Unlocking the Power of Digital Signature Legitimateness for Planning in Mexico

How to eSign a document: digital signature legitimateness for Planning in Mexico

this conference will now be recorded [Music] hmm [Music] okay uh thank you okay me much aubameyang foreign okay good morning everyone please take a moment to make sure that you are muted so you don't interrupt the presentation please good morning good morning is that her injury yeah that's that's me her in there okay perfect thank you so i'll start off the presentation and then um i'll lead you into it okay okay good morning everyone thank you for joining us today for miami beach building department electronic plan submittal requirements presentation i am natasha diaz the assistant director for the miami beach building department today we will go over how to properly digitally sign and seal your documents understanding how to do this is important to avoid having your documents rejected the platform for this meeting today will be that i will present a few slides on what we require for electronic plant submittal then we have a guest presenter mr harinder singh from globalsign one of our trusted digital signature authorities and he will show you exactly how to the digital is created and how it's applied so first a little background why a digital seal the digital seal allows us to validate that the documents are certified by the design professional before when you dropped off plans in person you had a raised seal and that would allow us to confirm the validity of the seal now in this electronic environment we have the electronic field digital fields are governed by florida statutes the board of architects the board of engineers and the board of surveyors and mappers so the city of miami beach has several requirements for plans but the three main ones that we look for as soon as you upload your plans into the css system um are mainly these three we look for a pdf per discipline so one pdf file per discipline or trade so your architectural sheets should be in one pdf file your electrical chip would be in another pdf files your mechanical sheets and another pdf file so on and so forth and i'll go a little bit more into that in in the following slides the second thing we look for is that the document security settings allow for markups and the third thing we look for is the digitally sign and feel affidavits are currently being accepted in lieu of the digital seal this is temporarily being accepted until december 31st 2020 and a note on the affidavit those affidavits have to be submitted every time you submit plans whether it's the first time or a resubmittal they have to be submitted every time with the plans if you have questions go ahead and type them in the chat box and at the end of the presentation we will answer as many questions as we can so in regards to the one pdf file per discipline or true so like i said you're combining sheets for each discipline into one pdf do not combine them as a pdf package or pdf portfolio so when you're combining sheets depending on the software you're using it asks you if you want to combine it as a pdf package or i think the other option is called binding binding is the way to go but the pdf package we do not accept that's like a zip file and our system does not unzip it so an example as i mentioned before all architectural sheets such as a1 a2 a3 combines into one pdf from multi-page pdf and so on and so forth for all the other trades the naming convention that we asked that you put on the files is name the file ing to the discipline uh preface with the permit number so for example your permit number is bc2014123 and the file you are submitting are architectural plans so your name for your file will be the permit number and the discipline for those plans in regards to document security settings when you are putting your plans together when you're setting the security settings do not password protect and your document must be set to allow changes specifically adding comments markups and rotating the pages sometimes we receive these sets with the pages rotated in the wrong direction and if you have it locked we cannot rotate it also the comments and markups are required to be allowed so that we can so our reviewers can add their markups and once your plans are ready for finalization we can put that approve stamp on there and then the digital sign and seal so everything i just showed is really kind of in the order that it should be done your digital field should be applied last because any changes you make after you apply the digital field invalidates the digital field so your combining of sheets should be done first your security settings should be done next and then lastly apply your digital feel so what requires signing and feeling in this case digitally signing and feeling all plans any design that is done by a design professional should be signed and field surveys should be signed and field and calculations should be signed in fields again apply the digital signature lasts more than one digital field can be applied so we get this question asked sometimes for as built or private providers you can have more than one fuel apply to the set and it will not invalidate somebody else's feel where to apply the digital sign and seal so this is also a question we get asked often an image of the feel and date should be shown on every page but the digital field itself only needs to be applied to the first page of the set so when the files are in a set so like i said in the first um slide about combining your plan so all a sheets are combined in a set and so it's one pdf a multi-page pdf then you only need to apply the digital seal on the first page and that validates the entire set however we do ask that you apply an image of the seal of your seal and the date on every page also alternatively you can digitally sign the cover or first page of the set as long as the there's the index of all the drawings in the set so in back pace you only need to digitally find the first page when there is an index of all the drawings in the set how to digitally sign and feel one you cannot self-certify so