multiple signatures

Multiple Signatures (new)

Usage: A Google Form that can be signed by many people

See the signing experience

Setup

Limit for the number of signatures per Form Response

This limits the per-response limit, not the overall limit for the Form. Each response by default can receive an unlimited number of signature, i.e. one set of answers to your Form's questions may be associated with one of more signatures. A great use case is both guardians signing for a child. Regardless of the number of signatures received on a Form Response, only one is counted for billing.

Protect view links for received signatures

If checked (default): For two hours after signing, the link is "open", where other add-ons and the respondent may view and take any action as needed. After that time the link becomes protected. Protected links can be opened only by the Owner or any current Collaborator of the Form.

If un-checked: The signing link can be used by anyone. It contains a unique string of 32 characters and is very difficult to locate, but in theory a link could be found by someone that is working very hard to find one.

This setting can be changed at any time from the Dashboard.

Note that despite this setting, no signature link will be usable if any one of the following is done: deactivating signing, changing the Response Sheet (items in the old Response Sheet become inaccessible), or removing the "multisignaturebot@gmail.com" Collaborator from the Response Sheet.

More information about link security - Protected versus Basic

Protected mode

Requires the viewer to use a Google sign-in. We retrieve the email address of the person that signed-in, and check that the same address exists in the list of Collaborators/Editors on the Form.

This way the Form is its own authority; only those people that can view the responses in the Form can also view the signatures.

Basic mode

Uses the complexity of the links themselves as security.

For the signatures in your Form's active Response Sheet with Basic security on: An attacker would need (per the Kaspersky password checker) about 20 centuries to find any signature at all.

We'd recommend only using Basic security when needed, then doing one of the following:

  • Switch the Form to Protected mode (from the Dashboard)

    • This requires a log-in to view and will only present to Editors/Collaborators of the Form at the time of viewing



  • Or remove our "multisignaturebot@gmail.com" Editor from the Sheet

    • The add-on simply won't be able to access the responses/signatures. Simple and effective

Layout note - only "questions" and "answers" are displayed on the signing page

The Signature View page will display the questions and answers along with the signature for a given response.

It's important to note any text blocks that aren't specifically questions or answers won't be displayed!


If detailing e.g. a waiver, we recommend breaking the long text in to a few "Checkbox" questions, with simple "I agree" potential answers. This way when the signature is viewed later, the entire waiver text is shown along with that person's agreement to each part.


Avoid using "Paragraph/Text" and question descriptions for important information - these won't be visible along with the signature.

Note: Change to a new Response Sheet when you reach 500 signatures

Sheets do fill up! We send a notice when you reach 400 responses, and strongly recommend changing to a new Form and Response Sheet by the time you reach 500 Responses.

Please see this article for instructions on approaching 500 responses


Need a link at the end of the Form?

Often you'll want to redirect your Form's user somewhere else after they finish the Form. Using a normal link will mean they're still stuck in the app - or may not load at all.

Instead, append this to the front of your link to allow the user to exit the add-on and continue to the link:

https://exit-signature.glitch.me#


Example usage as a link to Google at the end of the Form: https://exit-signature.glitch.me#https://www.google.com

How to distribute the Form to your users

When you turn on signing, you're required to click a button before the setup finishes. This copies a link to your clipboard.

The link that was copied can be given to your users to complete both the Form, and signature. You can also embed the Form in a page - continue reading the help on this page to see how.


To get this link again, open the add-on and navigate to "See pending". Find your Form in the list and click the Copy Link button.

Working with other add-ons

Visit the Working with other add-ons page.

Currently we've got implementations for Autocrat and formMule.

Please let us know what other add-ons you'd like to use and we'll make it work.

Using pre-filled links

After activating signing on a Form, you can set a pre-filled link to be used.


One pre-filled Form for everyone

Use the standard Forms method to get the pre-filled link.

Then visit the "See pending" area of the add-on, and click "Use pre-filled link". Paste your link in the box , and Save.

If you'd like to chnge back to the default, empty Form, click "Reset to empty Form" (you'll need to currently be on the Form).


Dynamic pre-filled Forms

Advanced users can dynamically generate new pre-filled Form links.

These links must be "URL encoded". Google Sheets has a handy function for this: =ENCODEURL("your pre-filled link")

Simply append "&viewLink=" and your URL encoded pre-filled link to the end of the usual signing link!


If you're using Google Sheets, a complete example may look like:

=HYPERLINK("usual signing link"&"&viewLink="&ENCODEURL("your pre-filled link"), "Sign")

This would be a great way to build your own pre-filled links from data in a sheet.

