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When you upload a new form to the form-building (Authoring) environment, Acrobat Sign automatically scans the document for visual cues that suggest where form fields may be needed.
Fields located near a signature field are further analyzed. If the field type can be reasonably predicted—such as Full Name, Date, Title, or Company—Acrobat Sign attempts to place the appropriate field type automatically.
As the form author, you can review these candidate fields and choose to accept, move, delete, or convert them to another field type as needed.
Field detection is automatic when a document is sent to the Authoring environment. This includes the process of creating a template, a web form, or during an individual sending event.
Any fields that are not detected must be manually placed by selecting the field on the left, and dragging it to it's proper position within the document.
At any time you can right-click any assigned field to open the right-click menu for the field. This menu contains the option to Delete the individual field and to Reset Fields, which will remove all assigned fields and return you to the original state.
Field detection does not trigger if:
The form author should evaluate each field to ensure it is placed correctly and to set its properties, particularly the field name, field assignment, and field type. Field assignment is critical when there is more than one recipient for the agreement.
Automatically placed fields support all of the normal field options like field validation rules, conditional statements, font appearance tools etc.
Delete any extra fields that were accidentally assigned.
There are three paths to delete a field:
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.
Resize and move individual fields that are poorly placed.
To resize a field:
Hover your pointer over a field until you see the four-pointed arrow, and then click-drag the field to the desired location.
In many cases it may be easiest to
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:
Manually place any missed fields by selecting a field from the list of fields in the left-hand panel and drag-dropping it onto the desired location.
When dragging a field to the stage, the cursor will hold the field in the upper-left corner, making it easy to anchor your field to the upper-left of where you want to field's footprint.
Then the field can be resized and adjusted as needed.
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.
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 value should be checked and adjusted to ensure that each field is properly assigned to the correct recipient.
To adjust the recipient:
Provide a meaningful name to each field 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,
Progress through the document, updating/verifying the fields as you go.
When all fields are in place, select 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.
Administrators can enable or disable the Automatic Field Detection feature by configuring the Preview, position signatures or add form fields controls on the Send Settings menu.
Group-level settings are permitted and will override the Account level values.
Agreements with a total page count over 25 pages will not trigger automatic field detection.
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 |
