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Circulating a Word Document for Signatures

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Posted on by Maximus18

I have a word document which I need to circulate via email to people, in sequence, for authorisation signatures i.e. I fill it out, it then goes to my boss who signs/ approves it, it then goes to his boss for final authority before coming back to me to keep as authority to carry out a particular task. The document has been created in Word as part of my organisation's policies.

I have had a brief look at the various Apps etc. but am lost as to how or where to start this process.

Many thanks.

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David_MA 12,966 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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It is hard to tell you what approach to take, but if you need to do this in Word, I would use the built-in signature feature, which you can read about at Obtain a digital certificate and create a digital signature - Microsoft Support and Digital signatures and certificates - Microsoft Support.

You can then create a template in MS Word and use the Populate Word Template action to fill in the form. I save the file to a document library, and then e-mail the people who need to sign it a link where they can open the Word document to sign. It is a little tricky and people will need training because if they edit the Word document once it has been created, it invalidates all of the signatures. You need to be sure to follow the prompts in Word when doing the signing.

Here are the instructions I include for signing the file in one solution, which is send with an approval action:

Open the document in the desktop version of Microsoft Word.

If you are prompted to discard changes, please do so. It will prevent the document from being invalidated for signatures.

Look for the signature line that you are responsible for and click on it.

Right click to open the options menu and choose Sign from the menu.

Fill in the required information and press the Sign button.

If you need to remove your signature, click on the box you signed, right click to open the options menu and choose Remove Signature.

If you do not approve this request, do not sign the document and choose reject. If you approve the request, sign the document and approve this request.

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Maximus18 6 on at

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Thanks, David
I will give that a try. Is it possible, if once I sign the document, to then use a Power App to send the email to the next person notifying them that they need to complete their section and for the next person in the chain, too?

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David_MA 12,966 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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Yes, you can notify people by e-mail. However, I send an approval to the person. This way I know when they have completed the step to send it to the next approver. Otherwise, how would you know when they have signed it to send the next e-mail?

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David_MA 12,966 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

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I don't know if this is helpful, but here is an image of the flow process.

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