Send a PDF for signing

Sign lets you collect electronic signatures on PDF agreements, contracts and proposals that live in your Drive. Each signer gets a personal link, and when everyone has signed you get a finished copy back in Drive.

Start a request

1. Open Sign and choose New request. (You can also open a PDF in Drive and choose Request signatures from its menu.)
2. In Choose a PDF to send for signing, pick the file.

Only PDFs can be sent. If the file is not a PDF, convert it first. A PDF can be up to 25 MB; for a bigger one, compress it with PDF tools first.

Set up the request

The document opens with a panel on the right.

1. Title: what signers will see. Up to 200 characters.
2. Message to signers: optional, up to 2,000 characters. If you leave it empty, suggestions appear below it; click one to use it.
3. Signers: type each person's Email and an optional Name. Choose Add for more. You can have up to 20 signers. Each signer gets a colour.
4. Place fields for the selected signer. Choose a field type, then click on a page: Signature, Initials, Date signed, Text or Checkbox. Drag a field to move it and drag its corner to resize. Hover over a field and use the x to remove it. A request can have up to 300 fields.
5. Select the next signer's card and place their fields in turn. Each signer card shows how many fields they have.

Every signer needs at least one field. The panel lists any problems that stop you from sending.

Options

• Sign in order: when on, signers go one after another, in the order listed. Use the up and down arrows to reorder. When off, everyone can sign at once.
• Email a code to external signers first: people outside your workspace must enter a 6-digit code sent to their email before they can open the document.
• Expires after (days): from 1 to 365. After that, the request closes as Expired.

Send

Choose Send. Signers are emailed from your mailbox and colleagues are also notified in the app. A Sent for signing box lists each signer's personal link, with Copy link. The links are shown only now. Each link is personal: anyone with it can sign as that person, so share it only with them.

If you do not have a mailbox, signers are not emailed. Copy each link and send it yourself. You can issue a fresh link later from the request page.

Good to know

• The original PDF is locked in when you send. Changing the file in Drive afterwards does not change the request.
• Colleagues inside the workspace can open their part from the app. People outside use the link.

Tips

• Place a Date signed field next to each Signature.
• Turn on Sign in order for approvals where the second person should only see the document after the first has signed.

Next: Track a request and get the signed copy.