Tour of the document page
What the header strip, the three tabs, the signing order list, the PDF viewer and the activity feed each tell you, and how the page changes with the document's state.
Open any document from the list and you land on its page, which answers three questions in order: where this envelope stands, who it is waiting on, and what happened to it so far. A header strip carries the status and the actions, and three tabs hold the rest.
The header strip
The document name sits under a Back to documents link, with the status badge beneath it. An in-progress envelope spells out its progress in the badge itself, reading something like In progress · 1 of 3 signed.
Small gray chips fill in the rest, and which ones appear depends on the state:
- Sent by with the name of whoever dispatched it and the date and time.
- Auto-remind on or Auto-remind off, while signing is under way.
- A countdown such as 4 days left, with the exact expiry date on hover. It reads Past due once that date is behind you.
- Last modified on with a timestamp, shown once the document has settled.
- A paperclip with a count, when signers have uploaded files. Clicking it jumps to the attachments.
Action buttons sit at the right. Edit draft on an unsent draft, Cancel on a live envelope, Save as template where your plan includes templates, Move to file it into a folder, and Audit PDF on a document that ended without being signed. A signed document offers its downloads from the summary strip instead, so the header stays quiet there.
A draft with a send time booked shows a green banner reading Scheduled to send with the moment it goes out, plus Send now, Reschedule and Cancel schedule. Editing is off while that banner is up. Cancel the schedule and the ordinary Edit draft button comes back.
The summary strip
The first band inside the Summary tab tells you the state in a sentence and offers the one action that matters for it.
| State | What the strip says | What it offers |
|---|---|---|
| Draft | This envelope is still a draft, nobody has been asked to sign | Finish and send |
| In progress | Signing in progress with the count collected so far | Nothing, unless it is waiting on you |
| Waiting on you | Your signature is needed | Sign now |
| Signed | Everyone signed, the sealed PDF and audit trail are ready | Signed PDF and Audit PDF |
| Declined | The name of whoever declined, and when | Nothing |
| Cancelled | Envelope cancelled, signing was stopped | Nothing |
| Expired | Envelope expired, the deadline passed | Nothing |
Signing order
Below the strip, a heading reading Signing order names the routing mode as Sequential or Parallel, then lists every signer in turn. Sequential envelopes number each row, and a number turns into a tick once that person signs.
Each row carries an avatar, the name, a status badge, and a meta line with the email address plus whatever else applies: Signed 2 hours ago, Reminded 2×, or In person with the colleague hosting the session. Document statuses explained covers what each recipient badge means.
While the envelope is live, three buttons appear under signers who have not finished. Remind nudges that person by email, and shows a count against your limit once you have used one. In person hands your device to a signer standing next to you. Reassign replaces them with somebody else and invalidates their old link. Each of these carries a small padlock when your plan does not include it. They still take a click, and clicking one opens a panel naming the plan instead of taking you away from the document.
CC recipients sit at the bottom under a Copied heading. They never sign, so their badge reads Gets a copy while the envelope is live and Notified once it closes.
An Attachments section follows when signers were asked to upload files, grouped by person, with each file's name, size, arrival time and a Download button.
The Document tab
This is the PDF itself, with page thumbnails alongside it. Before an envelope is finished you get the sender's view: every field outlined in the color of the recipient who owns it, with a legend of recipient names above the page.
Once the last signature is in, the same tab shows the sealed PDF instead, signatures and all, with no outlines over it. If the preview cannot load, Open original fetches the uploaded file directly.
The Activity tab
Every event on the envelope, newest at the top, written as a sentence: who did it and what it was. sent the envelope, opened, agreed to e-sign, signed - awaiting others, sent a reminder, reassigned to someone else, finalized the envelope. Under each line sits the date and time, plus the IP address the action came from where one was captured.
This feed is the readable version of what ends up in the audit PDF, so it is the first place to look when somebody asks whether a signer really opened the document.
If something goes wrong
- Preview unavailable on the Document tab. The file is still being prepared, or the upload failed. Use Open original and re-upload if that fails too.
- No Cancel button on a live envelope. The document belongs to someone whose work you can read but not manage. Ask its owner or an admin.
- Remind is grayed out. Either that signer's turn has not arrived, or their reminder limit is used up. The tooltip says which.
- A signer swears they got no email, and their badge reads In person. They were never emailed. In-person signers sign on the host's device.
- The page is stuck on skeleton blocks. The document was deleted, or your access to it changed. Go Back to documents and search for it by name.
Frequently asked questions
Does the page update on its own while people are signing?
Yes. While a document is in progress the page refreshes itself in the background, so a signature or an opened link shows up without you touching anything. Leave the tab open and it keeps pace. Switch away and it catches up the moment you come back to it.
Why do some buttons carry a small padlock?
Those actions belong to a higher plan than your workspace is on, so a small padlock sits next to the label. The button still takes a click, and clicking it opens a panel naming the plan you need rather than throwing you off the document. Everything without a padlock works as normal.
The Document tab shows field outlines. Will signers see those boxes?
The colored outlines are the field placements, shown to you in the sender's view and tinted by whichever recipient owns each one. Signers see the fields they need to complete on their own signing screen. Once the envelope is finished, the tab switches to the sealed PDF with no outlines.
What does the Remind button do when it is grayed out?
It means a reminder would go nowhere. Either that signer's turn has not come round yet on a sequential envelope, or you have already used every manual reminder allowed for them. Hover the button and the tooltip says which of the two is holding you up.
Where do files that signers uploaded end up?
In an Attachments section at the foot of the Summary tab, grouped by the person who uploaded them, with the file name, its size and when it arrived. The paperclip count in the page header jumps straight to it. Each file has its own Download button.
Keep going
Find a document in the Documents list
Status tabs, the owner and team and folder picker, search across names and recipients, what every column means, and the small chips that say where a document came from.
ReadDocument statuses explained
The six statuses a document can hold, what moves it from one to the next, the separate status each recipient carries, and why Scheduled is not on the list.
ReadOrganize documents with folders
File a sent document into a folder, create folders as you go, rename or delete them, and filter the Documents list down to one folder at a time.
ReadSequential vs parallel signing order
Choose In sequence to route a document one signer at a time, or All at once to email everyone together. Drag rows to set the order.
Read