Preparing Documents

Place fields and decide who fills what

Fields are the spots on a document where signers sign, initial, type or choose. You place them in the Prepare Your Document step after setting up the document.

The preparation steps

Step	What you do
Arrange Pages	Upload, combine and reorder pages. See Uploading & arranging pages.
Import Fields	Bring in form fields that already exist in your PDF (optional).
Design	Drag fields onto the pages and configure them. (When starting from a template this step is Assign Fields: the fields are already placed and you assign them to signers.)
Preview	Check every page, field and recipient before sending.

Importing existing form fields

If your PDF already contains fillable form fields, Signiphi detects them and shows “We detected existing form fields in your PDF…”.

Under Import Field Labels, choose From PDF to keep their names as labels, or Keep Blank.
Untick any fields you don't want in Fields to Import.
Click Import N Fields, or Skip Import to start from an empty page.

If nothing is found you'll see No Form Fields Detected: click Continue to Design Fields.

Placing fields

In the Form Fields palette, choose who new fields belong to with Assign new fields to.
Drag a field type onto the page.
Drag it to move it; drag its edges to resize it.
Click a field to open Field Properties and adjust its settings.

Use Undo (Ctrl/⌘ + Z) and Redo (Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + Z), zoom in and out, and hide the palette or properties panel for more room.

Field types

Field	Use it for
Signature	The signer’s full signature (drawn, typed or uploaded).
Initials	The signer’s typed initials.
Date Signed	Filled in automatically with the date the signer signs. Must belong to one specific signer.
Text Field	A single line of text (or several lines with multiline turned on).
Date	A date the signer picks from a calendar.
Checkbox	A single tick box.
Radio Button	One choice from several options.
Dropdown	One choice from a list.
Text Label	Fixed text you add to the document; signers can’t change it.

Tip

Signers only sign once. Their signature and initials are applied to every signature and initials field assigned to them.

Contact-detail fields

The Contact details tab has text fields tagged with a kind of information. When a signer with a Signiphi Signing profile opens the document, these are filled in for them (they can still change the values). Email and phone fields also check the format.

Group	Fields
Name	Full name, First name, Last name
Contact	Email, Phone
Company	Company, Job title
Address	Full address, Street address, City, State / region, Postal code, Country

Note

A field's tag can't be changed after you place it. Delete the field and place the one you want.

Field properties

Setting	What it does
Required	The signer can’t submit until it’s filled in.
Field Label	A short description shown to the signer. Turn on Draw label on document to print it on the page.
Field Name	An internal name, used to match CSV columns.
Placeholder	Hint text shown in an empty field.
Default Value	A value already filled in when the signer opens it (for Text Labels: the text itself).
Assigned Signer	Who fills this field in. See below.
Auto-fit / Multiline	Shrink text to fit the box, or allow several lines.
Date format	Numeric (e.g. MM/DD/YYYY, DD/MM/YYYY, YYYY-MM-DD) or written (e.g. “Jan 5, 2026”, “Monday, January 5, 2026”).
Options	Choices for radio buttons and dropdowns. Click New option to add one.
Radio layout & print style	Keep options as a Stacked list or Placed individually anywhere on the page, and choose what the final document shows: circles only, circles with option text, or with a heading.
Position & Size	Exact width and height.
Acknowledgements	Statements the signer must confirm. See below.

To remove a field, select it and click Delete Field.

Assigning fields to signers

Every field belongs to someone. Pick the person under Assigned Signer, or choose All recipients for a field every primary recipient fills in. Each signer only sees their own fields when signing.

Fields with no signer show “This field is not assigned to a signer. Pick one.”
With a single signer, Date Signed fields are assigned to them automatically. With several signers, assign each one, otherwise sending is blocked.
If you remove a signer who already had fields, you'll be asked what to do with them: Reassign them to another signer, Delete field(s), or go Back to setup.

Acknowledgements

Add acknowledgements to a field (a title and description for each) when the signer must confirm something before filling it, for example, “I have read the terms in section 4”. A field with acknowledgements is always required, and the signer can't submit until every statement is ticked.

Preview & send

Previewshows every page with its fields, plus totals for pages, fields and recipients. When you're happy, click Submit Document. Signiphi creates the document(s) and emails the first person in each signing order.

Success: everyone was sent their document.
Partial Success: some sends failed; the message lists the email addresses affected.
If sending fails after preparation, the document is saved and a banner says “Document is prepared but signers were not notified.” Click Retry send.

Editing a document later

From the Documents list:

Prepare Document: for drafts not yet prepared.
Continue Preparing: for documents that are prepared but not sent.
Correct Document: for a sent document nobody has opened yet. See Correcting a sent document.

On the setup step you can also switch Source to Use Template: the template's PDF and fields then replace the current document and its fields.