Want to sign a PDF in WordPress but aren’t sure how? This handy digital signature plugin makes it fast and easy — no coding required!
Approximate read time: 6 minutes
We don’t know about you, but we find it pretty annoying when we need to sign a document and have to go through the hassle of printing out the PDF, signing it, scanning it, and sending it back. 😖
Who has the time and patience — not to mention the printer, paper, and ink! — to do all that nowadays? Not only is it a bad user experience, but it can cause an organizational nightmare for businesses too.
Luckily, it’s easy to avoid all these problems.
Just add a digital signature field to your online forms, and presto! 🪄 You can automatically sign PDFs right on your website.
If you have a WordPress website, there are a few different ways to sign PDFs. Let’s take a look at why you may want to add digital signatures to your PDFs, the types of documents you can make, and how to add an electronic signature in WordPress.
Why sign PDFs in WordPress?
There are a lot of benefits to adding digital signatures to WordPress forms and documents.
🤖 Automate and streamline processes
Hate wasting time sending emails back and forth? So do we!
Make signature collection quick and easy by letting your users or colleagues sign a form once and instantly generate a PDF with their signature. And go even further by sending automated emails to your team or collaborators with the signed PDF file as an attachment.
✅ Add security and authenticity
Collecting signatures on your forms adds an extra layer of security and authenticity.
Asking users to sign their form submissions protects against fake or fraudulent submissions. However, adding the signature of a CEO or president lets users know your PDF is an official company document.
🗄️ Easily keep a paper trail
Dream of having all your signed documents instantly saved in the same place? When you add a digital signature to WordPress forms, your form entries are all grouped together in a centralized location. Then it’s easy to export all the PDFs whenever you want.
Plus, your signed PDFs work as a digital audit trail to easily track and verify who signed a form and when. Very helpful for clearing up any confusion and resolving any disputes!
What can you use WordPress PDF signatures for?
Collecting signatures on a WordPress form or PDF is super useful for all kinds of online contracts and forms like:
- Non-Disclosure agreements (NDAs)
- Rental applications & lease agreements
- Employment contracts
- Letters of recommendation
- Parental consent forms
- Online petitions
- Certificates & awards
- Registration forms
💡 Good to know — WordPress e-signature PDFs don't necessarily count as legally binding contracts depending on where you live. Be sure to look into local laws concerning digital signatures and online contracts.
Need to use your WordPress forms for UETA- and ESIGN-compliant signatures? You can connect an ApproveMe WP E-Signature account to Formidable Forms. Here’s how.
How to sign a PDF in WordPress
You have two options for signing a PDF in WordPress:
- connect a third-party application like DocuSign with Zapier
- use a WordPress signature plugin.
You probably already guessed which method we prefer 😊 (psst it’s our form and PDF plugin with signatures).
But we promise it isn’t only because we make the plugin.
It can be tricky to set up all the integrations if you choose to use a third-party application. Plus, your files will be hosted on their platform rather than saved on your WordPress site. You’d need to sign up for yet another account and may even need a paid plan depending on the number of documents signed.
On the other hand, WordPress plugins make it simple to use WordPress to sign a PDF and let you keep your data inside your own site.
So, let’s show you how to add a digital signature to your website quickly and easily:
1. Install and activate Formidable Forms
If you haven’t already, grab a Formidable Forms Pro plan. You’ll need the Formidable Business plan or higher for digitally signing PDFs.
Next, install and activate Formidable Forms on your WordPress site.
Once the plugin is activated, go to Formidable → Add-Ons to install and activate the Signature Add-On and the PDF Add-On. Both are included in your plan.
All set up? Great! 👍 On to the fun stuff!
2. Make your form with signature field
Head to Formidable → Forms. Click + Add New in the upper right to create a new form or add a signature field to an existing form by hovering over the name of your form and clicking “Edit”.
For new forms, you’ll have the choice to use a template or to start with a Blank Form.
And voilà! Welcome to our user-friendly drag-and-drop form builder! 🏗️
Drag and drop the signature field into your form, along with any other fields you want. Once a field’s been added to your form, click on it to edit the settings like field name, description, layout, and more.
For the signature field, you can choose whether to allow users to draw or type their signature as well.
When you’re happy with your form, click Update to save.
👉 Did you know you can make forms faster using one of our pre-made templates? Add a signature field to our basic contact form template or use this all-in-one signed agreement PDF template for longer forms like contracts and applications.
3. Build your PDF
Time to insert the signatures collected in your form into a PDF! We’ll do this by creating what we call a View.
First, click on the Views tab above the form builder then hit + Add New.
Choose whichever View type you like. For making PDFs like letterheads, contracts, and certificates, we recommend using the Grid type.
Name your new view and click Create a view. Head to the Layout Builder to start making your custom PDF!
Drag and drop rows and columns to design the layout of your PDF file, then hit Save Layout.
Next, insert your form content into your PDF. Click on the ⊕ in a layout block to add or edit the block’s content.
In the content editor, scroll down on the right side to find your custom form field content.
Click to insert the signature into your PDF and then hit Update.
All that’s left is to finish filling in the PDF with your content!
Need a little help making your PDF? Check out our complete guide to How to use the WordPress PDF editor or use one of our pre-built View templates.
Once you’re done building your PDF, you want to take note of your View ID for the next step. The ID is displayed on the left side of the View window. It should look something like this:
[display-frm-data id=x]The “x” is your View ID.
4. Share your PDF
Now we need to put our PDF on our website for all the world to see!
We’ll use the View shortcode to insert the PDF into automated emails, a WordPress page or post, or form submission actions.
Just copy and paste the following shortcode:
[frm-pdf id=x]Paste it wherever you want your signed PDF to appear, replacing the “x” with your View ID number.
Learn more about displaying your signed PDF in our Knowledge Base.
5. Display your form
Whew, almost done! And luckily the last step is a really easy one!
Above the View builder, go to the Build tab to return to your form. Next, you can click the Embed button to show your form wherever you want on your website.
You can also add your form to any WordPress page or post by simply inserting the Formidable Forms block. Just head to the page or post where you want to display your form, then click to add a new WordPress block.
Add the Formidable Forms WordPress block and choose your form from the dropdown menu.
Publish or Update and that’s it! Your form and signed PDFs are now online! 🙌
Ready to Sign PDFs in WordPress?
There’s so much you can do when you combine the power of our forms, signature fields, and custom WordPress PDF generator. What will you create with our plugin? Let us know in the comments — yes, we really want to know!
And be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for more WordPress tips and tricks! See you there!
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