Click here to install the add-in from the Microsoft store

The Adobe Acrobat Sign for Outlook add-in allows you to configure a new agreement from within an email client. You can send agreements with new emails, or reply to an existing email by importing the recipient list and automatically attaching any files from the source email.

Adobe Acrobat Sign for Outlook Add-in: User Guide helps you learn how to:

• Install and enable Adobe Acrobat Sign add-in on your Outlook account – All user can perfrom this one-time process without elevated system permissions.
• Establish the authenticated connection between Outlook and Adobe Acrobat Sign – Once the add-in is enabled, you must authenticate to both enviroments to create a trust relationship between Microsoft and Adobe Acrobat Sign.
• Use Adobe Acrobat Sign add-in – It explains about the features and uses of the Adobe Acrobat Sign.

Microsoft 365 admins can centrally install the add-in at the tenant level, and control access at the user level if desired.

Prerequisites

Supported products:

• Exchange Online

Clients:

• Outlook 2016 (Windows v16+)
• Outlook Online, using:
  • Chrome - current version
  • Firefox - current version
  • Safari - current version
  • Edge - current version
• Outlook 2016 (Mac v15.35+)

You also need to comply with the basic Microsoft requirements to use Office

Edge browsers

For the add-in to work seamlessly in Edge browsers, you must trust the below sites in your browser security configuration:

•     https://*.echocdn.com
•     https://*.echosign.com 
•     https://*.adobesigncdn.com
•     https://*.adobesign.com
•     https://*.microsoftonline.com
•     https://*.office.com
•     https://*.office365.com
•     https://*.live.com (If using a Live account)
•     https://*.sharepoint.com
•     If using a third-party identity management system, that URL needs to be added as well
  

Mac High Sierra OS

High Sierra users may encounter an issue while trying to access the add-in from the Outlook desktop app (version 16.11 up) that throws a generic error message from Adobe Acrobat Sign stating that the cookies are not enabled. 

If this happens:

• Open the add-in Settings, and Sign Out
• Re-authenticate to the service by clicking Get Started

If re-authenticating fails to correct the problem, contact customer support.

Enable Adobe Acrobat Sign for Outlook Add-in

The Adobe Acrobat Sign for Outlook add-in can be installed in both the web based and desktop launched applications. Installing the application in one environment enables it in both

Access to the store is slightly different in each environment, and instructions are provided below for both. 

Install the add-in for OWA (the web-based client)

1. Log in to your 365 Outlook account and select the Mail.

2. Select the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.

3. Select Manage integrations to load the Add-ins for Outlook page.

4. In the top-left Search box, type Adobe Acrobat Sign and select the search icon.

5. Locate Adobe Acrobat Sign for Outlook and select On to enable the integration.
    Once done, you see Successfully added message, as shown below.

6. Close the Add-ins page.

7. To access the add-in, open any email. You can access Adobe Acrobat Sign from one of the following locations:

• New emails – The interface to compose a new email exposes the icon in the lower-right corner of the screen. New emails only have the option to Send for Signature.

• Reply emails – When replying to an email, the icon is found in the upper, mid-right corner of the window (depending on how many add-ins you have installed)

Install the add-in for the desktop Outlook client

1. Open your desktop Outlook application.

2. Navigate to the Home tab, and select the Store icon in the Add-ins section.

3. In the top left search box, type Adobe and click the search icon.

4. Locate Adobe Acrobat Sign for Outlook and select Add to enable the add-in.

• Once done, you see Added and a blue check indicating the add-in is available.

After enabling the add-in, you see a new Adobe Acrobat Sign section (with three icons) in your ribbon on the Home tab:

Establish the authenticated relationship

Once the add-in is enabled within the email client, you must create a relationship between your Microsoft account, and your Adobe Acrobat Sign account. This ensures that you, and only you, are sending agreements through your Adobe Acrobat Sign user.

The configuration process is quick, and only requires that you know how to authenticate to the two systems. 

To establish the trust:

1. Click the New Email button as if you were composing a new email.

2. Find the Adobe Acrobat Sign icon in the email page layout and select Send for Signature.

• This opens the add-in panel on the right side of the window.