you cannot use i think adobe has its own um kind of signature that they call it a digital signature but it's not really a digital signature it's it's a self-certified digital signature and that's not what we look for we need um you to use one of these third-party trusted authorities that confirm your your identity and then provide you with the digital id to apply so if you if you've created your own digital field and apply it we will not accept that it has to be done by one of the requested agencies and one of our tested agencies the following trusted agencies we have is adventurous global science digital and and trust um as more as more agencies come online then we might be able to add more to this list but right now these are the ones that we allow and with that i am done with my part of the presentation today we have our guest presenter perinder singh he is with global signs and i will turn it over to him harinder let me make you present her yep sure okay let me know if that works for you yep uh okay can you see my screen yeah yes you might wanna you might wanna make it a full screen okay yep uh can everyone see my screen please i see it well thank you okay all right okay well uh yep good morning everyone um thanks natasha for uh for the introduction and the clear information what is uh being done as far as the signing and feeling of the permits are happening in the city and uh so i am the account manager here in global sign one of the approved vendors for uh digital signatures for the city of miami beach and uh with global fine for almost around four and a half years and precisely helping our florida colleagues uh you know professional engineers architects engineering fraternity and you know especially with uh it started with city of miami and the city of miami beach back in 2018 late 2018 and 2019 when we started talking about the e-plan review project uh transitioning from our standard ceiling and uh over to the electronic or the digital ceiling i would say uh so yeah thank you natasha for giving me this opportunity to present um and in fact i would say to assist and to help our our colleagues our friends who are who are doing the submissions and uh probably finding it a little difficult or very difficult to uh to transition from that you know initial stamping phase over to the digital phase uh so yeah we'll take this opportunity to go ahead and first i'll i'll try to present what's uh what's the digital signature how it works and how global financial signatures can be um you know stamped can be put onto a document or onto a pdf document and then of course we'll have you know any questions and answers i would love to you know take up and make sure that we all are on the same page okay so to begin with uh first of all uh natasha you touched a very good topic there self-signed certificates uh that is very important that is the base of this whole thing uh i myself i worked for adobe back in 20 2012 and 2013 and that is when they acquired the company called echo sign and that is where adobe after their pdf thing they started to add the self-signed certificates or the self-signed signatures to the pdfs and the difference between a difference between a self-signed and a digital signature is uh is very simple but you know it's subtle but it's it's it's big i would say so if it's an authority or a company says that i am the one who is issuing the certificate and you get it from me and you're all set which is what adobe is doing all the certificates that are issued they say you should buy you know that that adobe they do not mention the name they would not say digitally signed by natasha diaz they would just say that it has been approved it has been signed by adobe so that is called self-signed certificates but when it comes to a third-party verified digital signature i'm going to show you in a little while the the exact difference as well that is where the global sign as a certificate authority comes into picture where your credentials your your your thing that you are you you are who who you say you are has been verified before you have you have been issued the digital signature once you have that the verification happens you know if you are a big entity will verify the the organization if you are an individual will verify the individual identity and very minimal documentation required i'll i'll let you know all the processes as well in the meanwhile and so yeah once that is established that is when you get a third party verified digital signature and that is what can be held legal in the code of law as simple as that and slowly but steadily we have it started with florida initially but we do have other states you know nevada california texas you know they're all i mean new jersey uh new york they're they're all coming up big time so that everyone can come on the same page and start signing with a third-party verified digital signature and with that i'll just go ahead and start with the process here how this works of course i'll show you the signature thing how this really works and then i'll take you to the process of how you can get the digital signature for city of miami beach i have a pdf open here let me show you this okay so this is a sample signature and as you may see uh this is what can be done the two sides of it left inside where you see the stamp state of florida your name your license number you are a registered architect you are a professional engineer and that stamp majority of us we have it if it's not there we can always stamp it on a piece of paper scan it and save it as a pdf on the computer and when when your digital signatures are approved then you can simply go ahead and add that image to the digital signature it's a very simple process i can i can definitely show that as well how to do that uh and on the right hand side it tells you the name of the person the professional engineer how i mean who is the person like in this case it's fine to me so it's digitally signed by harinder singh and it gives you the date and time as well so as you may see date time it's it's called time stamping plus um you know there are there are certain cities which are