Noots Signatures

Noots Signatures is how you get a document signed. Upload a file or pick one already in your workspace, choose who signs (yourself, colleagues, people outside the workspace, or any mix), put the signature boxes and other fields exactly where they go on the page, and send it. When everybody has signed, you get one finished PDF with a certificate of completion at the end. It is an extension: install it from Org settings → Extensions, or have it ticked for you by the Legal & Professional Services, Government & Public Sector or Engineering & Construction industry. It works on every plan, Free included.

The Signatures tab

The tab works like a file manager. The left side lists fixed views with a live count beside each, then your own folders, then My signatures:

• Needs your signature
• Waiting on others
• Completed
• Drafts
• Templates
• All documents

Search, sort by last change, name or status, and open anything with a click. Tick several rows (hold Shift to take a range) to move them into a folder together, or drag a row onto a folder. Folders are yours alone, can sit inside each other, and moving or deleting one never deletes a document: whatever was inside goes back to unfiled. The New button offers Sign a document yourself, Send for signature and New template. On a phone the views become a picker at the top.

Sending a document

1. 1Press New, then Send for signature or Sign a document yourself. You can also use Request signature on a file in a project, a task or a chat.
2. 2Choose the document: drop a file in, pick one from your workspace, or start from a template.
3. 3Choose who signs. Add colleagues from the list, or anybody else by name and email address.
4. 4Place the fields on the pages (see below).
5. 5Review the title, an optional note, how long a signature stays valid, and who signs what, then press Send.

Anything you have not sent yet is a draft. Drafts save as you go, only you can see them, and nobody is told about one until you send it. You can pick a draft up again from Drafts, or discard it; a draft nobody has touched for a month is cleared away.

Which files can have fields. A PDF, PNG or JPEG, up to 15 MB and 150 pages. A picture becomes a one-page PDF. For a Word document or a spreadsheet, save it as a PDF first. A file of another type that is already in your workspace can still be sent to be signed as a whole, with no fields on the page, and the screen tells you that before you start. That includes people outside your workspace: once they have confirmed their emailed code they read the file on their signing page - text, markdown and spreadsheets saved as CSV are shown there, and a Word document or another file their browser cannot show is offered as a download. When everybody has signed, the finished record is the signing record (who signed, when, and the file's fingerprint) rather than a sealed PDF.

Who signs

• Only me - you sign your own document, and signing opens as soon as you send. Noots does not send you a notification asking you to sign it.
• Me and others - you are one of the signers, alongside colleagues or people outside the workspace.
• Others - you send it and follow along.

Up to 20 signers on one document. Give each one a role if it helps (Client, Witness, Manager). Turn on One at a time, in order when the order matters, and drag people into it; otherwise everybody is asked at once.

Placing fields

Each signer has their own colour. Pick who a field belongs to, then drag a field from the list onto the page (on a phone, tap the field and then tap the page). Drag to move, pull the corners to resize, and use the panel beside the page to change who it is for, whether it is required, and its label.

Arrow keys nudge the selected field (hold Shift to move it further), Delete removes it, Ctrl or Cmd + D duplicates it and Escape lets go. Undo and redo are there too. Every signer needs somewhere to sign or initial - a Signature or an Initials field - before you can send, and Noots names anybody who has neither.

Initials. To have somebody initial every page, place one Initials field, select it and press Add to every page. Somebody who only initials, with no signature box anywhere, is fine: an initials field is enough for them to sign.

Signing

1. 1Read the short note about signing electronically and press I agree, or Decline if you would rather not. It says you can ask the sender for a paper copy instead.
2. 2If you are not in the sender's workspace, enter the code Noots has just emailed you.
3. 3Read the document. Your own fields are highlighted, and Start then Next takes you to each one in turn, with a count of what is left.
4. 4Press a signature field to adopt your signature. Your initials are suggested from your name, and a text box or checkbox is filled in place. Name, email and date fill themselves in when you sign.
5. 5Tick the sentence saying you intend to sign, then press Sign.

Three ways to make a signature. Type your name and choose a style (Flowing, Formal, Handwritten, Casual), with a live preview; draw it with a mouse, a trackpad or a finger; or upload a picture of your real signature (a PNG or JPEG works best), which is trimmed and given a clean background. Initials work the same way. Whichever you choose, the signed copy shows exactly what you saw on screen.

My signatures keeps signatures and initials you want to reuse, so next time you can pick one instead of making it again. Only you can see or use yours.

People outside your workspace

Add them by name and email address. They get an email from Noots with your name, your organization, the document's title and your note, and one button. The link works for 30 days. When they open it they agree to sign electronically and Noots emails them a 6-digit code, which confirms the invitation reached them. A code lasts 10 minutes and allows 5 tries, and they can ask for a new one after 60 seconds. They do not need an account and do not become a member of your workspace.

While it is their turn and they have not signed, Noots emails them again up to 3 times, 3 days apart, each time with a fresh link (the previous one stops working). When everybody has signed, each outside signer is emailed a link to the finished copy, which works for 365 days. Noots confirms an email address, not a person: who you send to, and whether that address is really theirs, is yours to check.

Templates, and sending one to many people

A template is a document with its fields already placed, tied to roles (say Employee and Manager) rather than to people. Make one from New template, or keep a document you have set up with Save as template. A template is private to you unless you share it with the whole workspace; its creator, or somebody who can manage members, can change it.

Use fills in the people for each role and opens the result as a draft for you to check before sending. Send to many sends the same template to a list of people, up to 200 at once: choose the role that changes, paste or type the names and email addresses, and each person gets their own copy to sign. Templates can also be edited, duplicated and archived.

The completed document

When the last person signs, Noots writes everything onto the pages and seals one PDF. Every field is filled in, every page carries the envelope number and its page count, and a certificate of completion is added at the end. The certificate lists the document's fingerprint, when it was created, sent and completed, the sender's name and email, and for each signer their name and email address, how they proved who they were (signed in to Noots, or an email address confirmed with a code), when they agreed to sign electronically, when they opened and signed it, and the signature they adopted. The history of the request follows, with the IP address and browser for each step, including the sender's when they sent it. Every signer receives this copy.

The sender and the signers can download it from the document with Signed PDF. Signing record downloads the same trail as text. A document signed as a whole, with no fields, keeps that record rather than a sealed PDF.

Checking a copy

Anybody holding a copy can check it at noots.ai/verify, with or without an account. Their browser works out the file's fingerprint itself and sends only that; the file is never uploaded. If it matches a sealed copy, the page shows the title, the envelope number, when it was completed, and who signed and when. If it does not match, the file is either a different document or a copy that has been changed since it was sealed, even by one byte.

What the record holds

Whether the file still matches

A document sent from your workspace is fingerprinted when it goes out and again when each person signs, and it is checked again whenever anybody opens it. There are three answers: it still matches, it has changed since, or the file has gone so there is nothing to compare. A change is reported against the signer it affects and is never smoothed over.

Following it, chasing it, withdrawing it

Each person on a document is shown separately as Not opened, Opened, Signed, Declined, Expired or Cancelled, and one person declining does not cancel it for the others. As the sender you can Ask again (for somebody outside the workspace, that emails them a fresh link), Withdraw it, Save as template or Use again.