3. Click the Get Started button in the add-in panel

• The Get Free Trial link opens a new window to the Adobe Acrobat Sign 30-day free trial registration page. If you don’t already have an Adobe Acrobat Sign account, sign up for the free trial before you continue.
  
  • Accounts in the Acrobat Sign for Government environment do not have access to free trials.

4. If prompted to authenticate into the 365 environment, select the user that you want to sign-in with. The user you are already authenticated as appears at the top of the list.

5. When prompted to grant access to the add-in, select Accept.
    A new window opens to capture the authentication for Adobe Acrobat Sign.    

6. Authenticate using your Adobe Acrobat Sign credentials. 

7. After authenticating to Adobe Acrobat Sign, select Allow Access.

Once the Adobe Acrobat Sign authentication is successful, the add-in panel on the right changes to show the add-in splash page. Select Got It to open the configuration panel.

The trusted relationship is in place and remains functional until you sign out of the add-in.

Disabling/uninstalling the add-in does not delete the trusted relationship. 

Use Adobe Acrobat Sign for Outlook add-in

With the trust relationship to Adobe Acrobat Sign established, you can start sending agreements directly from your email client.

In the context of this add-in, Outlook has two modes:

• Compose – In Compose mode, you can type or add attachments to the email. You can select New to start a new email, or select Reply to reply to an existing email thread. Only the Send of Signature feature is available in Compose mode.

• Read – In Read mode, you can view an email but cannot edit it. Read mode enables following three features:
  • Fill and Sign – It allows the sender (and only the sender) to add content, sign, and optionally send a file to another party as a completed document.
  • Send for Signature – It creates an agreement that can have one or multiple recipients other than the sender. The sender may be a recipient, just not the only recipient.
  • Agreement status – It displays a list of the last ten agreements that include the user, including Draft, Out for Signature, Waiting for me to sign, and Signed.

Send from Compose mode

When launching the add-in from an email, the add-in seeks to include values from the email itself. When composing a new email (either from New or Reply button), you can configure that email as a template before launching the add-in, make short work of renewals, and other boilerplate transactions.

• If an attachment is included in the email, the add-in attempts to attach that same file as the agreement document.
• If there are recipients listed in the TO: field (other than the sender), those emails will be imported as the recipient list, in the order they appear in the TO: field.
• If there is content in the Subject line, that literal string will be used as the Agreement Name.
• If there is content in the body of the email, that content will be imported as the Agreement Message.

Documents

At the top of the add-in panel is the Documents section. These are the files that are attached to the agreement, and presented to the recipients for their signature.

• If you launch the add-in from an email with an attachment on it, that attachment is automatically inserted into the document list.
• If you want to remove a file from the Documents list, click the X on the far right of the document file name.

Just to the right of the Documents heading is the + Add Files link that allows you to add files to the agreement.

• The documents are presented to the recipients in the order they are listed in the add-in panel
• If you need to add files from your Adobe Acrobat Sign library, click the More Options link 

Recipients

Under the Documents list is the Recipients list.

The order of the recipients in the list is the the order in which the recipients are required to sign the agreement.

• If you launch the add-in from an email that has the TO: field configured, the recipients are imported to the add-in panel in the order they are listed in the TO: field.
• Recipients can be typed directly into the add-in panel. The panel will reference your Outlook contact list and attempt to match what you are typing to a known contact.
• All recipients have the role of Signer. If you need to set different recipient roles, or send using a parallel/hybrid workflow, select More Options.
• All signers receive a verification email. If you need to use a second factor verification method, select More Options.

Agreement Name / Messages

The Messages section is under the Recipients list.

There are two fields in this section: Agreement and Agreement Message.

The Agreement Name is the top field. If you are launching the add-in panel from an existing or configured email, the Subject line is imported as the agreement name. If there is no Subject content, the name of the first attached (Document) file is inserted as the agreement name. You can manually edit the agreement name at any time.

The Agreement Message is included in the Please Sign email. It has following features:

• When the agreement is launched from an existing email, the body content of the email is inserted into the message field. 
• If there is no content in the email body, a default message is entered: Please review and complete this document.
• The Message field as a 1000-character limit.
• In the top right corner of the Message section is a Clear Message link that will remove all the content from the Message window.
• If you use Message Templates or Private Messages, use the More Options link.

