US Legal Forms Users Can Now eSign Official Forms and Contracts with signNow!
An exciting announcement
In an exhilarating turn of events, and after much hard work, signNow access has been delivered to US Legal Forms Premium users. After being acquired by airSlate, US Legal Forms users were first introduced to pdfFiller, which revolutionized how many users managed their legal forms. With the addition of signNow, users can collect signatures for their forms and documents from anywhere, anytime, even while they sleep with the ability to set up signing orders, a.k.a. workflows. Within the United States, legally recognized signatures that are digital are known as electronic signatures, and signNow delivers the most user-friendly electronic signature service on the market, both in-browser and on mobile.
To make sure users can get the most out of signNow from their US Legal Forms account, we’ve written up a bit of a how-to to get you started. Before we start the grand tour, let’s start with a little background on electronic signatures and signNow.
What is an electronic signature?
An electronic signature (eSignature) is like a signature on paper but applied digitally. The ESIGN Act, and other laws, have given eSignatures the same status as a wet signature. An eSignature can be visually represented in several ways, typically by a cursive font from a typed name or a hand-drawn signature using a device (e.g., your smartphone or tablet) as a signature pad.
What is signNow?
signNow is a service that allows its users to sign contracts and all manner of documents electronically. It complies with major US laws, manages all data with banking-level encryption, and has a robust set of features. It’s very user-friendly, easy to understand, and solves business pains that you may not even know you have.
Now that we have an overview of eSignatures and signNow let’s get into the details to understand the integration better.
How to use signNow
To get started, ensure that you have a US Legal Forms Premium plan before proceeding. Let’s download a document first to showcase the process; we’ll be using the “Amendment Articles Incorporation” form. From here, click on My Account, or the icon at the top that looks like a person. You will see signNow in either the dropdown menu or on the Homepage. Click this to get started!
Upload your document
The first step to any process in signNow is to have a document to work with. We already have our form, so we’ll look for the “Upload or Create” button at the top left of the screen.
If we’ve done everything correctly, our document should show up on the screen as seen below:
To open your document, simply click on its name to launch the editor.
The interface
Now that our document is open, you’ll notice many tools and an interface that might seem overwhelming at first. Don’t worry, we’ll walk through each feature so that you can start eSigning like a pro.
On the left is our toolbox, with the tools required to self-sign at the bottom. At the very top, above Tools, you’ll find a section called Request. This section is for signing parties and allows you to assign one or multiple signers to their designated Signature Field. On complex documents, it may be required to set a specific order in which signatories may sign the document. That’s something we’ll discuss deeper soon.
On the right is a navigation pane for your document, showing an overview of each page to help you navigate more rapidly as you work.
At the top, you’ll find Settings, Save and Close, and Invite to Sign. Invite to Sign is the very last step after we’ve established our signers and fields. Save and Close saves the document for working on later. Settings will reveal various parameters, the ability to import fields, auto-fill the document with Magic Fields, and access the Document History. There is more to discover in the Settings pane, but the best practice is to explore these features to understand them more closely.
Additionally, at the top, you can find, respectively from left to right: Undo, Redo, Zoom Out, Zoom In, Zoom Manual Dropdown, and Document Download.
On the far right of the same section, you’ll see two icons. The one on the left is only available if a field has been placed which allows you to toggle between document thumbnails and the settings for the selected field.
Now that we’ve explored the interface, let’s get into the tools.
The tools
We won’t cover all of the tools in depth in this article. However, we’ll cover the essentials to get you started. Before we get into the tools, we should first discuss signers.
In our document we don’t have any signers required, which seems like an odd choice, but because of this we can play with the document to suit our needs. First, we’ll press Edit Signers on the top left.
Now that we’re in the signers pane, we can press the blue icon to add more signers. For each signer, we’ll choose a name for the person(s) assigned to the document, as well as their email address. When you’ve finished, press Save Signers. Find the signers in the top left.
With this accomplished, select the Text Field element and click anywhere on the document. Notice that it’s blue, assigned to the CEO. If you select the COO and select Text Field again, and click on the document, you’ll see that the field is orange, assigned to the COO. You can arrange your documents in a way that different fields are assigned to different signers for smooth processes.
With a field selected, you’ll find these icons which allow you to move it by clicking and dragging the left icon, select OK to confirm your changes, or press X to delete it. You can change who a field is assigned to by selecting the field and changing its Role in the right-hand panel at any time.
Tools
The Signature Field allows you to collect a signature from one of your signers.
The Text Field places an area where signers may fill in information, such as their name or date of birth.
The Date/Time Field grants a signer the ability to place the date they signed the document; this is also commonly used for collecting the dates of when employees read particular documents to ensure they are within company guidelines.
The Calculated Field adds a space for formulae to calculate costs, shared fees, taxes, and more.
The Initials Field collects a signer’s initials.
The Checkbox Field allows a signer to select the options they want from a list in the document or add Text Fields.
Radio Button Group gives you the ability to have a signer select only one option from multiple options.
The Dropdown Field only allows one choice from a selection of items; however, it fits nicely into open fields on forms.
Request Attachment allows for the collection of supplementary documentation, such as a copy of a driver’s license or notarized seal.
The Stamp Field offers a signer the opportunity to upload and apply a corporate eStamp.
Edit & Sign
The My Signature field gives you the ability to apply your own eSignature and self-sign a document.
The My Initials field gives you the ability to apply your initials to a document, if they’re required.
The My Stamp field allows you to upload and apply your corporate eStamp to a document.
The Text option allows you to add details such as the address of a business or your personal details.
The My Check element is a checkmark you can add to fields or to mark approval.
Invite to Sign
Once your fields are complete, you may proceed with the distribution process of your form or document. In this window, set information such as the authentication type, expiration of the document, permit document forwarding, customize the message for each signer, and more. Additionally, you may CC individuals or entities, depending on your needs.
Selecting In Order at the top creates a signing order, where each party involved may only sign in turn.
Now what?
Now that we’ve sent our document, we wait 
for the recipients to complete their end of the process. Of course, our example email addresses are entirely unknown to us and hopefully don’t exist. If you’d like, you can use your own email for testing purposes as a signer.
Once all your recipients have signed, you’ll be notified by email and can check in from time to time to see if the document’s status has changed. If signed, the document will show 
in the information listed under its name.
In closing
Access to signNow is a very exciting addition to the features offered by US Legal Forms. Digitization is an essential step in the simplification of many tasks, in addition to reducing both time consumption and costs. We hope this guide was helpful. We’re very excited to hear what you have to say about it on social media! Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter for regular product updates, information about various forms, and news from the world of LegalTech.
