Have you have ever come across a situation when you had to fax a paper document or a PDF file after filling in the details and putting your signature in ink ?
I recently attended a conference in another city and the organizers asked us to fax or snail mail a copy of the actual receipts for them to reimburse the travel expenses. Fair enough.
Since the receipts were no legal documents and were required just for the purpose of maintaining records, I took a picture of the entire paper receipt with a digital camera and sent it as an email attachment. They happily accepted the 'digital' format.
An extension of this technique comes very handy when you have to print a 12 page document, sign every page and fax it back. Either get a scanned image of your signature or create one at Live Signature.
Then paste this image near the footer of every page, print the document as a PDF file (so that it's non-editable) and email it back. No hard copies. You save money, time as well as some trees.
Another trick: Use Mobile Phone Camera as a Scanner
Find this article at: http://labnol.blogspot.com/2007/08/when-you-have-to-fill-sign-and-then-fax.html
web: http://www.labnol.org/ email: amit@labnol.org
Reader Comments
Just because the document is now a PDF doesn't mean it can't be edited. Anyone can take the signature image out of the PDF, or edit the text in the PDF VERY easily. Editing password-protection won't deter the determined either.
Written on 18/8/07 10:27 PM
If you think a PDF document is non editable - you are very mistaken
regards,
G Lynn
Written on 18/8/07 10:51 PM
Amit has already mentioned that they were not legal papers. It's a good concept and eco-friendly.
Moreover nothing is fully secured.. leave those password cracking, pdf editing s/w... you can simply use print screen-paste and make edit it and create duplicates. That's a different thing.
Written on 19/8/07 12:21 AM
Actually, you can legally sign a document digitally. Adobe Acrobat has this exact feature and it IS legally binding.
I've already done it a few times. It doesn't transpose your actual signature, but it leaves a notice that it's been digitally signed with the date/time, email address, etc.
If the document is then altered, an audit trail will show up that specifies the changes AFTER and before the change. It's pretty cool and a nice reason to have Adobe Acrobat.
Written on 20/8/07 7:45 AM