6. The administration menu: settings and options

When opening a document, it is scanned for included signatures. With this option, you will be notified of such signatures (or not).

With this option an additional dialogue after each signature will be presented, the so-called stamp-dialogue, which asks for the signer's name, the location and the reason for the signature. By default this data will be added to your document below the signature and will be linked digitally to its respective signature, too. Learn more about this topic here: Saving the signature 

With this option, you will be notified before the last signature of a signature-set, that it will be the last one and that afterwards the whole signing process will be concluded. If you preset a macro in your signature-set option "What should happen after signing?", it will be executed before concluding the signing process.

Activating this option while using a Return/XML-file, will save all your search terms (e.g. from signature fields or when using the Dynamic processing of document content) and their respective results in this XML-file. Learn more about using XML-files here: Input-XML

Here you can set a saving path for your temporary files either with the "Browse" button or you copy your desired path into the empty field. By default the following path is used (but not shown):

"C:\Users\[your user name]\AppData\Local\Temp\eSignatureOffice[version number]" (the parts in squared brackets can vary depending on your system and program version)

After activating this option, all your data,  which you are prompted for in the stamp-dialogue (or which you predefined in your signature-set), will be added below your signature after signing with a signature device like the StepOver sign pads. How you can edit this stamp according to your wishes, will be explained only a little bit further down the line in this chapter. Without activating the option, your signature will be added normally to the document without stamp and so without any additional data.

If you chose the option "After signing - ask for name and reason for signing" in the "General" tab, the data, which you provide after the signature, will be used for the stamp.

If you add a signature to your document in form of a picture instead of a manual signature, this option allows adding additional information below the picture, too.

If this option is activated, eSignatureOffice will remember all added data for "signer", the "reason for signing" and the "location". Furthermore, you can predefine text items in the appearing side bar to have them available later on in the stamp-dialogue. This makes it easier to work with frequently used input like signer's names or locations, for example.

Signature stamp text field

Reset

Colour...

Font

Size

Here in this text field, you can modify your stamp to a standard form of your choice. Some options are already shown and also explained via the small question mark button. All these options in the squared brackets are keywords. Text outside of these brackets is shown directly in the stamp.

Those keywords are:

• the person, whose signature is added [Signer]
• the location [Location]
• the reason for signing [Reason]
• the date and time when the signature is done [Time]
• a copyright for the used document [Copyright]

You can edit these options freely by deleting, copying or adding them to your stamp. In case you deleted these predefined options (either partially or completely) and you need them back, you can use the "Reset" button to go back to the default stamp, which is shown in the screenshot above. You can set the font and its size and colour for the complete stamp with the respective drop down menus or buttons, while the button with the magnifying glass allows using the dynamic processing of document content just like in other menus.

Share settings for all users

Normally, all setting are saved for each user separately. With the given options, you can change this behaviour and set up a shared path for collectively used (and saved) settings.

Please take note, that all users need to have permission to read and write in the given folder!

Furthermore, it's important to know, that all registering data is saved to this INI-file! So, if multiple users of a computer are using the same eSignatureOffice installation, they each have to register their version separately, if they don't have access to a collectively shared settings file. So, if you set a shared settings file here in this menu, these persons using this file don't have to register separately.

Here you can select the general appearance of your graphical user interface when using eSignatureOffice. In this manual, we generally show version "5.x", but you can also use the "4.x" and "Classic" designs from earlier versions.

This option affects primarily the eSignatureOffice window designs "Classic" and "4.x" and allows to hide all buttons and menus, which can be deactivated in the "Permissions" tab (see below). When using the design "5.x", you already have the ability to show or hide each and every button in your toolbar by using the "Toolbar" button, which is explained some lines below this one.

With this option, you can deactivate the coloured background for several menu names in window design "4.x" and so make the whole user interface appear in grey. For window design 5.x, this option is not used.

Activating this option hides the file name of the currently opened document in the lower right status bar. Then, only the page number will be shown there.

