Digitally Signing Microsoft Office 365 Documents

With a Document Signing Certificate from SSL.com, you can digitally sign your Microsoft Office documents to assure recipients that:

• You are the authentic signer of the document.
• The content of the document has not been altered since it was signed.

Document signatures in Microsoft Office can be either visible in the document or invisible. Word and Excel both support visible signatures. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint all support invisible signatures. Click the links below to view instructions on installing your certificate, creating visible and invisible signatures, and deleting signatures.

Adding a Visible Signature Line to a Microsoft Word Document or Excel Workbook:

1. Signing an Office document currently requires that your document signing certificate be installed on a YubiKey FIPS USB token. Make sure the YubiKey is inserted in your computer.
   
2. Place the cursor where you would like the signature to appear. Then, click the Add Signature Line drop-down menu, located in the Text group of the Insert toolbar and choose Microsoft Office Signature Line.
   
3. The Signature Setup dialog box will appear. Here you can specify the suggested signer’s name, title, and/or email address, and add instructions to the signer. The two checkboxes below the text field can be used to allow the signer to add a comments when signing and show the signing date in the signature line. Click OK when you have entered all of the information for the signature line.
   
4. The new signature line will appear in the file with any name and/or title information entered in the previous step below it.
   
5. To sign the document, right-click the signature line and select Sign from the menu.
   
6. The Sign dialog box will appear. For a printed signature, simply type your name to the right of the X as shown below, or draw a signature with your pointing device or touchscreen. If you have an image of your handwritten signature, you can use that instead by clicking the Select Image… link and navigating to the image file.
   
7. Clicking the See additional information about what you are signing… link at the top of the dialog box will open a dialog box showing metadata that will be included in the signature.
   
   
8. The certificate which will be used to sign the file is shown near the bottom of the dialog box. Clicking the Change button will open a dialog box for choosing from available certificates. In this case only one document-signing certificate is installed so only one choice is shown.
   
   
9. Clicking the Details button will open a dialog box which can be used to add title and address information.
   
   
10. If you checked Allow the signer to add comments in the Sign dialog when setting up the signature line, two additional fields will be present:
    
    
    • The Commitment Type drop-down lets you specify if you created and/or approved the document.
      
    • The Purpose for signing this document text field allows you to explicitly specify the purpose for signing.
      
11. When all of your signing information is entered and correct, click the Sign button.
    
12. Enter your YubiKey PIN and click the OK button.
    
13. A dialog box will appear confirming that the document has been signed. Click the OK button to close it.
    
14. A message will appear at the top of the screen indicating that the document has been marked as final, and the signature line will be marked as signed at the bottom. If you chose to display the date with the signature it will be shown at the top right of the signature line.
    
    
    Important: editing a document after it has been signed will remove any existing signatures from it.
15. The Signatures button will also appear at the bottom of the document window. Clicking it will open a panel detailing document signatures on the right side of the screen.
    
    
16. When the signed document is opened in Word, users will be alerted that the document is signed.
    

Adding Invisible Signatures in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint

1. SSL.com ships document signing certificates on YubiKey FIPS USB tokens. Make sure the YubiKey is inserted in your computer.
   
2. Click the File tab.
   
3. Select Info.
   
4. Click Protect Document (Word), Protect Workbook (Excel), or Protect Presentation (PowerPoint), then select Add a Digital Signature from the menu.
   
5. The Sign dialog box will appear.
   
6. Clicking See additional information about what you are signing will open a dialog box showing metadata that will be included in the signature.
   
   
7. The Commitment Type drop-down lets you specify if you created and/or approved the document.
   
   
8. The Purpose for signing this document text field allows you to explicitly specify the purpose for signing.
   
9. The certificate which will be used to sign the file is shown near the bottom of the dialog box. Clicking the Change button will open a dialog box for choosing from available certificates. In this case only one document-signing certificate is installed so only one choice is shown.
   
   
10. Clicking the Details button will open a dialog box which can be used to add title and address information.
    
    
11. When all of your signing information is entered and correct, click the Sign button.
    
12. Enter your YubiKey PIN and click the OK button.
    
13. A dialog box will appear confirming that the document has been signed. Click the OK button to close it.
    
14. Messages that the document has been signed and marked as final will appear.
    
    
    Important: editing a document after it has been signed will remove any existing signatures from it.
15. The Signatures button will also appear at the bottom of the document window. Clicking it will open a panel detailing document signatures on the right side of the screen.
    
    
16. When the signed document is opened in Word, users will be alerted that the document is signed.
    

Removing Signatures

Removing a Visible Signature

1. Right-click the signature line and choose Remove Signature from the menu.
   
2. A dialog box will appear. Click the Yes button to confirm that you want to remove the signature.
   
3. A dialog box confirming that the signature has been removed will appear. Click OK to close the box.
   

Removing an Invisible Signature

1. Click the Signatures button at the bottom of the window.
   
2. A pane showing the document’s signatures will appear on the right side of the window.
   
3. Click the black triangle to the right of the certificate you want to remove, choose Remove Signature from the menu, then confirm that you want to remove it.
   
4. A dialog box will appear. Click the Yes button to confirm that you want to remove the signature.
   
5. A dialog box confirming that the signature has been removed will appear. Click OK to close the box.