Fill in, sign and send for signature

Sopycat can fill in a PDF form, add boxes to a PDF that doesn't have any, place your handwritten signature or a stamp, and sign with a digital certificate. Everything happens on your computer.

Fill in a form

Open a PDF › Fill in

The Fill in tab shows the form's own boxes: text boxes, multi-line boxes, checkboxes, choices, dropdowns and signature boxes.

1. Open the PDF and choose Fill in.
2. Type your answers and tick the boxes.
3. For a signature box, press Sign and pick or make a signature. Change swaps it and Clear removes it.
4. Press Save or Ctrl+S.

Stop anyone changing the answers

Tick Lock the answers in before you save. The words become part of the page, so nobody can change them later. Leave it off if you still need to edit the form. Signature boxes that haven't been signed yet stay live, so someone can still sign them.

"This PDF has no fill-in boxes"

The PDF was made as a flat page rather than a form. You have two options:

• Add real boxes on the Fields tab. Sopycat can find them for you.
• Type straight onto the page with Mark up › Type on the page.

Fill the same details again and again

Open a PDF › Fill in › Fill from a profile

A profile is a saved set of answers, such as your company details or a client's name and address.

1. Fill in a form once.
2. Choose Save these answers as a profile… and give it a name, for example the company or client.
3. Next time, open Fill from a profile and pick it. Matching boxes fill themselves in.

Manage profiles… lets you edit or remove them. Profiles are kept in your library folder, so if your office shares a library, everyone who uses it shares the profiles too.

Add form fields to a PDF

Open a PDF › Fields

Turn any PDF into a form others can fill in, in Sopycat or in any PDF reader.

Let Sopycat find the boxes

1. Choose Find the boxes on this page.
2. Sopycat looks for the boxes and lines on the page and tells you how many it found.
3. Press Add to turn them into fields.

Draw the fields yourself

1. Choose a field type: Text box, Date, Checkbox, Choice, Dropdown or Signature.
2. Drag on the page where it should go.
3. With Select, click a field to change it.

Each field has options: a Name, the choices for a dropdown (one per line), Allow typing something else, a Group for choices that answer one question, Several lines, Must be filled in, and Remove. Fields are written into the file when you save.

Sign with your handwriting

Open a PDF › Mark up › Signature

1. Choose Signature. The Your signatures window opens.
2. Choose Draw to sign with the mouse or a pen, or Type to type your name in one of four handwriting styles.
3. Choose Full signature or Initials.
4. Press Keep and use. Clear starts the drawing again.
5. Click the page where the signature goes, then save.

Signatures you keep are listed under Saved. Next time, press Use beside one. Sopycat keeps up to 12, on this computer only. They don't travel with a shared library.

You can also sign from a form's signature box: Fill in › Sign.

Stamp a page

Open a PDF › Mark up › Stamp

Ready-made stamps: Approved, Draft, Confidential, Received, Reviewed, Final, Void, Copy, Sign here and Paid. Received, Reviewed and Paid add the date.

To use your own stamp, such as a company seal, go to Your pictures › Add a picture… and pick a PNG or JPEG. Your own stamps are kept on this computer.

Picture signature or certificate signature?

	Handwritten (picture)	Certificate
What it is	Your signature drawn or typed onto the page	A digital signature tied to a certificate file
Proves who signed	No	Yes
Shows later changes	No	Yes, any change after signing shows
Where	Mark up › Signature	More › Sign with a certificate…

Sign with a certificate

Open a PDF › More › Sign with a certificate…

1. Choose your Certificate file (.pfx or .p12) and enter its Passphrase.
2. Add a Reason and Location if you like. Both are optional.
3. Tick Show a signature box on the page to place a visible box. Leave it off and the signature is invisible on the page; readers see it in their signature panel.
4. Press Sign.

I don't have a certificate

Choose I don't have one: make a self-signed certificate, enter your name, an email if you like, and a passphrase to protect it, then press Make and use it. A self-signed certificate is fine for signing inside your own office. People outside it see the signature as valid but not issued by an authority they trust. For that, buy a certificate from a provider.

Check the signatures on a PDF

Open a PDF › More › Signatures…

A signed PDF shows a Signed chip in the toolbar, or Signature problem if something is wrong. Signatures… shows, for each signature, whether the content is exactly what was signed, whether anything was added after signing, and whether the certificate was valid. It doesn't check whether the signer's certificate comes from an authority your office trusts, because Sopycat keeps no certificate store.

Send a PDF for someone else to sign

Open a PDF › More › Prepare a copy for someone to sign…

1. Add signature boxes on the Fields tab if the PDF doesn't have them, and save.
2. Choose Prepare a copy for someone to sign….
3. Choose where to save it. The name ends in "- for signature.pdf".
4. Send that file to the person who needs to sign it.

In the copy, the answers are locked in, and the signature boxes stay live and are tinted "Sign here". The copy is locked against changes with a strong lock, but the person can still fill in, sign, print and copy from it.

Which of these follow me to another computer?

• Form profiles: yes, they're in the library folder.
• Saved signatures and your own stamps: no, they stay on the computer where you made them.