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2025-03-26
Filter the pages of an agreement that each recipient can view when signing.
Limited Document Visibility (LDV) settings let you include multiple files in an agreement while controlling which recipients can view each file. The selected settings and agreement configuration determine document visibility.
Use LDV to restrict document access based on recipient roles. Common scenarios include:
- Sales Agreements – Internal teams review or approve agreements before sending them to customers.
- New Hire Documentation – Additional documents are delivered after a candidate accepts an offer.
- HR Documents – Internal processing is required for certain documents before they are shared with the signer.
Here's a quick video that captures the high-level use:
Availability:
- Acrobat Standard and Acrobat Pro: Not Supported
- Acrobat Sign Solutions: Supported; Disabled by default
- Acrobat Sign for Government: Supported; Disabled by default
Configuration scope:
LDV can be enabled at the account and group levels.
Understanding the following terms helps clarify how Limited Document Visibility works:
User vs. UserID
- User – Refers to anyone who accesses Acrobat Sign through direct login, federated authentication, or integration. A user may authenticate with multiple email addresses, meaning they can have multiple userIDs.
- UserID – A system-assigned identifier uniquely identifying a user profile in Acrobat Sign. While an email address is unique, users can change their email, but they cannot change their userID. Acrobat Sign logically associates all assets with the userID that created them.
Internal vs. External Parties
- Internal parties – UserIDs that belong to the same Acrobat Sign account as the sender’s userID.
- Users may belong to different Acrobat Sign accounts even if they work at the same company. Acrobat Sign does not assume associations based on email domains or company names. The system only considers users internal if they share the same accountID.
- External parties – UserIDs that don't belong to the sender’s Acrobat Sign account.
- If an email address does not appear in the account’s user list, the system classifies that participant as external.
How document visibility works
Limited Document Visibility (LDV) rules control the ability of recipients to view specific files in an agreement.
- You can enable LDV rules at the account and group levels.
- The system only displays file content explicitly assigned to a recipient.
- To assign a file to a recipient, add at least one field for that recipient anywhere in the file.
Important Considerations
- LDV applies to entire files, not individual pages. If a file has 40 pages and the recipient has one assigned field, they can view the whole file.
- If a file contains no assigned fields for a recipient, the system excludes the entire file from their view.
- If an agreement contains multiple files, and a recipient needs access to all of them, at least one field must be assigned in each file.
- To enforce page-level control, split the document into separate files, each containing only the relevant pages.
In the example to the right, there are two signers and two documents in an agreement.
Signer 1 sees both documents, as there is a field assigned on both docs (Field 1 and Field 2)
Signer 2 will only see Doc 2 because they don't have an assigned field on Doc 1.
- Doc 2 is visible because Field 3 is assigned to Signer 2.
Pastaba:
LDV rules require both of the following conditions:
- Multiple recipients – The agreement must include more than one recipient.
- Recipients include anyone involved in the signature or approval process.
- CC'd parties don't count as recipients.
- Multiple files – The agreement must contain more than one file.
- Files include any attachments used to build the agreement, such as .doc, .xls, .pdf, or .png.
LDV rules don't apply to the agreement if either condition is unmet.
Signers will only see files containing signature, initials or data entry fields assigned to them is the root control that enables the LDV experience and the set of subordinate controls. If this control is disabled, LDV as a whole is disabled in the recipient experience.
All recipients and CC'd parties see all files all the time.
|
|
During the signing process |
When the agreement is completed |
|---|---|---|
|
Sender |
All documents |
All documents |
|
Internal Recipient |
All documents |
All documents |
|
External Recipient |
All documents |
All documents |
|
Internal CC |
All documents |
All documents |
|
External CC |
All documents |
All documents |
|
External Archive Recipient |
NA |
All documents |
After enabling the root LDV control, there are three additional configurations to control visibility depending on your preferred experience:
When only Signers will only see files containing signature, initials or data entry fields assigned to them is enabled:
- The Sender can see all file content all the time
- Recipients can only see the files they are explicitly included in during signing, and after the agreement is complete
- CC'd parties do not see any file content.
|
Participant |
During Signing |
Completed Agreement |
|---|---|---|
|
Sender |
All documents |
All documents |
|
Internal Recipient |
Assigned documents |
Assigned documents |
|
External Recipient |
Assigned documents |
Assigned documents |
|
Internal CC |
None |
None |
|
External CC |
None |
None |
|
External Archive Recipient |
NA |
All documents |
When Signers and CCs in my account will see all files is enabled:
- All internal userIDs (relative to the sending user) can see all file content.
- External recipients only see the files content assigned to them, during signing and after the agreement is complete.
- External CC'd parties see no file content.
|
Participant |
During Signing |
Completed Agreement |
|---|---|---|
|
Sender |
All documents |
All documents |
|
Internal Recipient |
All documents |
All documents |
|
External Recipient |
Assigned documents |
Assigned documents |
|
Internal CC |
All documents |
All documents |
|
External CC |
None |
None |
|
External Archive Recipient |
NA |
All documents |
When Signers and CCs will see all files when receiving the signed agreement is enabled:
- Recipients only see their assigned file content during the signature process
- CC'd parties do not see any file content during the signature process
Once the agreement is completed, all recipients and CC'd parties can see all file content.
|
Participant |
During Signing |
Completed Agreement |
|---|---|---|
|
Sender |
All documents |
All documents |
|
Internal Recipient |
Assigned documents |
All documents |
|
External Recipient |
Assigned documents |
All documents |
|
Internal CC |
None |
All documents |
|
External CC |
None |
All documents |
|
External Archive Recipient |
NA |
All documents |
This configuration enables LDV rules and allows all internal userIDs (relative to the sender) to view all file content during the signing cycle.