Embedding your Form in another page

You can display the link to your Form in a couple of interesting ways.


To show the actual Form for signing, try this code on your webpage:

You can alter the "style" attributes to fit your page better - these settings should work for most people

<iframe style="min-height:800px;width:100%;height:100%;border:none;" src="Link copied from the add-on"></iframe>


You can make the Form act like an entire web page on your own site. Set that page's HTML to the iframe code below. It's similar to the above, with altered dimensions to take up all of the space:

<iframe style="height:100vh;width:100%;border:none;" src="Link copied from the add-on"></iframe>


To just present the link more cleanly on a webpage:

<a href="Link copied from the add-on">Click here</a>

Features

We'll be adding more to this help page - let us know any questions

We've taken feedback about the Multiple Signatures product and built a new version from the ground up.

Key new features:

  • Camera

    • You can use your camera to take snaps of ID documents to go along with signatures!

    • Or to take a photo of your ink and paper signature

    • Or any other use you can think of


  • Signature is drawn before the end of the Form

    • No missed signatures - users can't finish the Form without signing

    • No link at the end - you can write your own message

    • Users will know immediately if they can sign the Form. No more reaching the end, only to find there aren't any signatures available


  • Receive many signatures in a single response

    • For example, the whole team can sign the site report

    • You can set a limit when setting up

    • We only count the response as a signature, so it won't hurt your balance!


  • Signing transfer/hand-off/sharing to other devices

    • The signing page includes a QR code so you can sign on another device

    • Useful if you're using a PC for the Form, but want to sign with your phone

    • Works with many signatures per response, so for example you can get your team to use their own devices to sign! Great for remaining contact-less


  • Works with other popular add-ons

    • formMule and Autocrat are incredibly popular add-ons - so we've built with these in mind

    • We're writing guides for common usage scenarios. Check back in the How-to section for more details


  • View signature link

    • The link to view the signature now includes much more details including questions and answers signed, and validation of these details


  • Dashboard

    • Rapidly view and print signatures from the Dashboard

    • View and print individually, or all together as a list

    • Visit the Dashboard from any existing individual Signature view link


  • Validation

    • We've re-written our validation protocol to be much more robust. Whenever the signature is viewed, it's re-checked against the original details

    • If you turn "Response receipts" on, your end users will receive this link and can print their own copy. It's styled to look like a Response in Google Forms


  • Overall speed improvement: Signatures are appended immediately. No more waiting as in the Classic version


  • Enhanced privacy

    • We already take privacy seriously, but this new version allows us to be even further removed from your users' information. No personal information is ever stored by us in this new version

In Multiple Signatures Classic, if access to your Response Sheet was unavailable we would put the signature image in our database so it wasn't lost. You can visit the dashboard and place it in your Sheet, which deletes it from the database. This backup method isn't used in the new method. We don't let your user finish the Form without the signature being securely in your Response Sheet!


What about the features from Multiple Signatures Classic?

  • Show inline

    • See the Dashboard

    • The website-based viewing is much faster and easier to scroll and print than "Show Inline"


  • Name/email address pre-populate on signing page

    • Pre-population similar to the Classic version won't be implemented

    • Simply ask those questions in your Form. They'll be included as part of the verification process, and each visit to the Signature link will present these details along with the signature

    • Your users can optionally fill-in the text boxes available within the menu on the signing page


  • Submit another response

    • No button yet - you can refresh the page responding to load a new response

Incompatible with "File upload" questions

The standard file upload question type will not work with Multiple Signatures Beta.

Google does not allow the accounts page to load unless it's via their own links directly unfortunately.

Enable Response Receipts

Optional

Recommended to be set to Always

Your recipient will receive a link as part of their answer which will include their entire response and signature. They can print out their own copy

We aren't able to set this for you unfortunately


Click the Cog icon in your Form to get this menu

Accepting signatures

When you confirm these details, we:

  • Add our main signature bot as an Editor on the Form

  • Add our multi signature bot as an Editor on the Form and its Response Sheet

The bots handle signatures and append them to the Response Sheet. The main bot is removed when you cancel the signatures, but the multi signature bot remains. This is so it can verify any existing signatures in future

  • Provide you with the link you can give out to your users. They need to use that link to sign, not the default "Send" link

You can get this link again by opening "See pending" in the add-on

Cancel signatures

Now that the form is open to receiving signatures, the Add single signature and Accept multiple signatures buttons have been replaced with a Cancel signatures button

See more about cancelling