expecting to add these verbiage like printed copies of this document are not considered signed and sealed so if it is needed it can be added as well in that image and then image can be imported into the digital signature that is very much possible so this is very very flexible easy to handle now the next thing as if i hover over the digital signature as you might have seen it says valid signature now the reason it says valid signature it is because number one it is the document has not been been tampered with nobody else has tried to edit the document after i have signed it that's number one because if the if the document gets tampered the signature trust gets broken that's one part of the security that digital signatures bring in and the second is that digital city the certificate attached to that digital signature is a valid certificate it is not expired because these certificates they come with the validity one year two year and three year and i mean better the more the validity you know you have more flexibility because as per the protocol if you go for just one year certificate next year when you come back for a renewal it's not a simple subscription renewal being being a digital signature you need to go through the whole process of purchasing verifying yourself again and then installing the certificate but if you go for a three-year certificate straight and simple you're all set for next three years your identity is verified for next three years and you can continue to sign okay and now the next thing how to make sure that this is a you know good signature we'll go ahead and look into the properties here as you may see again there's a green check mark which shows clearly that signature is valid it has been signed the signing time the source of trust was obtained from adobe approved list that is called aatl a little bit on that adobe has a trusted list of you know vendors or the providers or the certificate authorities which they think that have the enough you know credentials enough standards to be added to their trusted list so that whosoever signs using those signature they the signatures get trusted okay and then you have the validity summary and you can always go in further into the signer certificate it tells you that it has been uh here you go this doc this gives me the name and my title if you want to add a title that is very much possible then it has been issued by a global sign that is very important it would it should not say issued by harinder singh that is the difference between a self-signed certificate and a digital certificate it has to come from a third-party verified certificate authority like globalsign along with a validity date and and like that okay so that is the properties there and you can always you know see the serial number when the validity and everything it's pretty much very very thing and quite a few uh cities i've experienced that they are looking for the serial numbers this is where the serial number comes in and every time you get a new certificate you get a new serial number that's another level of authentication so that being said let's quickly go into another document i have here and i'll try to show okay actually the screen is okay here you go so once you have a pdf document and you have a digital signature from globalsign approved and you have a usb dongle so okay that's another point these kind of digital certificate because of the security they need they need to be stored or they need to be installed on a special cryptographic usb dongle we call it flash drive dongle usb they're all same and the process is fairly simple we have all the instructions everything in place and you know to to assist you to make sure that everything uh all that all the all the instructions are met and that you are able to the certificate onto that usb usb dongle once it is on the dongle you just need to plug it into your computer and open a pdf document like i have one open up here and depending on what version so that's another thing if we have adobe acrobat reader dc acrobat pro you know any acrobat version acrobat i mean the older versions acrobat eight nine the they have been kind of discontinued from the adobe itself so that will show that the signatures are not trusted so the recommendation number one is have your adobe updated and the good news about it is even the free version of acrobat reader dc it is available online to download you can simply go ahead and download it without any cost that version i'm using the same as you may see the acrobat reader dc yeah they don't pay for my pro version so yeah so i'm using that and it works absolutely normal there is no problem acrobat probe you can edit things you know depending on what you're using plus bluebeam the latest edition i won't say that latest it's been there in for a while but yeah off late i've seen so many engineering companies they are more inclined towards the flexibility which bluebeam offers so these signatures they work very well with bluebeam and few other pdf providers like nitro foxset so every everywhere you know we have tested it in-house to make sure that uh the signatures are valid are trusted and we are able to digitally sign and seal using those softwares so right now for this purpose for this presentation purpose we'll be just using the acrobat reader dc but we do have a video for bluebeam in case any of us uh is using bluebeam no problem at all very simple you know i i can always push the links on how to digitally sign using the blue beam as well and okay for this we'll just need to look for certificates and how we see the certificates is that we need to go to the more tools once we are there in the more tools we have certificates so that means it is connecting to the server and now digitally sign is what we're looking for we'll click on that it asks you to use your mouse and click and drag and draw the area where you would like the signatures to appear depending on the plan depending on the drawing that you're working on if it's a small space you can you can make a small space if it's if it provides you enough space you can make bigger rectangle as well the good