PDF Documents

Automate form creation with text tags

Add specially formatted text (tags) into your Word or PDF documents and Legalesign will automatically convert them into form fields. You can go straight to sending out your document for online signature or approval. Upload Text Tags to send your documents in a couple of clicks.

Tags eliminate time on document preparation; you can upload and send out your document in only a few seconds, even with complex forms.

How to enable Text Tags on your Team

Click your team name on the top left of the screen, click on the cogwheel icon on the right of the dropdown menu to visit the Group Settings page, and then click Templates. Tick 'Process text tags on upload' and then click 'Save' to Confirm.

This video shows a document with tags signatures from 2 signers. It shows you how to format Text Tags and then how to upload and process them.

How to use tags

This is a text tag to add a signature: <<t=signature>>

The start and end symbols, '<<' and '>>',  tells Legalesign you are writing a text tag that will become a field.   The content between those symbols defines what kind of field you want. 't=signature' will add a signature, shorthand for 'type=signature'.

The 'type=' or 't=' part of the tag is an 'attribute'. Attributes are the detailed settings on your field, e.g. the font size, whether it is required, other validations, etc. A full table of attributes can be found below.

Legalesign assumes the tag above is for signer 1.  If you have multiple signers you will need to include the signer attribute to confirm which signer you are referring to. For example in the tags below we add a signature for signer 1 and another for signer 2 (a second signer), using the long-hand and the short-hand attribute names.

<<type=signature;signer=1>>   terse version: <<t=signature;s=1>>

<<type=signature;signer=2>>  terse version: <<t=signature;s=2>>

As you can see adding more attributes is easy; just split them with a semi colon,  write the attribute (long or short-hand version) followed by the '=' symbol, then the value you want.

Signers are identified by 1-99, Witnesses by 101-199, for example:

s=3 means signer 3

s=103 means the witness associated with signer 3

NOTE: Approvers are Signers but without a signature field.

And as you will have noticed, the short-hand name of an attribute is usually the first letter of the long-hand name.

In the attributes table below you'll see all the possible attributes and the values you can use.

Font size

If you do not use fontsize (fs) attribute the system will try and work it out from your document.

Field width

The field width will be the distance between the first '<' and the last '>'. Add blank spaces to increase the width. Reduce the width by using the terse shorthand, reducing your font size and using the fontsize (fs) attribute.

Field height

Height is the height of your '<' and '>'.  Use the height or 'h' attribute to increase/decrease height. Its value will be a multiplier on the current height. 2 will make it twice the height, 0.5 will make it half the height etc.

The h attribute will not work for signatures or initials. Signatures and initials have a fixed aspect ratio and so the height will be automatically applied based on field width.

Field background

Will always be white.

Field types

Legalesign has four types of field:

  1. 'sender' field - completed when sending out the document to be signed (so PDF is re-usable)

  2. 'signer' field - a field for a signer to fill out

  3. 'signature' -  a signature field, at least one is needed

  4. 'initials' - an initials field.

Required/optional

The system will assume everything is required, unless you mark it as optional (use attribute r=0).

If using checkboxes make sure you add the optional attribute - r=0 - if you want the signer to be able to leave a checkbox unticked.

Known issues

Extracting positioning info from PDFs is non-trivial and so, if you can, make your DOC/PDF as simple as possible. Avoid these situations:

  • Tags breaking across lines; and

  • tags of a different font/height from surrounding text.

Attributes

The only required field is type (t)

Examples

A signature for one signer:

<<t=signature>>

Required sender field with label 'Our business', prefilled value (default)  'My Biz Name' and fontsize 12:

<<t=sender;l=Our business;d=My Biz Name;fs=12>>

Required signer field for first signer, requiring an email:

<<t=signer;s=1;f=1>>

Non-required dropdown field for signer 1, with dropdown options i) something, ii) or, iii) other:

<<t=signer;s=1;r=0;f=20;o=something^or^other>>

A required signer field for signer 1, widened and 3 times the height of the line:

<<t=signer;s=1;h=3;                   >>

Fields - these are values for the 'field' (f) attribute

Use this to change the appearance or validation on a sender or signer field (e.g a checkbox or dropdown, or formatting requirement, like a date).

1) Email

2) yyyy/mm/dd

3) yy/mm/dd

4) dd/mm/yyyy

5) dd/mm/yy

6) mm/dd/yyyy

7) mm/dd/yy

8) yyyy.mm.dd

9) yy.mm.dd

10) dd.mm.yyyy

11) dd.mm.yy

12) mm.dd.yyyy

13) mm.dd.yy

14) yyyy-mm-dd

15) yy-mm-dd

16) dd-mm-yyyy

17) dd-mm-yy

18) mm-dd-yyyy

19) mm-dd-yy

20) Dropdown - use options attribute for values

24) /✗

25) /blank

26) ✗/blank

30) yyyy/mm/dd (auto sign day - signer only)

31) yy/mm/dd (auto sign day - signer only)

32) dd/mm/yyyy (auto sign day - signer only)

33) dd/mm/yy (auto sign day - signer only)

34) mm/dd/yyyy (auto sign day - signer only)

35) mm/dd/yy (auto sign day - signer only)

36) yyyy.mm.dd (auto sign day - signer only)

37) yy.mm.dd (auto sign day - signer only)

38) dd.mm.yyyy (auto sign day - signer only)

39) dd.mm.yy (auto sign day - signer only)

40) mm.dd.yyyy (auto sign day - signer only)

41) mm.dd.yy (auto sign day - signer only)

42) yyyy-mm-dd (auto sign day - signer only)

43) yy-mm-dd (auto sign day - signer only)

44) dd-mm-yyyy (auto sign day - signer only)

45) dd-mm-yy (auto sign day - signer only)

46) mm-dd-yyyy (auto sign day - signer only)

47) mm-dd-yy (auto sign day - signer only)

48) d mmmm yyyy (auto sign day - signer only)

50) Whole number

51) Number

52) Currency

53) 1 number

54) 2 numbers

55) 3 numbers

56) 4 numbers

57) 5 numbers

58) 6 numbers

59) 7 numbers

60) 8 numbers

61) 9 numbers

62) 10 numbers

63) 11 numbers

64) 12 numbers

65) 1 character (any text)

66) 2 characters (any text)

67) 3 characters (any text)

68) 4 characters (any text)

69) 5 characters (any text)

70) 6 characters (any text)

71) 7 characters (any text)

72) 8 characters (any text)

73) Secret code (use option for code - signer only)

74) Attach file (to email to sender after signing - signer only)

75) Attach file (append to final PDF, PDF only - signer only)

76) Attach file (zip with final pdf for admin only, signer gets pdf only)

77) Force to title caps

78) Force to uppercase

79) Force to lowercase

80) mm/yy

81) mm/yyyy

82) mm.yy

83) mm.yyyy

84) mm-yy

85) mm-yyyy

90) Drawn field (draw anything with mouse/touch)

91) Dropdown list of countries

92) Dropdown list of name honorifics

93) Regular expression field - use options (o) to define expression and optionally an error message (use ^ to separate)

Contact support with any queries.