Preview & Send

The Preview & Send checkbox invokes the Adobe Acrobat Sign authoring environment once the Next button is clicked.

• When you select Preview & Send checkbox, the Send button changes to Continue. You may uncheck the Preview & Send checkbox to revert back to Send.

Send / Continue

This button commits the agreement to the next step, either starting the signature cycle, or opening the authoring environment, depending on how the add-in panel is configured.

The text of the button tells you what to expect:

• Send – The Send button ends the configuration stage, and launches the agreement, notifying the first recipient.
• Continue – When the Preview & Send checkbox is checked, the button text changes to Continue
  • Clicking the Continue button opens the Adobe Acrobat Sign authoring environment where you can review the document order, and place form/signature fields as needed
  • After reviewing the document and/or placing any fields, the agreement is launched to the first recipient by clicking Send on the authoring page. You are not returned to the add-in to launch this agreement.

More Options

Adobe Acrobat Sign offers a wider set of options than can reasonably be installed into an add-in. Features like recipient roles and private messages over complicate the relatively small footprint that the add-in occupies. But for many, those options are critical to the business process.

The More Options link, just under the Send/Continue button, opens a windowed instance of the Adobe Acrobat Sign Send page, complete with all options available to your account.

All the configured elements in the add-in panel are imported to the Send page, in the order they exist, and they are fully editable if you need to make adjustments.

Once the agreement is sent, the add-in panel presents a success notification.

Two options are available in the post-send panel:

• View Agreement – Opens a windowed view of the agreement that was just sent
• Adobe Acrobat Sign Menu – This option changes the panel to show the add-in feature options 
  • Send for Signature

Additionally, a banner is added to the email body, indicating that the agreement is available to sign in a separate email.

This is provided in the event that the sender wants to send a follow-up email to the one auto-generated by the Adobe Acrobat Sign system.

Send from Read mode

When reading an existing email thread, you have three feature options:

• Fill and Sign – Used when you, and only you, need to fill in a document and apply a signature. No other signers are involved. If you get a request to “Fill this out, sign it and send it back to me”, this is the option you are looking for.
• Send for Signature – The standard sending process for an agreement where the sender is not the sole signer
• Agreement Status – Shows the status of the last ten agreements involving the user

Fill and Sign

When the Fill and Sign option is selected, the attachment on the email (if any) is automatically attached to the agreement definition being built in the add-in panel on the right side of the window.

Just to the right of the Document heading is the + Add Files link that allows you to add more files to the agreement. Adding agreements works just like the web application. The documents are presented to the signer in the order they are listed in the add-in panel

Once all the files are attached, click the Continue button to launch the Fill and Sign window

The Fill and Sign window allows you to:

1. Type in text by clicking anywhere on the form and typing

2. Place checks or solid dots (for check boxes)

3. Apply your signature

4. Apply your initials

For more information on the Fill and Sign properties, check out this guide.

When the document is completed, click the Done button in the upper-right corner.

The document will process for a moment, and then open a Reply email with the signed copy of the document already attached.

The add-in panel will show a success message that you have signed the document, and present you with three options:

• View Signed PDF – Opens a view of the signed PDF
• Save a Copy – Downloads a copy of the signed PDF to your local system
• Adobe Acrobat Sign Menu – This option changes the panel to show the add-in feature options 
  • Fill and Sign
  • Send for Signature
  • Agreement Status

Send for Signature

1. When starting an agreement from an email with an attachment, notice that at top of the panel is the list of Document files currently “attached”.

By default, any file that is attached to the email when the Send for Signature icon is clicked, is automatically attached.

• Deleting that default file is perfectly fine.
• Adding additional files is also permitted via the Add Files link

2. Just below the Documents section, the Recipients are listed. Recipients are not imported from the email in Read mode.

Click into the white field under the Recipients heading, and start typing either a name or email address. The add-in shows contacts from your 365 account that match the string you have typed in, helping to find the right recipient.