news is that when you submit it to the city they should be able to zoom in and zoom out if it's very little space i mean ideally it should not be it should be enough for for you to put your regular stamp and the same space can be used for the digital signatures as well and but when you submit it to the city if they say that okay we cannot see it yes they can always zoom in and zoom out and the the picture quality i would say or the you know the visibility is normal so they should be able to find that you have digitally signed the document well so using the mouse we make a box okay we'll make something okay i'll try to make something i think this is this is enough space which we normally get for the drawings so that is gonna pop up now that server is getting connected to your usb dongle right now and as you may see i have a couple of certificates there so the one which is for me and it has been issued by global sign and this is the expiry expiration date so mine is expiring 29 of this month so i'll select that and click on continue this is where the whole magic happens now the good news again is a couple of points but the question that i always get from my customers is i'm licensed in seven different state so what should i do no problem you just need one signature you just need to buy one time from global sign and with the ability to create multiple appearances like over here you can create as many appearances when i say appearance the seal that you see on this side which is state of florida that can be replaced with state of alabama state of georgia state of california state of new york so if you're licensed in multiple states no problem just by one certificate create multiple appearances and when you create those appearances under the drop down if you see here this is how it's going to appear like one standard text okay so once i click on that this is how it comes initially when you get your digital certificate and you start signing with it this is how it's gonna show your name on both letters on the left hand side and same thing on the right hand side because we do not ask for your personal information number one we do not ask for your professional seal or license that's again you know we don't want you to share any information up front you just need to give us standard you know your name your organization name your address where you want that usb to be shipped your email address so that we can send you the instructions and the link to download the certificate that's it no upfront documentation needed no uh nothing as such right unless you know the verification process needs it i'll i'll talk about that in a little while and so then you can manipulate your your appearance of the digital signatures and how you do it it's simple we'll go to create this is going to give you an option here you can either draw like this like anything and then apply it here you go right or you can bring in an image here and you can click on browse and if you have a pdf image of your seal just bring into that and click open and you can have that image as i have the state of florida image and if you want a standard text this is where the standard text will appear okay and the best thing is that not to get confused you can give them give the kind of digital signatures you know if you have let's say state of florida so you can give them you know like the name florida digital seal this is the name you can give and then you can save it it's going to show as florida digital field in the drop down here as you may see right and multiple i've i've done few like for example handwritten this is how it can appear whichever you select if you want to go back to the standard one the state of florida one you select that once you do this you simply need to click on sign okay here you go so it's gonna prompt you to save the file now when you save the file give it a name up give it a name save it and okay it's saving the file okay so one thing it skipped right now when you save the file it will prompt you for the password that password is the one which you will keep when you your certificate it did not show it up on my screen right now because i've signed few documents i mean within within a few minutes i was signing few before we logged in and i signed right now so it has a session that's how it works on the back end one of my technical guy explained it to me once so if you're signing some documents let's say you have you have 10 documents to sign right now and you're signing one the first one when you sign it will prompt you for a password and that is the point of security let's say if you lose your and you know you think that hey you know what i lost my digital signature it's a big thing because these are signatures which can be held legal in the court of law and if someone gets hold of your and the password then they can sign anything but again the password is very personal it has to be with you once you have the password don't share it with anyone unless you think that that is that is doable you know within office if you have a professional engineer has project managers or admins who are who are signing the documents well that's their internal part we personally we do not recommend sharing the passwords so as long as you have the password your digital signatures are safe even if someone gets hold of the usb s they cannot sign the documents but when you're signing in continuation like you have five ten documents to be signed the first document you sign it'll prompt you for the password but the next one two three four it would not ask you for those passwords every time but that is a session there is no set limit i would suggest i would say about 15 to 20 minutes is a session time once we are outside of the session time let's say if you come back and within one hour and start to sign another document yes it'll again prompt you for the password that's the thing okay so again now what cd is looking for once you sign this document up to here the green check mark on the left hand side here the signed and all signatures are valid is what is mandated what is needed that shows that this this is a digital signature