This checkbox activates an additional dialogue, which will be shown each time you are using the dynamic processing of document content to search for keywords. This dialogue will show what is being searched and what is being found.

This option makes the main menu bar (File, View, Tools, Options, Help) visible or hides it.

Beware: When this option is deactivated, there is no way back to this administration menu besides using the "StartManager.exe", which you can find in your eSignatureOffice installation folder.

By deactivating this option, you can make all text lables of your tool bar buttons disappear and so make the whole tool bar more compact. Only the icons will be shown.

This button leads to a new menu, which allows you to customize the complete tool bar of window design "5.x" according to your wishes. Learn more about this in the section Customizing the toolbar.

The dropdown-menu next to the text "Button Scheme" offers the choice of many different, predefined colour combinations to change the appearance of your eSignatureOffice in a fast and easy way. Lean more about this in the following section Customizing the user interface colours.

This button is only usable after choosing one of the options containing the keyword "User" from the button scheme dropdown menu. This leads to a new menu, which allows to customize eSignatureOffice's colouring according to your individual wishes. Lean more about this in the following section Customizing the user interface colours.

With the shown options here, you can either block all buttons and menu options with the appropriate names (then they will be displayed in grey) or you can hide them directly, no matter where they are or how often they can be found in the graphic user interface.

This can be achieved in other ways, too (for example via the "Toolbar" button in the "Appearance & Design" tab of the administration menu), but the options given here will block all access points. This is especially helpful when being combined with the possibility to password protect the access to this Permissions menu. To do this, you can use the big grey button with the yellow lock icon, just like in all other tabs of the administration menu.

Within this menu, you set up options for the behaviour of the directory pane on the left side of the user interface. This includes the general option to either have the directory pane always shown, always hidden or switchable with a simple press on the "Split-View" button in the tool bar.

The directory pane allows switching between different options to show (see picture on the right side):

• the directory (if available in the loaded document)
• a page preview
• a detailled list of all signatures in the document
• a list of all signature-sets in the currently chosen signature-set directory

The option "Page Preview" allows to show the separate pages of the document either small and with a fixed size to make the preview of many pages appear in several columns (as soon as there is enough place to show them) or the page preview always uses all available space in the directory pane to show the pages as large as possible.

This is the default setting, which makes eSignatureOffice start in a maximized window and so use the whole display size (also called full screen mode). In the shown screenshot, another option is currently chosen to make it easier to see and explain.

With this option, eSignatureOffice will save the window size as well as the position (if not maximized) when closing the program and will restore them upon the next program start.

This option allows to further customize the appearance of the program by offering the possibility to set the exact window position and it's size in pixels:

Please note that...

• the point of origin (meaning X-position = 0 and Y-position = 0) is in the upper left corner of the screen
• width and height will be calculated from your chosen starting position to the right (x-axis) and down (y-axis). Please use only positive integers for this.
• too small values will be ignored. This means, that the whole, minimum needed user interface will always be shown (e.g. the whole width of the tool bar). However, this value may vary, depending on which parts of the user interface you have chosen to show or hide.
• To further assist you with this, the following four buttons are available (and can be even more helpful when used in combination):

If this option is activated and eSignatureOffice can't find any eligible signature devices when starting a signature process, you will be prompted to connect a device.

If this option is activated, eSignatureOffice also searches for connected signature devices on startup and depending on your settings in the previous option ("Inform user..."), you will be prompted (or not).

With the checkboxes here available, you can select those kinds of devices, which should be searched for and shown in the device search additionally to the usual StepOver signature pads.

Please take note, that a special tablet-PC licence is needed if you want to use tablet-PC touches or pens to sign your documents. The demoversion allows using all these devices.

Please also take note, that using iOS as well as Android smartphones and tablets is possible, but you will need an additional app on your smartphone to do this. Find out more about this here Signing with mobile devices 

If this option is activated, your signature will not be added to the document with its original size, but it will be enlargened to fit as close as possible to the whole given signature rectangle. However, the width-to-height ratio stays the same and the biodata will not be altered! Only the final picture of your signature is optically changed to present it larger in your document.

