Thanks William. I got this far last week and I am hitting the same wall. After I sign it "Marks As Final" and makes it a read only. Then the next person opens it and it says it will remove the signature if you edit this file. How do you stop it from doing that and get to pass on. Also, right before I signed I got an error. I've enclosed both screen shots of what I am talking about.

Hello, Cyndi

 

Thank you for your question.

 

We are looking at this issue. There might be some time delay. Appreciate your patience.

 

Thank you for your understanding and support.

 

Best Regards, 

 

William Zhou

Forum Support

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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

What kind of editing is the next user doing to the document after it's signed?  If you edit a document, it will lose the signature by design as the document no longer has the original integrity.  If the user is signing it, then that prompt shouldn't happen.

For the other issue, are you using the Communications Server as a certificate service?  If not, what type of certificates are you using?

Also, I would like you to download and install this hotfix which has updates on the a couple of updates for signatures:
2281460 Description of the Office 2010 hotfix package (Mso-x-none): September 22, 2010
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2281460

Thx Adrian for the reply.

How about first we go with just signatures one after the other and no editing allowed?

I have both types of signatures. The other is just a self generated one. We are keeping this process in-house only for starters.

Am I making any sense?

Cyndi :)

No problem Cyndi,

So, if you are sending a document to be signed by multiple people and no edits are done, are you getting that error then?

If so, does it happen to any user that touches it or one or two in particular?

I'm thinking there is something, like an add-in, that's causing the document to be slightly altered inadvertantly. 

Adrian

Well first off, how come I can't verify my own signature. See the caution above. Then when I say Yes, it automatically marks the file as "Marked as Final" see above.

Cyndi, have you tried those updates at:

2281460 Description of the Office 2010 hotfix package (Mso-x-none): September 22, 2010
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2281460

Also, we there is a registry key I would like you to try if you are unable to install that hotfix if it's already installed or you have a newer version.

Go to the registry location at:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Signatures\

If it doesn't already exist, create a DWORD value of:
XAdESLevel

Change the value to:
0

(above is zero)

I wasn't able to download the hotfix. It said no programs on machine required it.

Also, I cannot navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Signatures\. Could it be hidden?

I found a newer version of that hotfix I would like you to try:
2281460 Description of the Office 2010 hotfix package (Mso-x-none): September 22, 2010
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;2281460

Also, if the key does not exist, you would need to create it.  Likely you have keys created all the way to Common, so you will need to create the Signatures key (folder) and then create that DWORD value in the Signatures key (folder).

I tried to install and it says "There are no products affected by this package installed on this system."

We are having this same issue at my organization. We would like to capture multiple signatures in a word document to indicate final acceptence. However, once signed and sent via email the document is automatically saved as read-only and new signatures cannot be added? Additionally, if you try to save the document in order to add a digital signature Word notes that "Editing will remove the signatures in this document. Do you want to continue?".

Obviously, this negates the whole purpose of the digital signatures in the first place. Is there a way around this "feature" which allows multiple signatures to a document that is marked as "final"?

We are having the same/similar issue.

New install of MS Office Pro 2010, SP1.  No AddIns.  We have tried the hotfix noted above but the update is already installed.  We don't need to edit in between signatures, we just need 2-3 signatures on some documents.

We can create documents with multiple signature lines and sign one line successfully.  If we access the file directly, we can sign the second line successfully as well.  As soon as the document is emailed, no more signatures are allowed without invalidating the previous signatures.

We have resorted to emailing hyperlinks but that won't work when we need to send to someone who is not on the network.

Is there a solution for this, please?

I am having the same issue. Some documents need to be approve by multiple people. Maybe making just part of the document locked by one signature and other part by other different signature. The desired behavior is supported by Infopath:

"When designing a form template, you can specify whether users can add digital signatures when they fill out a form based on your form template. You can also specify whether users can sign the whole form or just part of the form. If you enable digital signatures so that they can be added to part of the form, you must determine which data in the form can be signed. You can additionally associate that data with a section that you add to the form template. Once signed, the form or part of the form that was signed cannot be altered without invalidating the signature." http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/infopath-help/introduction-to-digital-signatures-HA010157428.aspx

where do you "specify whether users can sign the whole form or just part of the form."  I am having the same problem and trying to figure out how to fix it! thanks.

Hi,

I am having the same problem.

User 1 on computer 1 create a word 2010 file on a shared folder with 2 signatures lines. After saving it, he open it again and sign the first line and see his signatures as valid.

User 2 on computer 2 open the file and see "invalid signature".

Both use Active directory Certificate services.

I made two tests :

User2 on computer 1 : No problem

User1 on computer 2 : Invalid Signature

I don't understand how it works !!!

Regards,

Dear Cyndi,

Did you ever find an answer to this question?  I'm in the exact same position.  I need multiple people to sign the same document - NOT edited - but it needs to be sent via email.

Can anyone help??

We are on the verge of giving up on digital signatures for Word documents and only signing PDF's. Very disappointed at the way Microsoft is handling this. Very unwise IMO to not make the "read only" status of a signed document an option.

Have you tried putting the document into a shared location on SharePoint, and then sending the link to the parties for signature.  When I tried that and opened the document as "Read Only", it came up with two yellow bars, one asking if I want to edit the document (obviously No), and the second stated that "This document needs to be signed.", and the button "View Signatures" when selected, will allow the new signee to select their box and then digitally sign.  If someone else signs for you, they will show as signing for that person.

• Proposed as answer by Shadowcat99 Friday, June 27, 2014 2:45 PM

Multiple signatures are possible. Once the first person signs, on the lower left you will see Page: 1 of 1 | Words: 100 | and the red digital signature icon. Click the icon and a signatures box will open on the right.

There will be a requested signatures section which contains the names of those individuals who still need to sign the document. The person clicks their name and signs the document. No need to save the document its done automatically. The next person will do the same thing and no need to save after they do and so on.

No signatures are invalid as others sign.

• Edited by Latasha Wills 18 hours 0 minutes ago