What's New
Get Started
Administer
Send, Sign, and Manage Agreements
Advanced Agreement Capabilities and Workflows
Integrate with other products
Acrobat Sign Developer
Support and Troubleshooting
When you upload a new form to the form-building (Authoring) environment, Acrobat Sign automatically scans the document for visual cues that suggest where form fields may be needed.
Fields located near a signature field are further analyzed. If the field type can be reasonably predicted—such as Full Name, Date, Title, or Company—Acrobat Sign attempts to place the appropriate field type automatically.
As the form author, you can review these candidate fields and choose to accept, move, delete, or convert them to another field type as needed.
Field detection runs automatically whenever a document enters the authoring environment—whether you're creating a template, building a web form, or sending an agreement.
Acrobat Sign places light blue candidate fields on the document if likely fields are identified. These are suggestions only and will not become active fields unless they are assigned to a recipient (or to Anyone).
Any fields not automatically detected must be manually added. Select the desired field type from the left panel and drag it to the appropriate spot in the document.
Extra fields can be deleted by clicking the field and selecting Delete field.
You can remove all placed fields by right-clicking any field, selecting Reset Fields, and returning the form to the original candidate field layout.
Automatic field detection won’t run in the following cases:
Form authors should review each detected field to confirm proper placement and configure key properties—especially the field name, assignment, and type. Field assignment is critical when the agreement includes multiple recipients.
Acrobat Sign does not automatically assign meaningful field names. Until renamed, each field is given a generic label, such as Custom Field 1.
Similarly, Acrobat Sign cannot determine which recipient a field belongs to. When a candidate field is selected, it's assigned to the recipient currently active in the recipient list. Make sure each field is assigned to the correct recipient before sending.
Automatically placed fields support all standard field options, including validation rules, conditional logic, and font appearance settings. You can customize these fields just like manually placed ones.
Delete unnecessary fields
If a field was accidentally assigned, you can remove it using one of the following methods:
Hold down the Shift key to select multiple fields and drag your pointer to draw a box around the area. Any fields that intersect with the box will be selected.
Once selected, you can:
Resize and move individual fields that are poorly placed. To resize a field:
To move a field, hover your pointer over the field until you see the four-pointed arrow. Then drag the field to the desired location.
For more accurate placement, try the following steps:
Set the correct field type.
Most candidate fields are added as Text fields by default, but they can be easily converted to other single-line field types.
Review each field based on the type of information you expect it to capture. If the field isn’t meant for plain text, consider switching to a more appropriate field type.
To review or change a field type:
Manually place missed fields.
If any fields were missed during automatic detection, you can manually add them by selecting a field from the left-hand panel and dragging it onto the document.
While dragging, the cursor anchors the field by its upper-left corner, helping you align it precisely with your intended placement.
Once placed, you can resize and reposition the field as needed.
Automatically placed fields try to match the size and shape of the line or box they appear within.
Manually placed fields use a default size, so you’ll likely need to resize them to fit the layout of your form.
Assign fields to the right recipient
If only the first recipient needs to fill out the form, the default Assigned To value is all you need.
But if the sender needs to prefill fields—or if there are multiple recipients—make sure each field is assigned to the correct person.
To update the field assignment:
Double-click the field to open the Field Properties panel on the left.
– Or click the field and select Customize field from the context menu.
Open the Recipients dropdown and choose the correct recipient.
The field updates instantly, and its color changes to match the recipient.
Give fields meaningful names
Clear, intuitive field names make reports easier to read and simplify data mapping. Taking a moment to name each field now will save time and reduce confusion later when reviewing form data or generating reports.
To rename a field:
Complete and save your field setup
Work through the document, reviewing and updating each field as needed.
When all fields are in place, select Save or Send to complete the authoring process.
If you're creating a template, you can continue editing fields later from the Manage page.
If you exit the authoring environment before saving or sending, the document will appear in the Drafts section of your Manage page—but any field placement will be lost.
Administrators can enable or disable the Automatic Field Detection feature by configuring the Preview, position signatures or add form fields controls on the Send Settings menu.
Group-level settings are permitted and will override the Account level values.
Agreements with a total page count over 25 pages will not trigger automatic field detection.
Automatic Field Detection is processed in one of three server clusters, which may differ from where your other Acrobat Sign data is processed. The server environment used to host the document's authoring determines which server cluster is used for Automatic Field Detection (see below). Please consult with your legal counsel to determine whether Automatic Field Detection is appropriate for your use case.
| Authoring environment | Automatic Field Detection server cluster |
|---|---|
| NA1, NA2, NA3, NA4 | Cluster VA6 in Virginia, USA |
| EU1, EU2 | Cluster IRL1 in Dublin, Ireland |
| AU1, IN1, JP1, SG1 | Cluster JPN3 in Tokyo, Japan |