Display document context on LCD while signing (B/W)

With this option, you can determine, if the loaded document should be shown on your signature device display when switching from viewing the document to signing the document or if a standardized background should be shown. Contrary to devices with coloured displays, black-and-white device are only able to show a limited part of the document, which is within the boundaries of the chosen sign rectangle. 

Furthermore, if you wish to display custom text on the device, this option has to be deactivated.

By default, this option is not used for black-and-white devices, because only on devices with colour displays, the presentation of the document can be offered in satisfying quality.

Display document context on LCD while signing (Colour)

With this option, you can determine, if the loaded document should be shown on your signature device display when switching from viewing the document to signing the document or if a standardized background should be shown. Contrary to devices with coloured displays, black-and-white device are only able to show a limited part of the document, which is within the boundaries of the chosen sign rectangle. 

Furthermore, if you wish to display custom text on the device, this option has to be deactivated.

Deactivate this option to speed up your signature process a little bit, because then the transfer of the document from the computer to the sign pad (to show it there) is not required anymore and so saves time.

This option makes black-and-white devices show a line near the bottom of the display while signing. This line shall assist the user, for example to achieve a straight-lined signature and to further the impression of a normal signature on paper.

With the help of this option, you can upload premade signature dialogues to your sign pad, for example to show customized buttons or notes. Currently, there are only two dialogues for the naturaSign Mobile Pad available in your eSignatureOffice subfolder named "dialogs". These can, for example, be used to show a "OK/Repeat/Cancel" dialogue, which normally would not be available for this type of pad.

Signature rectangle

With this option, you can set the percental size of the signature rectangle on the display of the connected signing device with colour display. To achieve this, the background of the document to sign will be zoomed in or out to get to the desired size.

However, due to the possibility to choose the ratio of your signature rectangle yourself instead of it being a set value, there are some limitations to this function:

• the allowed minimum size is at 60%
• Because signatures without document background do not show such a signature rectangle on the device display, this option does not affect such signatures
• The target size is considered to be reached as soon as the set percentage height or width of the display is reached. This means, that a signature rectangle with a large height but small width will reach its vertical limit first and so will never be shown on full width.
  
  

With a set percentage of 100% and matching ratio, the full display size will always be used. The picture on the right side of the menu will show you an approximate preview of the future signature rectangle, if the matching ratio is kept. By zooming in, this feature seemingly provides the user with more space on the signing pad, which can be really useful, for example with long names.

The templates "Small", "Medium" and "Large" can be encountered in other menus, too, and you can customize them here with several options, which are typical for text formatting: 

• Font/typeface
• Font size
• Bold
• Italic

For each of these three templates, you can directly see how it will look later, for example when used on your sign pad to show custom text.

Setting this check mark activates a visible frame around your signature field while drawing the field as well as while signing. This frame will be visible in eSignatureOffice and on your signature device. Bewow the check mark, the frame thickness can be set in pixels, while its colour can be set via the "Change colour..." button. Please be aware, that these settings can only be visualized on devices with coloured displays (e.g. Colour, Brilliance pads), because black-and-white devices generally never show a distinct signature field, but the whole display area is used as signature field.

This frame will not be included, when the signature is added to the document. It's only visible during the signing process.

Setting this check mark activates a visible coloured filling to your signature field. You can use this option to complement the colours of the signature, the frame and the background filling, in eSignatureOffice as well as on your signature device.

You can change the opacity (in %) as well as the colour with the "Change colour..." button. Please be aware, that these settings can only be visualized on devices with coloured displays (e.g. Colour, Brilliance pads), because black-and-white devices generally never show a distinct signature field, but the whole display area is used as signature field. Moreover, colours are obviously not shown on black-and-white displays.

This coloured filling will not be included, when the signature is added to the document. It's only visible during the signing process.

This shows a preview of the current settings for your future signature field.

Activating this option allows the document to be shown on your colour devices after being loaded in eSignatureOffice. If this option is enabled, the two following options will be usable, too.

