In this tutorial, I am going to show you 3 quick ways on how to add a signature in excel documents. Whether you need a visible or an invisible digital signature, this tutorial has you covered. You can sign off a document to indicate that nobody should alter it further.
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You can download the practice workbook from here.
3 Quick Ways to Add Signature in Excel
1. Add Digital Signature in Excel
A digital signature in excel is actually an invisible one. These types of signatures are suitable to add to any confidential documents. If you have a Microsoft Office signature certificate, you can easily add an invisible digital signature to your workbook.
Steps:
- First, go to the File tab on the top left corner of your screen.
- Then, from the left pane tabs select Info and click on Protect Workbook.
- Under this, select the option Add a Digital Signature.
- Now, this will open the Sign window.
- In this window, fill in the Commitment Type and other information.
- Then, click on Details.
- After that, the Additional Signing Information window will open.
- Here, fill in all the necessary information and click OK.
- Now, you will be back in the Sign window.
- After you have confirmed that all the information is ok, click on Sign.
- Immediately, a Signature Confirmation window will inform you that the signature is saved to the document.
- Then, click OK.
- Finally, a message will show up on the top of your screen telling you that the workbook is marked (with the signature).
Read More: How to Add Trailing Zeros in Excel (2 Easy Ways)
2. Insert Signature Using Excel Signature Line
This is probably the most legitimate way to add a signature to excel documents. These are also known as Digital ID signatures or E-Signature. They confirm that the signed document comes directly from the signer and that nobody has altered any parts of it. You can follow the steps below to add one of these to your workbook.
Steps:
- First of all, navigate to the Insert tab on top of the screen.
- After that go to the Text section and click on Signature Line.
- Then, select the option Microsoft Office Signature Line.
- Now, this opens the window Signature Setup.
- Next, fill in your information in the suggested boxes and click OK.
- Consequently, excel will add a signature box to your worksheet with the signer’s name and title.
- Now, right-click on the signature box and select Sign.
- Next, you can type your name in the signature box.
- Additionally, you can add a scanned image of your signature from the option Select Image.
- Also, include other necessary information from the option Details.
- After that, click on Sign.
- As a result, a signature with your name and the date will appear in the box.
- At the same time, you will see a message confirming the marking of the workbook.
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3. Add Hand Drawn Signature by Activating Draw Tab in Excel
This method is actually a more realistic way of adding a signature in excel. Here, you can create a digital version of your handwritten signature. Let us see how we can do that.
Steps:
- To begin with, right-click on any of the tabs and select Customize the Ribbon.
- After that, the Excel Options window will open, and there under Main Tabs, check the tab Draw.
- As a result, you will now see the Draw tab on top of your screen.
- Next, double-click on the Black Pen You can also select any other color.
- Then, you will have a free drawing pen and you can now easily add a signature as I have shown below.
How to Remove Signature from Excel Documents
Although removing a signature from an excel workbook is very easy than adding one, you should be careful before doing that. Because removing the signature will make your documents prone to alterations. With that said, below are the steps to remove a signature.
Steps:
- First, navigate to the message on top of your screen which says MARKED AS FINAL.
- Then, click on the button Edit Anyway.
- As a result, a window will show up with a warning that this operation will remove the signature.
- Here, click on Yes.
- Consequently, you will see a Signature Removed message box confirming the removal of the signature.
- Finally, click on OK and the message will clear up.
Read More: How to Remove Last Modified By in Excel (3 Ways)
Conclusion
I hope that the 4 methods to add a signature in excel were helpful for you. You can use these methods to protect any type of workbook, especially those containing confidential data. Also, as you have seen, the process of inserting a signature is not as hard as it seems at first. If you know the type of signature that you want and the one that your document requires, then the next steps are really easy. Lastly, to learn more excel techniques, follow our ExcelDemy website. If you have any queries, please let me know in the comments.
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