this is from a third party provider like globalsign and it has the the stuff that we need so as you may see that small little space you know it would squeeze in as much as it can but if it goes beyond that these are these are digital documents they they will take the signatures um as it is so that should not be a problem and another thing is that cd is going to click on the signature like i'm clicking right now that's what is going to happen once they click on the signature it'll show that the signature is valid signed by the professional engineer and this document has not been modified since the signature was applied that is very important okay and the document was signed by the current user and they can go to the properties they can check the validity and you know when what when was it signed signer certificate we have already seen that part issued by globalsign so that is what is needed okay so okay that being said i have okay another point that i can explain is let's say if you sign the document and you think that you know this document no i didn't need to sign it maybe i have to do some editing whatever so you can right click on the signature there is an option to clear the signature you can clear it as well delete it clear it as well as long as it is the document is in your possession you can clear the signature and the signature will go away all right the field is going to stay there but that's okay that doesn't matter so now you can go ahead back you can go to digitally sign use your mouse make a bigger space and it'll take you back to the same thing global sign okay and all right let's see we this time we'll go with a handwritten one and click on sign save it okay there you go then you again get a valid signature that is what is needed and if any one of us is using bluebeam um the good news about bluebeam are the difference where it when it comes between adobe and bluebeam is if you have a big project and you have hundreds of documents to be signed i know uh natasha explained you know that you can find you just need to sign the cover page and add the stamp on the rest of the pages well that is a good thing i'm glad that you know they are accepting it this way but i do hear from other cities you know some some cities they think that you know it has to be signed the hundred pages they need to be signed so that'll be a big pain to sign you know do the whole process on hundred pages but bluebeam extreme that's the version revue and standard then extreme version a little expensive though but yeah that will give you an option to do the batch signing now batch signing is as it as the name suggests batch you select a batch of documents and make a box just like we did and then put the stamp on and it will automatically find all the pages the maximum that i have seen with one of my clients was 200 22 in fact so just one shot it'll take few minutes of course you know the system processes and does the whole thing but you won't have to repeat the process every time and that will save you a lot of time there okay so that's pretty much uh from the from the digitally signing let's see do i have the questions here uh okay how do you allow the document to be editable after it is digitally signed so there is an option there uh you know when when you want people to to sign the document so two ways one you lock the document and no one else can sign it and second you do not lock the document because let's say you have multiple people and you can create fields for them you know and so that other people can sign the document and then a final person gets to the document and they sign it okay so that is very much possible and okay i think ricardo jeff they had the same question and so uh standard text and appearance uh uh is good enough or does it have to be a seal well again it depends on city if they're expecting the seals to be in there yes it's very much possible and if you do not have the seal there are there are quite a few companies online which which provides uh the stamps the pdf stamps uh and uh that that's how how that works and pe stamps there's one one of my customers they they gave me this thing pe stamps.com i can just type it here p e time harinder and just to chime in architects and engineers are required to put their seal on the documents here you go yep that's fine so if uh if you are expecting the seals to be in there pe stamps.com is uh it's not global sign i'm just kind of you know pushing it through because quite a few of my customers they suggested that these people they are quick and you know it's like ten dollars per uh per seal and you get to uh you know you get you get to have the pdf image of your uh your seal within one hour that they're quick okay uh all right um one of the questions is about the editing or the security settings on the document i believe that has to be done before the digital seal is applied is that correct uh yeah so let's look into that natasha i i see you know that question coming in uh i was about to come on to that as well so yeah uh okay uh right yep so let's pull up another document actually my screen has become little okay this is okay so let's go in there go to certificates digitally sign continue standard now we'll we'll do a different kind okay we'll we'll go with digital seal okay now this is where uh what i wanted to show once you select the document and there is a lock document after signing button here so either we are keeping it checked because we do not want anyone else to interrupt the the flow or we keep it unchecked because we want other people to add their comments or you know add another signature i would say more signatures than comments right because adding comments is more of a of a pdf or adobe functionality but as long as the signa as far as the signatures are concerned if you do not lock the document it allows other people to sign the document and the reason is here because as you see this document was already signed right and it was not locked now i'm signing it again and we'll test it in in both the ways as well so go ahead and we'll lock it this time and we'll sign it it's verifying okay so now you see there