The order that the recipients are entered dictate the signature order of the agreement (in a sequential signing process).

Note: If you are accustomed to setting recipient roles, be aware that all recipients are considered Signers when configured in the add-in. If other roles are required, click the More Options link under the Send / Continue button.

3. Under the Recipients list is the Message section, consisting of two fields.

The top field is the Name of the agreement. By default, this field adopts the name value of the first file attached to the agreement. It can be manually changed to any value desired.

The second field is the Message text. A default value is entered and can be edited freely.

4. Just under the Message field is the optional Preview & Send checkbox. Checking this box opens a windowed version of the authoring page, exposing all the standard fields and tools for creating forms.

 The authoring page does not open until the Continue button is clicked.

5. The Send / Continue button sends the agreement as currently configured.  If the Preview & Send check box is checked, the authoring page opens, allowing fields to be placed on the document.  Once all fields are placed, click the Send button at the bottom-right of the authoring page.

6. Under the Send / Continue button is the More Options link. Clicking this link opens a windowed version of the Send page in the web application, exposing all the standard options that you would see in the application. Any configuration done in the add-in panel populates to the Send window, and is fully editable.

All fields and options are available just as like the Send page in the web application, and any changes to the recipient or file list are included in the agreement.

Scroll to the bottom of the window and click Next to enter authoring, or uncheck the Preview & Add Signature Fields box and click Send

Once the agreement is sent, the add-in panel presents a success notification.

Two options are available in the post-send panel:

• View Agreement – Opens a windowed view of the agreement that was just sent
• Adobe Acrobat Sign Menu – This option changes the panel to show the add-in feature options 
  • Fill and Sign
  • Send for Signature
  • Agreement Status

Agreement Status

The Agreement Status option displays the last ten agreements (based on last update date) that are still open and waiting for some action. This includes drafts that are waiting for authoring, agreements waiting for your signature, and agreements waiting for some other recipient.

Add-in Settings

At the very bottom of the add-in panel, to the right of Adobe Document Cloud, is a gear icon that opens the add-in settings:

Upgrade - Trial accounts only

This link opens a new window to the Adobe Acrobat Sign Upgrade process where you can purchase access to Adobe Acrobat Sign on a monthly subscription.

Sign Out – Breaking the authenticated relationship

The relationship between your Outlook and Adobe Acrobat Sign user accounts is “remembered” by the add-in, and this is why you don’t have to authenticate every time you use the add-in.

However, it’s not uncommon for some users to send agreements from multiple Adobe Acrobat Sign accounts.  This necessitates, that the user use the Sign out function to break the existing trusted relationship, and then establish a new relationship using the new Adobe Acrobat Sign user account.

To break the relationship, click the gear icon at the bottom-right of the add-in panel. A pop-up menu appears and the Sign Out option is at the top of that menu.

Help

A link to this guide and any additional built content regarding the add-in

About

This will prompt a small pop-up that gives information regarding the add-in you are using.

Privacy Policy

This is a link to the Adobe privacy policy

Installing at the Tenant level

Installing at the tenant level allows the admin to expose the add-in by default, saving the users the installation steps, and ensuring that all users have access without issue.

The enablement is quick and easy, taking only about 5 minutes:

1. Log in as the Tenant admin, and navigate to the Admin panel

2. Go to the Exchange admin center

3. Click the add-ins link

4. Click the plus (+) to add a new add-in, and select Add from the Office Store option in the menu

• The add-in installs as Disabled by default

5. Configure the add-in

• Assign Users
  
  • Everyone - Applies the deployment method to all users in the Tenant
    
  • Specific users/groups - Applies the deployment method to only the selected users or groups
    
  • Just me - Applies the deployment method to just the user (admin) doing the configuration
    
• Deployment Method
  
  • Fixed (Default) - The add-in is automatically deployed to the assigned users and they are not allowed to remove it from their ribbon
    
  • Available -Users can install the add-in by clicking the Get More add-ins button on the home ribbon in Outlook
    
  • Optional - The add-in is automatically deployed to the assigned users, but they retain the option to remove it from their ribbon
    

6. Click Save after selecting your enablement options