Activating this option saves the zoom level when turning the pages while viewing the document on your signature device. If this option is deactivated, each turn of a page on the device will result in the page being fit to width.

These buttons mean the buttons on a signature device, which are displayed in a separate side bar and at the time of this manual's creation are only supported by devices of the duraSign product range and the naturaSign Colour.

In the drop down menu, choose the mode, whose buttons you want to edit:

Here you can...

• ...show or hide the different buttons by setting or removing the different check marks for each button.
• ...click on the different buttons in the menu to change this button's colour on the device (each button can be customized separately).
• ...click the button "Set to Default" to reset the whole current chosen mode back to its default settings.

A detailled description of the three different modi and their respective buttons will follow right now.

Repeat: Removes the whole current signature from the display and restarts the signature field.

With this option, you can deactivate all rotation buttons on the signature pad. This includes the buttons to switch between left and right handed mode as well as to switch between portrait and landscape mode on the StepOver duraSign 10.0 pad.

Please be aware, that this setting applies to all signature device types, independant from the selection in the Device Type list.

With this option, you can deactivate all buttons on the signature pad, which are used to either zoom in or zoom out.

Please be aware, that this setting applies to all signature device types, independant from the selection in the Device Type list.

In this list, you can decide for which product type the following settings are supposed to apply. Here, it is possible to generally select all device types or to make very specific settings, and so to define settings only for the StepOver duraSign 10.0 Biometric pad when it's used in the portrait mode, for example.

Additionally, as soon as you enter this tab of the administration menu, the currently connected signature pad is detected and preset in this list. If no device is connected or none is found, the last used product type will be selected.

Activate this option to speed up the signature process a little bit by sending only the smaller, necessary section of the current document to the pad instead of the usual complete page. Especially for the duraSign 10.0 pads, this can speed up the signing process quite a lot.

With these 4 text fields you can choose the size and position of your target signature rectangle on your signature device in pixel. With the first two fields "Upper left X" and "Upper left Y" you can define the upper left corner point of your rectangle. Width and Height is then used to calculate the final size. With the "Use complete display" button, the total available size of the chosen product is automatically written in the fields.

With the following options, you can determine the position of the signature rectangle on the device display when using the Document Signing Mode. If this feature is deactivated, the signature rectangle will be presented as large as possible, while still respecting the rectangle's aspect ratio and the value specified in the administration menu tab "Display".

With the two text fields you can specifiy, how far away from the left and lower borders, the signature rectangle is supposed to be positioned. In doing so, you can use pixel, millimeters or percentages by entering the desired values, followed by

• "px" for pixel
• "mm" for millimeters
• "%" for percentages

Without the measuring unit, eSignatureOffice will interprete your value always as given in pixel. You can also mix up the measuring units in both text fields and so you could specify a percental distance from the bottom and a distance in pixel from the left side.

If this checkbox is activated, the following text fields are deactivated and instead of a custom position, the signature rectangle will be displayed in the center of the device display. Of course, this can only take effect when the following option named "Disable zoom into signature" is not active, because then the signature rectangle would be shown in maximum size and thus would always be centered.

If this option is activated, the signature rectangle on the device display will be positioned "smoothly" by moving the rectangle from a close position to the final position. This is only a visual effect and does not affect the functionality of the workflow. If this option is deactivated, the signature rectangle will be shown directly in its final position without scrolling.

This option is an important switch, which various other options in this menu depend on. With this option, you control if eSignatureOffice is allowed to adjust the size of the final image of the document on the device display. So, if the zoom is deactivated, neither the target size can be adjusted automatically (see next option) nor the distance of the signature rectangle from display border can be specified.

If this option is activated, the program will always try to show the document page on the device display as close to the original size as possible.

Scaling the signature field on the device display

With these two text fields, you can specify the maximum target size of the signature rectangle on the device monitor, both in width and/or height. eSignatureOffice will then try to adjust the zoom of the document until the target size is reached. If the aspect ratio does not match with both values, the final size will be scaled up or down until the first of the target values has been reached. Of course, the other one will only be adjusted as far as the original aspect ratio is allowing to. This way, you will always get the same signature rectangle as you originally wanted; only with an adjusted zoom level.