are two signatures up here one which is valid here and there's another one that is welded as well so two signatures both of them different formats but again it it might be a question that okay it's been signed by the same usb dongle that's fine but even if it's signed by any other dongle any other digital signature it'll show the same thing because i just don't have two signatures with me i can only have one yeah so that's for the demo purpose but it is very much possible now let's try the second part we have locked the document we're gonna try to sign it again let's see if that works we'll go to more tools certificates okay so we went to the certificates now the good news here is okay here here you go you see that there is no digital design i'm going again here please look up for this i'm going to certificates i do not find the digitally signed button available i hope that answers the question you cannot even add the digital signature because this document was locked and to go back a little you know a little backward we had one signature already in the system and it was not locked it allowed me to put the second signature but now we locked it as we saw that it is not giving me an option i'm going back to tools i'm selecting certificates this digitally signed button should be enabled i hope that answers that question thank you hunter um and just to clarify i think there's a confusion between the difference between the signature lock and the document property settings um locks and and security so i believe this i believe this just locks that signature like you just um showed how you can either add another signature or not add the other signature but um some people are asking about the integrity of the document when the file is not locked so in this case the the signatures are locked and so anything that changes after these signatures are applied would then invalidate the signature correct yeah absolutely and i was coming to that part as well thanks natasha validity summary this is what it's gonna interlink the digital signature and adobe functionality now it clearly says this document has not been modified since the signature was applied if there was a editing happened in between the first signature and the second signature this piece will clearly say this yes the document was modified unfortunately i do not have uh that sample right now because i don't have the adobe pro i cannot edit the pdfs but i have seen it in multiple multiple usage multiple customers and it is very very simple and straightforward because that's why they say this document has not been modified had this been modified or let's say if we actually try to modify any document this functionality in fact there are two indications number one the green check mark on the left hand side it will turn into a yellow triangle with an exclamation this is the key if it's not a green check mark that means the doc the signature is not valid it's not a trusted document it's it's not an the document was tried our document was modified in bitman and when we go into the properties that's where it will show that this document has been modified when the signature was applied so this is how far a digital signature can mandate or can show that you know the document integrity was in place and there's nothing wrong that has happened so those that are concerns about the integrity of the document um can rest assured that the validity of their seal then would not be there anymore absolutely after the document has changed and so since we the city require that markup to be allowed um that's okay because once we receive the first time we receive your file we're checking that the signature is valid then once the plan reviewers get it and put their up on it the signature is invalidated at that point but then we've put our markup to return the files to you so that then you can make those changes and then resubmit it again again with your valid signature absolutely as long as that workflow is happening between the professional engineer and the city and no there is no interruption which i i'm just superficially thinking you know which is very likely you know the workflow has to be between these two entities the city and the professional engineer so they sign the document they do not lock it number one because that's not the final signature and i believe the final signature has to come from cd as well as an approval right natasha correct and okay that was a question just posted by norman that the on-site copy would have the city's approved stamp on it right so uh my suggestion or my my my pointer here on this is when the professional engineers they sign the document they do not lock the document number one and the workflow when that happens between the professional engineer and the city does the markups of course the signature will be invalidated that's the that's the point because we have unlimited signatures there is no cap on how many times you can sign it let's say they're like 10 times here and there up and down professional engineer send the document cd does the markup and then again goes back you know the to and fro process happens multiple times does not matter if as long as we are not finalizing the document and the final signature will come from the professional engineer and cd says okay everything is fine and they seal and stamp it simple that is when the document gets finalized so the point two points here is number one the document integrity will be stable will be there as long as the process is in between these two entities professional engineer and the the city and you're allowed to do the markups which is a part of a process and the second part when the final signature happens because city has to sign and seal as well at the very end professional engineer should not lock the document now that locking of document it is intended or it is it is it is a good thing to have when you think that nobody else is going to sign the document for example city when they put the final stamp they know that nobody's gonna nobody should be able to add any signatures to that that is when city can lock the document that's it that'll be the