Question

Signing PDFs in Client without saving it on local computer

Laserfiche Integrations

Updated June 3, 2016

asked on January 18, 2016

I have a PDF that contains Digital Signature fields. When the assigned personnel digitally signs it, he is asked to save it locally then he has to reimport it to Laserfiche. Is there a way that it can be saved directly to the repository without having the user to save it locally on his computer?

Thanks in advance.

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replied on January 20, 2016

sorry it's taken a while.

Adobe (this is dependent upon the version of Adobe you are running)- go into the preferences and click on the Category: Signatures. Go to the section titled Digital Signature - click on More. Make sure that the Topaz.GemSignPlus (or what version of Topaz Signature Pad you have) is in the drop down box titled: Default Signing Method. Now go back out to the Category: Signatures and select Verification and click on More. Make sure that the Ignore document validation is Unchecked and always use the default method is set to Topaz.GemSignPlus.

Now in Adobe 11 you go to the Security (Enhanced) and uncheck the 'Enable Protected Mode At Startup'. Rename files in the C:\Program Files (86)\Adobe\Reader 11.0\Reader\Services DEXEchosign.spi and DEXShare.spi to *.bak This will remove the Fill and Sign and Tools Tab on the screen.

Now you need to configure your processes in LF. Go to the Tools - Options - New Documents - Name Conflicts. Click to Always Prompt. We do this because we have had issues of our electronic documents not updating. If they don't see this screen then they know that it did not update the electronic document (which in turn means they had to reset their options). Next go to View - Open With and select the Open PDF files by default using - The associated application.

This is all we had to do to get the documents to move through the system using workflow. We've been doing this in our court system for about 6 months and it works great. Hope this helps.

As a side note, we are now using these same PDFs to import them in from an FTP site that our attorney's have submitted for court and they go straight into Laserfiche. Workflow picks them up and moves them through the system just as if they were created internally. Signatures work great.

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replied on June 3, 2016

I tested Adobe Reader DC with both signature types available - PKCS#12 and Windows Certificate Store digital ID. Both of these digital ID types are created within Adobe Reader DC - when you right click to Sign a document, use the drop-down at the top at "Sign-As" and you'll see "New ID..." on the list. Then chose either sig type. The PKCS#12 offers a password protection.

Here is how to setup Adobe Reader DC and Laserfiche 10:

Go into the Preferences and click on the Category: Signatures.
Click on “Creation and Appearance”, then More. Make sure that “Adobe Default Security” is in the drop down box titled: Default Signing Method.
Now go back out to the Category: Signatures and select Verification and click on More. Make sure that the "Ignore document validation" is Unchecked, and "Always use the default method" is set to “Adobe Default Security”.
Now go to the Security (Enhanced) and at the top of the pane uncheck 'Enable Protected Mode At Startup'.

Now you need to configure your processes in LF.

In the Client, Go to the Tools - Options - New Documents - Name Conflicts. Click “Always overwrite existing document”.
Next go to View - Open With and select the Open PDF files by default using – “The associated application”.

You can apply more than one digital signature, one after another.

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replied on January 18, 2016

Hi Saher,

Do you mean a digital signature field within the PDF itself? Someone will correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe not: to my understanding, applying a digital signature like that counts as editing the electronic document, and so it is handled so that, for instance, two people do not attempt to sign the same field at the same time. If you refresh the view within the client while having the document open, you should notice that it is locked in the repository.

Signatures can also be applied through the metadata pane, in which case a local copy would not need to be saved, with the catch that if you later export the document, any signature information would be lost as it is kept within Laserfiche.

Hope this helps!

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replied on January 18, 2016

but when editing an electronic file such as MS Word or MS Excel and will say that it is locked, when closing it asks whether it will be overwritten in Laserfiche or added as a new entry. But in PDF digital signature case it is prompting the local save directly.

Unfortunately, the signatures applied in metadata cannot be used because the documents will be sent for external use, and they don't have Laserfiche.

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replied on January 18, 2016

There are settings in Adobe PDFs and Laserfiche you must set to make it save back into Laserfiche. If they are not set it will try to save on the local pc.

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replied on January 18, 2016

can you name those settings please?

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replied on May 25, 2016

Bonnie, is the Topaz Signature Pad the only way you are doing the digital signatures? Would this work if the signing user had an Adobe Digital Signature certificate that could be applied? The approvers in the possible use case I'm exploring would already have an Adobe Signature.

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replied on May 25, 2016

We have not played around with the Adobe Digital Signature certificate.

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Signing PDFs in Client without saving it on local computer

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