Please take note, that the target size is compared to the specified rectangle position. If size and position cannot both be shown on the display of the currently selected signature pad, then the two contesting values will be shown in red an additionally, you will get a notification as soon as you try to leave the administration menu.

With this option, you can choose how the rotation of the used signature pad is supposed to be set. Separately choosable for the start as well as the exit of the program.

Please take note, that the alternate portrait view mode can currently be used solely with the StepOver duraSign 10.0 pad. The other product types can also show the landscape mode like a normal TV or computer display.

If there are already digital signature fields (also called DigSig fields) in the opened document, you can determine with this option, if eSignatureOffice should convert all these fields into one combined signature-set.

For this, the following options are available:

• Off: Handle the detected digital signature fields like single fields and don't create a signature-set.
• Ask: If any DigSig fields are detected, ask the user what to do.
• Always: When detecting such fields, always create a combined signature-set without any feedback to the user. This resulting signature-set will then be processed in the same order in which the original DigSig fields have been added to the document. However, this automatic signature-set is only a temporary file and will be deleted when closing the document or exiting eSignatureOffice.

If you have chosen either "Always" or "Ask" in the previous option, you can provide any signature-set here, which is then used as template for the temporary signature-set file for the DigSig fields.

Almost all specifications from this set will be used, of course, except for the position of the signature fields as they are provided by the position of the DigSig fields themselves. This includes all "Common settings" as well as confirmation dialogs and "Additional field properties".

In case there are more DigSig fields than presettings in the signature-set, then - after processing all available field presets - the set is restarted from the beginning. So, for example, a template with three different signatures will make each third signature use the same "additional field properties" and so show the same text on the pad etc.

If you want to know more about creating and using signature-sets, you can find more detailled information here .

Start signing with click on the signature

The preview in the sidebar as well as the document show digital signature fields in a light blue by default (these settings can be changed in the administration submenu "Signature image"). If this option is activated, you can start the signing process for such a DigSig field by simply clicking on it, either in the sidebar as well as in the document itself.

Automatic selection of SSS-file

With the help of this option, you can use the automatic selection of signature-sets and their matching documents. This means, that simply pressing "Sign" in the main user interface can be used to automatically choose the signature-set, which matches your document. You can find a more detailled explanation in the Steps 4 and 4b here in the instructions about signature-sets.

With the following three options, you can change this behaviour:

With this dropdown menu, you determine if the automatic selection is off, should always be used or if the user shall be asked each time.This feature is deactivated by default in order to prevent a slow down of the the program. Such a slow down can happen if there is a large number of signature-sets in the chosen signature-set folder.

With this option, you can tell eSignatureOffice what to do, if multiple signature-sets have been found, whose settings match with the document. Determine if either the first found file should be used or if a list of all matching signature-sets shall be presented to the user, where he can choose another one each time (= Ask user which to use)

With this option, you can choose the search engine to be used. Due to the way PDF-documents are created, sometimes search terms cannot be found in the document. In such cases, it can be helpful to test all of the given options.

Here choose the folder, in which your signature-sets can be found. The automatic selection works only for those sets, which can be found in the destination path given here (and of course those sets, which use this feature).

If it should happen, that the automatic selection of a signature-set was successful but in the chosen signature-set there is no signature field, which matches with the currently loaded document, you can determine with this option here, if you wish to have the possibility to manually create a signature field and sign it afterwards.

The following options are available:

• Off: No signing with the help of a manual signature field allowed
• Ask: The user will be asked, if he wants to manually create a signature field and sign it 
• Always: The program will automatically change the mode to allow manually creating a signature field at any point of the document and offering to sign it afterwards. This is also the default behaviour when not using signature-sets.

With this option, you can determine, which zoom level is to be used for the document after signing. This setting affects only the display of the document in the "View" mode in eSignatureOffice, but not displaying the document during follow-up signature processes or the display of used signing devices with document viewing abilities (for example naturaSign Colour.

