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Digital signatures

Eric Michalek

2 years ago

Using Word, can a document be created by a group of people, content locked and then document sent for review/approval.

  But...

  Reviewers given the ability to make annotations/mark ups "on" the individual electronic pages, such as line out content and indicate new content at a specific spot on the page without actually changing content.
  And... for "each" acceptable page inside the document, reviewer(s) digitally sign the "individual" page(s).  Reviewers Id card/CAC card provides means for identifying who.

  The result is a digital signature with name, date, and time stamp on each page that locks content (again emphasizing: on separate pages vice locking the entire document).
  So, first, if content needs to be changed on one or more pages, only persons from the creation group can make changes.
  And if there is a digital signature on a signed page, the creators can't change the content without first removing the digital signature on that page.

  The benefit is a process so reviewer(s) don't have to re-review the entire document line by line, letter for letter.
  To be clear, if a page needed to be changed, you will always have the name of the latest accepting reviewer with date and time that they accepted a page.

  So after the reviewers digitally sign the pages, a final approval signature going on the first page will have that name, date, and time (preventing subsequent "page" swaps for the entire document.)

Eric Michalek OP

2 years ago

The problem is maintaining copy controls. Our Planning persons write work packages in Word, then convert it to PDF. I review and make annotations on that PDF. Planning makes the corrections to their original Word document and convert that document PDF. But did they use the original file? Did they make additional changes that they were not supposed to do? The only way around this is for me to make a copy of MY marked up PDF and when I get the revised PDF, I have to re-review EVERYTHING!!! We are looking for a way so if a page is accepted, we don't have to re-review line by line letter for letter.
!!! I reviewed a package and had 3 small corrections to be made. 2 days latter, I get sent the document, I went to the spots where the corrections were to be made, good, they made my changes. BUT!!! My supervisor checked MY work and immediately asked what the heck. "I never get crap like this from you, what the heck are you doing?" When I printed the document, I immediately discovered that Planning had made my corrections using an entirely different file!

So yeah, copy control, HELP, Please!

Kevin Yip

2 years ago

You can use the "Share" and "Track Changes" features in Word to accomplish those things.  The "Share" button is at the top right, above the ribbon.  It gives you an Internet link of the document that you can give to your users.  That means your users need to use the online version of Word to edit the document.  And that means you need to your doc to a cloud storage like OneDrive or Sharepoint.

Only one user can edit the document at any moment.  Anyone else who tries to edit it will get a "read only" notification.  I believe "Microsoft Team" (or maybe some other team services) lets users edit simultaneously, but I've never tried those services.

Once an edit is saved, it will appear with a time stamp and markup (see picture below), so all other users will see it.  When you print this document, you have the option to print it with or without this markup on the page.

Regarding signing the document, Adobe Reader has the "Fill & Sign" feature built-in (see second picture below) while Word doesn't.  So I suggest you export your Word doc to PDF first.

	Kevin Yip 2 years ago

	Kevin Yip 2 years ago
Go to Review -> "Track Changes" on the ribbon, and turn it on for "All Users."

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