When the agreement is complete, all users can view all file content
|
Participant |
During Signing |
Completed Agreement |
|---|---|---|
|
Sender |
All documents |
All documents |
|
Internal Recipient |
All documents |
All documents |
|
External Recipient |
Assigned documents |
All documents |
|
Internal CC |
All documents |
All documents |
|
External CC |
None |
All documents |
|
External Archive Recipient |
NA |
All documents |
If you are planning on accepting written signatures, you should enable this option, but be aware that LDV rules do not apply when a written signature is involved.
In all cases, when a written signature is involved, LDV rules are suspended for that agreement.
|
Participant |
During Signing |
Completed Agreement |
|---|---|---|
|
Sender |
All documents |
All documents |
|
Internal Recipient |
All documents |
All documents |
|
External Recipient |
All documents |
All documents |
|
Internal CC |
All documents |
All documents |
|
External CC |
All documents |
All documents |
|
External Archive Recipient |
NA |
All documents |
Using LDV with the REST API v6
The sender can use the REST API v6 to explicitly grant visibility to documents.
REST API v6 calls ignore all document visibility settings in the UI, as the API call overrides account/group level settings.
The only carry-over behavior is that the sender must specify a document label if it specifies a form field for a particular recipient.
POST /agreements REST API v6 endpoint has three parameters that can be used to control document visibility behaviors.
AgreementInfo
|
Parameter Name |
Type |
Required |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
documentVisibilityEnabled |
Boolean |
No |
Optional document visibility parameter for the agreement. This parameter must be specified and set to true to enable document visibility. |
ParticipantSetInfo
|
Parameter Name |
Type |
Required |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
visiblePages |
String[] |
No |
A list of FileInfo.label that should be made visible for participants in this participant set. |
CcInfo
|
Parameter Name |
Type |
Required |
Description |
|---|---|---|---|
|
visiblePages |
String[] |
No |
A list of FileInfo.label that should be made visible for participants in this CC. |
HTTP Status Code
|
HTTP Status Code |
Reason |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
400 |
INVALID_PARTICIPANT_SET_VISIBLE_PAGE_LABEL |
One or more visible page labels in the participant set is invalid. |
|
400 |
INVALID_CC_VISIBLE_PAGE_LABEL |
One or more visible page labels in CC is invalid. |
|
403 |
DOCUMENT_VISIBILITY_DISABLED |
Document visibility enabled is set to false and thus file info index cannot be specified for any participant set or CC. |
GET /agreements/{agreementId} REST API v6 endpoint can be used to retrieve relationship between participants and documents
AgreementInfo
|
Parameter Name |
Type |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
documentVisibilityEnabled |
Boolean |
If true, document visibility was enabled for this agreement. |
ParticipantSetInfo
|
Parameter Name |
REST Object |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
visiblePages |
String[] |
A list of FileInfo.label that should be made visible for participants in this participant set. |
CcInfo
|
Parameter Name |
REST Object |
Description |
|---|---|---|
|
visiblePages |
String[] |
A list of FileInfo.label that should be made visible for participants in this CC. |
If GET /agreements/{agreementId} is reporting CANCELLED status, it may be due to one or more invalid document visibility parameter values.
Use GET /agreements/{agreementId}/events to retrieve failure reason.
|
Error Message |
Condition |
|---|---|
|
fileInfoIndex <FileInfo index> is missing in one of the participantSets containing <participant email> |
<label> must be specified as visiblePages for participant <participant email> |
The above failure is logged with the Event.type value of AUTO_CANCELLED_CONVERSION_PROBLEM and Event.comment.
Limited document visibility and digital signature certificates are incompatible.
When LDV is enabled, the digital signature object is removed from the in-app authoring environment.
If an agreement with a digital signature field is sent with LDV rules enabled, an error will be triggered:
Digital signature field <field name> is unsupported due to limited document visibility.
If the userID can view the file that contains the attachment field, they also have the authority to view the attachment content.
Replacing a recipient works the same as normal with one exception:
- The Sender of the agreement may not replace themselves when they are a listed recipient with a non-signing role, and Signers and CCs in my account will see all files is disabled.
If Signers and CCs in my account will see all files is enabled:
- Internal recipients can only delegate to another internal user
- External recipients may not delegate to an internal user
- Attempting to do so throws the error: "Your account admin does not allow delegation to this individual."
The files and fields can be edited (using the Modify Agreement feature) as long as the agreement hasn't been viewed by a participant.
LDV is role agnostic.
If you have a non-signing recipient, then that recipient must have at least one field placed on every file that you intend for them to have access to.
If a recipient doesn't have any visible files (because no fields are placed), an error is triggered:
Participant <email> (<participant role>) does not have any visible document
Send in Bulk works the same as other agreements.
When an agreement is sent, there must be at least one required (not optional nor conditional) signature field for every recipient with a signing role.
If one or more signers don't have a required signature field, an additional page will be added to the end of the agreement and a signature block for every signer will be added (giving all signers a view of that last page).