By default, the zoom change is off.

With these options, you either allow or forbid the end user to use the stated options for opening, closing or saving files. This way, the corresponding buttons in the eSignatureOffice user interface will be deactivated. However, this does not stop macros from executing these actions! We are assuming, that macros are not created by end users and so those options to handle files should remain available.

If you activate this option, eSignatureOffice will check all documents upon saving them for contained signatures. If there are any, saved documents will automatically receive the file attribute "read-only". This option shall prevent losing signatures by accidentially overwriting existing files. However, for this, it's important to pay attention to the next option, too!

Activate this option when using the web application SharePoint by Microsoft and you want version control of your files.This way, the original file of your document will not be deleted prior to saving and re-writing it afterwards, but it will be copied first and then the previous file will be overwritten. This is the only way SharePoint can recognize your file as a changed one instead of a new one.

With this option, you determine how an existing file with read-only attribute is to be handled when using "Save" (but not "Save as..."!). This is applied to manual saving procedures as well as macros.

• Ask: When trying to overwrite a read-only file, eSignatureOffice will ask you what to do and can choose time and time again until making a permanent decision.
• Always Overwrite: The target file will be overwritten without notification.
• Never Save: The saving procedure will be ignored without notification. Use this option to prevent accidentially overwriting your documents.

Addendum: When trying to overwrite a read-only file manually via "Save as...", this will normally be prevented by your operating system. In these cases, please use another file name. The options here are not able to affect the "Save as..." function.

When using a PDF document with included form fields (e.g. text fields or check boxes), they can already be set to read-only by the creator of these fields, regardless of the file's general read-only attribute. With this option, you can determine if such fields should be allowed to be edited anyway or not.

Because PDF form fields often contain information, which is important for the signature itself, you have the option to prevent editing these form fields after at least one signature has been added to the document (this applied to picture signatures/digital stamps as well as normal signatures with a signature device). In consequence this also means, that all form fields have to be filled prior to the first signature. This feature is security-relevant and you should only deactivate it, when you are aware of the risk this brings with it.

Basically, PDF libraries advice the application on how to use PDF files - how to read them, illustrate them, print them etc. With the two provided drop-down menus, you can change the relevant library in order to make eSignatureOffice use another way to search text within the document or print the document. For example, when a search term consisting of multiple words cannot be found for an intelligent signature set, this can be due to the internal structure of your PDF document. This internal structure can be totally different from what you see in the end, depending on how the file was created. In these cases, it can be worthwhile to test the other provided libraries.

Using the options to search document text in the "Tools" main menu or by using the standard search hot keys (CTRL + F/N/P), eSignatureOffice will jump to the search results and mark them for better visibility - just like in other text editing programs.

In this part of the menu, you can change the used search library as well as the appearance of the search result marking. By default, no frame is added and the background of the text is set to 60% yellow. If you change these settings, you can instantly see the preview for your changes on the right side.

This is the PDF Converter's default behaviour, when using it via another application (for example Word). This way, your document will be converted to a PDF-file with the help of the printer driver and afterwards it will be automatically transmitted to eSignatureOffice and opened. Please take care, that this will not work, when eSignatureOffice is already started, because there can always be only one active instance of the program.

In addition to the already preset "-savedoc", you can provide further parameters here, which shall be passed from the PDF Converter to eSignatureOffice. Learn more about this in the chapter: Startparameter.

With the help of this option, you can make the PDF Converter save a converted file to a fixed file destination of your choice and rename it, instead of starting eSignatureOffice with it.

However, there are three important things to remember:

• Some destinations are protected by the User Account Control incorporated in modern operating systems. This includes system-relevant folders like "C:\", "C:\Windows" and "C:\Programs (x86)". In these folders, saving is only allowed with special access rights, which the PDF Converter is not granted. When choosing one of these folders as fixed destination, you will be notified after the conversion, that it's not allowed to save to this destination and where you will find your file.
  Usually, this will be "C:\Users\[your username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore".
• If you want to save your converted PDF file automatically to a fixed destination, you also have to provide a corresponding file name, because the conversion is done via temporary files. By default "Unnamed.pdf" is given here and if your appointed name might already be in use, you can use the option "Extend the file name with numbers if a file with the same name already exists." to add a continuous numbering to the end of these file names.

