Sign your PDF documents

Yes. You can place an electronic signature into your PDF documents right on your computer without going through the print-sign-scan-fax/email cycle. And it’s easy. Also, now you can “unsend” that incendiary Gmail if you act quickly.

 

Last week a customer with a brand new computer asked how he could add a signature to a document and then send it to someone. There are lots of programs you can download that claim to do this, and many of those programs contain crapware. I’m not going to show you that way.

The method most often used by people who ask that question is:

• Download a document attached to an email.
• Print the document (or at least the page that requires a signature)
• Sign the document
• Scan the signed page and email it - OR - Fax the signed page

And that works OK, but there is a much easier way!

You can use Acrobat Reader DC (the newest version of Adobe Reader) to sign a document electronically. A tool called Fill & Sign will guide you through signing or initialling forms or other PDF documents. This article from the Acrobat Help page outlines the procedure in detail: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/using/signing-pdfs.html#sign_a_pdf. The short version of my customer’s story is that since he has a nice touch screen laptop running Windows 8.1, he just used his finger to sign on the screen, an option not discussed in that article.

Are there any Mac users in your household? They can use this feature, too, by installing the latest version of Acrobat Reader for their operating system. Of course there’s no touch screen on a Mac, so like the rest of us they’ll need to use the type or scan in a signature.

You can get Acrobat Reader here, for whatever operating system you’re using: https://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/. Just get the Reader, and decline all offers of browsers and other crapware.

 

Gmail users rejoice. An experimental feature that allows you to “Undo send” is now officially part of Gmail. It’s disabled by default, so if you’d like a little less drama in your life I suggest you go into your settings and turn it on.

• Open your Gmail
• Click on the Settings icon (It looks like a gear) in the upper right-hand corner
• Click on Settings
• Select the General tab
• Scroll down to Undo Send
• Place a check mark in the Enable box, and set the timer the way you want it.
• IMPORTANT! Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and Save your changes!

When you send a Gmail message, you’ll see the confirmation that it’s been sent and the options to View or Undo. The Undo option is only available for the time you set, and 30 seconds is the maximum. If you choose Undo, the message will go into your Drafts for you to edit or discard.

Thanks, Google!

Many readers were kind enough to sponsor me in the 40K Ride Don’t Hide event for the Canadian Mental Health Association. I am so grateful for your support and for your messages of encouragement. The Kelowna ride reportedly raised close to $60,000. Thank you again.

 

Do you need help with your computer? I'm here to help you and your home or business computer get along!

Cate Eales runs Computer Care Kelowna (http://computercarekelowna.com/) a mobile service helping home users and businesses get along with their computers. To arrange an appointment phone her at 250-764-7043. Cate also welcomes your comments and suggestions. Send email to [email protected].

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This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.