2. Move the field to place the upper-left corner in the correct anchor location.
    3. Resize the field again to fit the field space.
  3. Ensure the fields are identified as the correct Field Type.

    Most placed candidate fields are Text fields. However, they can easily be converted to the other common single-line field types.

    Evaluate your form for the type of content you intend for the field to capture. If it's not simple text, edit the field type and see if there is a more appropriate field type for what you expect.

    To review and edit a field type:

    1. Double-click the field to open the properties panel.
      • Or you can right-click the field and select the Edit option from the context menu.
    2. Expand the Field Type drop down and pick a type from the menu of fields.
    3. Select OK to save the field properties.

     

    Edit the field type

  4. Manually place any missed fields by selecting a field from the right-hand panel and drag-dropping it onto the desired location.

    The field can be resized and the position can be adjusted as needed.

    Place fields as needed

    Note:

    Automatically placed fields attempt to adapt the field size and shape to the line or box that contains the field.

    Manually placed fields are placed using a default field "footprint", and are likely to need to be resized.

    If an automatically placed field is deleted, and then manually replaced, the default footprint is used based on the impression that the automatically placed field was somehow defective.

  5. Assign the fields as needed.

    If the form requires the first recipient to enter all content, then the default Assigned To value is exactly what you need.

    However, if there is a need for the sender to prefill any fields, or if there are multiple recipients, the Assigned To field should be checked and adjusted to ensure that each field is properly assigned to the correct recipient.

    To adjust the recipient:

    1. Double-click the field to open the properties panel.
      • Or you can right-click the field and select the Edit option from the context menu.
    2. Expand the Assigned To drop down and pick the recipient from the drop-down that should fill in the field.
      • Prefill fields are completed by the sender before the agreement is generated and sent to the first recipient.    
      • Anyone field can be completed by any recipient. Once the field is completed by any party, the value in the field is locked and other recipients will not have access to it.
    3. Select OK to save the field properties.
    Edit the field recipient

  6. Provide a meaningful name so that reports are easier to read, and data-mapping is easier to design. Taking the time to provide intuitive names now will improve your experience later when reports are generated.

    To rename a field,

    1. Double-click the field to open the properties panel.
      • Or you can right-click the field and select the Edit option from the context menu.
    2. Select the Edit icon  next to the field name, and type in the full name of the field. Note that field names define the column names in reports. Adding a descriptive name for the field will make reading a CSV report (without access to a visual of the form) easier to understand.
    3. Select OK to save the field properties.
    Edit the field name

 

Progress through the document, updating/verifying the fields as you go.

When all fields are in place, click Save, or Send to complete the authoring process.

If you are creating a template, the fields are fully editable from the Manage page.

If you leave the authoring environment before saving or sending, the document can be found on your Manage page in the Draft section, but all field placement is lost.

How to enable or disable

The Automatic Field Detection feature can be enabled or disabled at the Account and/or Group level by Acrobat Sign Support only.

Group level settings are permitted and will override the Account level values. 

Things to Know

Agreements with a total page count over 25 pages will not trigger automatic field detection.

Note:

Automatic Field Detection is processed in one of three server clusters, which may differ from where your other Acrobat Sign data is processed. The server environment used to host the document's authoring determines which server cluster is used for Automatic Field Detection (see below). Please consult with your legal counsel to determine whether Automatic Field Detection is appropriate for your use case.

 Authoring environment   Automatic Field Detection server cluster 
 Na1, NA2, NA3, NA4  Cluster VA6 in Virginia, USA
 EU1, EU2  Cluster IRL1 in Dublin, Ireland
 AU1, IN1, JP1, SG1  Cluster JPN3 in Tokyo, Japan

 Adobe

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