• Because saving is not done by eSignatureOffice when using this option, we cannot offer the option to use the dynamic processing of document content to individualize the file destination of the final file name. If you want to use this feature, please use the previous option "Transfer file to eSignatureOffice" and afterwards save it dynamically by using a macro.

With this option, after each succesful conversion a normal "Save As..." dialog will be shown by your operating system, in which you can manually choose the destination and file name of your choice.

This checkbox is only a supportive option, which is supposed to prevent unintended changes to the PDF Converter settings, if they were originally set not by eSignatureOffice but externally with the help of the sopconf.exe file in the Converter installation path. Without this checkbox, the default settings provided here would overwrite the external settings each time the administration menu settings are saved.

As soon as you make any changes in this menu tab, this checkbox is automatically deactivated and your voluntary changes will apply.

The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol can be used to allow password protected access to eSignatureOffice, independant from StepOver. For this function, you need your own server with corresponding LDAP directory structure. Enter the IP address and portnumber (if not using the default port) in the corresponding textfields. The field "DN" (= Disinguished Name) defines the LDAP directory path on the server. With the "Check" button, you can test, if the given data can really be used or if there is any problem with it.

When starting eSignatureOffice the next time, the user has to enter his login name and password.

You can find an example of detailled documentation for the LDAP network protocol here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Directory_Access_Protocol

This Program.ini is normally located at "C:\Users\[Benutzername]\AppData\Local\StepOver\eSignatureOffice 5.0" or a similar location, depending on your version of eSignatureOffice. In this file many important settings are saved and with the given option, you can choose what should happen, if the file has been manipulated:

• Do nothing: This is the default setting and results in the user not getting any feedback about the detected manipulation of the Program.ini. eSignatureOffice is simply reset to default settings (including the licence!), which is basically the demo version.
• Inform user: By choosing this setting, the user is informed upon application start, when a manipulated file has been detected. As with the previous option, all options are reset to default settings, too (again, including the licence), but in contrast to the next option, eSignatureOffice is still usable. 
• Do not start eSignatureOffice: If you choose this setting, you are blocking the user completely from using the whole application in case of a manipulated Program.ini. This means, that eSignatureOffice will have to be re-installed on the system.

With this option, you can activate the password request feature for older devices (prior to the naturaSign devices) before the user is able to use these pads.

Activating this option, makes the so-called "hash-dialog" disappear, which normally is shown after each signature on your signing device as well as in eSignatureOffice. This dialog is used to confirm the performed signature.

If this dialog is activated, the digital signature is created within the pad's own software with the pad's own security certificates. Without hash-dialog, the digital signature is created by eSignatureOffice and the whole signing process is sped up, because there is one less user interaction.

This setting has no influence on the encryption of the signature biodata and so is not critical in terms of data security. However, please be aware, that there will be no pad security certificate available to be shown when the signature is checked later, for example in Adobe.

This option makes eSignatureOffice avouch the integrity of all signatures in the whole signed document by checking all digital certificates of each and every included signature.

With the help of this option, eSignatureOffice checks after a signature, if it contains enough image data to be displayed at all. For example does this prevent a signature from being added, if the signing colour has been set to "white" and so with a white document background, in the end nothing would be seen anymore.

Embed time stamp after signing

If this option is activated, after capturing your signature but before adding it to the document, eSignatureOffice will send a request to the time server at the internet address in the given field to provide the exact time and will ad this information to the signature data. This feature allows to provide a secure, non-manipulatable reference point to verify the exact time of signing, no matter where in the world a document is signed. If you don't have access to the internet on the used computer, it would be wise to deactivate this option to speed up the whole signing process. Otherwise, the sent request will need a while to time out.

