Limit document visibility

Last updated on Mar 9, 2025

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.

Note:

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.

Configuration

The controls for this feature can be assessed by navigating to Global Settings > Limited Document Visibility

Global Settings tab highlighting the LDV controls.

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.

Participant	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.

LDV allows internal agens to see all files

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.

Things to know

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 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."

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

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).

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New user?

Limit document visibility

Filter the pages of an agreement that each recipient can view when signing.

Availability:

Configuration scope:

Terms used in this article

How document visibility works

Important Considerations

Configuration

The controls for this feature can be assessed by navigating to Global Settings > Limited Document Visibility

Only Signers will only see files containing signature, initials or data entry fields assigned to them is enabled

Only Signers and CCs in my account will see all files is enabled

Only Signers and CCs will see all files when receiving the signed agreement is enabled

Both Signers and CCs in my account will see all files & Signers and CCs will see all files when receiving the signed agreement are enabled

Allow sending for written signature. Recipients will always see all the pages when required to use written signature

Using LDV with the REST API v6

Creating Agreements with Document Visibility

Retrieving Document Visibility Information

Conversion Problem due to Invalid Document Visibility Parameter

Things to know

Digital signatures are not supported with LDV rules

How are attachments exposed?

Can I replace a recipient?

How does delegation work?

Can I modify an LDV agreement after it has been sent?

How do I add non-signing roles (Approver/Acceptor/Certified Recipient)?

How does LDV work with Send in Bulk?

Why is a page of signature blocks added to the end of my agreement?

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