In case you want to use another time server than the one provided by StepOver to ensure the time, enter its address here.

However, please be aware, that this has to be a TSA (Time Stamping Authority) server according to the RFC 3161 standard. Due to technical reasons, other time server variants are currently not possible to use.

Do'nt show warning message if the time server is unavailable

If your access to the internet (and so your access to a time server) is varying, it might be useful to activate this option. This way, the signing process isn't slowed down in case the time server cannot be contacted. If this is the case, the local system time will be used for the time stamp.

With this button, you can load your own (personal oder company) certificate and so tell eSignatureOffice to use this certificate from now on for all your signatures. However, there are some important points about this:

• the custom certificate has to be provided in a PKCS#12 container (learn more about this at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PKCS_12)
• in the submenu "Security & Key management", the option "Disable signature confirmation dialogue (disables digital signature creation inside the pad)" has to be enabled, because otherwise your custom certificate will be ignored and the default certificate of your sign pad will be used.
• To keep up the security, you should never use personal certificates if you are using the multi-user feature.

This button deletes the loaded custom certificate from the eSignatureOffice settings and so all your signatures will be digitally signed with the default certificates, again.

If your certificate file is encrypted, please provide your password here. With the small question mark button next to this text field, your entered password will be made visible.

If there are multiple certificates in your PKCS#12 container-file, you can determine which of the certificates is to be used by providing the name (the alias) for the public key as well as the private key here.

If this option is activated, the user will get feedback when importing a configuration file with a path for the signature set file, which cannot be created (for example because the destination folder protected by the operating system due to security settings). In this case, the default path for signature sets will be used (C:\Users\[username]\Documents\StepOver\SignatureSets).

If this option is activated, the user will get feedback when importing a configuration file with a path for the FTP connection data file, which cannot be created (for example because the destination folder protected by the operating system due to security settings). In this case, the default path for FTP sets will be used (C:\Users\[username]\Documents\StepOver\FTPSets).

Some systems may require to activate the passive FTP mode, for example when a firewall is restricting the access to the connected FTP server. If you are not sure, please contact your IT consultant or administrator.

Verify uploaded files by downloading them again

If you want to make sure, that your file upload to the FTP server was successful, you can choose this option to verify the uploading by downloading the saved documents afterwards.

Here, you can define the default path for your FTP-set files, which you can save in the "Open from FTP" dialog. This path will then be used as default path, when you want to select a FTP-set in a macro or to connect to a server in the "Open from FTP" dialog.

With this checkbox and the following 4 text fields, you can set the IP, port, user name and  the password for your HTTP proxy connection.

With this checkbox and the following 4 text fields, you can set the IP, port, user name and  the password for your FTP proxy connection.

By activating this option, the connection and access data will be read from your Internet Explorer settings, if there are any available.

This is the number of uploading attempts you want the system to make to transfer documents to a FTP server or via HTTP upload (with a macro) over the internet. This option can be helpful with a slow internet connection.

SSL | Method

In this drop down menu, you can choose the encryption protocol, which shall be used for secure data transfer via internet. Learn more about SSL/TLS at Transport_Layer_Security (Wikipedia).

This is the default setting. Using this option, your computer will be searched for installed e-mail software and then this software will be called in the order, which is shown in the menu here. By default this order is:

1. Outlook

2. Thunderbird

This is the Windows Mail API and this means, that eSignatureOffice will send out a default command to your Windows operating system to start the current default mail program. As Microsoft updates and changes these functions sometimes, this option is prone to possible problems.

Command line parameter call to mail client

Here you can edit the default call of your mail client (e.g. Outlook or Thunderbird) if you know the neccessary parameters. It's also possible to create your own parameter call. We recommend this option only to experienced users, who know exactly, what they are doing.

With this option, you can use your own email server to send mails from eSignatureOffice. If you don't know the neccessary information, your IT department might be able to help you.

Use this button to test your current settings by creating a test email. In case you currently have no document opened, which could be attached to this test mail, a new dialog will be shown, in which you can select a file to be used for this test.