final archive for the for the whole permit does that help yes that's correct okay um so we have a little bit of time left do you mind showing um where you set the security settings like in the example you sent me via email where you can um set those pdf settings uh you mean this is a adobe one let's see yeah we do see some questions coming up uh i would love to answer i i've actually kept another half an hour open my my next one uh you know so i thought okay this is definitely gonna be extended so the next one is gonna happen at 11 30 if we you have time if any anyone has time yeah i'm i'm available till 11 30. no rush from my side for sure okay and i think that showing that i think will answer some of the questions in the chat box and then and then we can stay and answer some more questions okay sure uh let me see um so okay i'm just reading through so why do some signatures validated in adobe and not in bluebeam uh very rare jennifer you know that can happen uh i i personally have not seen uh it can happen because uh the base of both the software the adobe and bluebeam it's it's a pdf and unless i mean you have a particular scenario i don't know if you can share with us i can double check because majority of the times okay one thing that i can i can think of is the version version of adobe or the blue beam you know if it's a very old version like i mentioned adobe eight and nine they would not take the the the certificate jennifer you can definitely send that file over to me no problem uh natasha has my my my contact details i would love to take that up and uh you know answer that very very clearly for you but as of now i think that it's just a version of the adobe which has caused problems because uh some of our professional engineers they they were using the perpetual licensing of adobe back in 2012 and uh 2013 adobe moved from their perpetual licensing to the cloud-based the creative cloud and the pdf cloud uh that's when they they asked for pay the subscription we keep you updated but not any i mean not for the perpetual ones we used to buy cd and uh keep the pdf on our system those versions they would not accept the the thing same for for the bluebeam as well and um okay uh all right so let's we'll take all the questions uh shortly and uh natasha i think i i sent you that link right yeah for for the security uh let me see there you go so to secure the pdf we we were me and natasha we were discussing because this was definitely a point this is this is a help that we have from from adobe and we can share this this link with everyone as well it's simple you know if depending on what kind of document that you are you're using so if you want to add you know a password to the document that is very much possible you know and then if you want to give the permissions so that that is again a thing here it it gives you very very clear indications and i can try to do it on my i don't know if they can allow it on the free version of adobe and okay let's close this go to file oh file and protect using password okay here you go password protect i think they do something here so remember we we ask that you do not password protect because then that makes it difficult when we receive it i think to add marshall exactly it's the same thing uh like locking the document after you sign it because if your conversation if your your your transmission is between your entity and the city of miami beach it has to be open until around the city says that this is approved this is all set if you want to keep it for your own purpose you want to lock it that's a different process that's that's that's up to you but as long as the the conversation is happening not recommend it to password protected because obviously then how would the markups happen how would the final signatures happen so cd would have trouble doing that and they'll keep coming back to you hey can you unlock it can you redo the thing so that's a confusing step so security of the document like i said it is there it is integrated to the to the to the pdf and the blue beam that's fine and as soon as you put the digital signatures on the document let's say i mean hypothetically you sign a document and you did not lock it now there are two things happening when you lock the document it would not allow someone else to sign on top of it that is number one but the document integrity still is active and if someone let's say someone hacks the file in between might be a situation right so if someone hacks the file and they try to modify that file and they think that okay i will change this drawing and then let it go to city as soon as they try to edit the pdf and if it is a signed digitally signed document cd when they receive it they're gonna find that this document was modified and they will not see that the green check mark because the document integrity was tampered with and the digital signature will detect that the pdf was modified and it will take off that trust of the green check of the trust and it will start showing like i showed in the properties that this document was not modified for this signature it will start showing that this document was modified so that is the difference so basically for for the workflow that we are we are having in the consideration i would recommend not to kind of protect the documents like this but yes it is very much possible as we are looking at it protect now so it'll take you to you know you have to sign in so that's the thing you need to have a you know full version of adobe you sign in and then only it will let you complete the process of the thing if you have if you're using a free version like i'm using it will not give you uh that option so that's another thing natasha right okay but again like i said uh to answer that question these are possibilities it is there and we have that link that so you can share it with everyone after the meeting and if people have the acrobat pro version and if they feel like you know for their other purposes for the internal purposes they want to keep the document locked they want to keep the password protected before they submit it to the city yes most welcome they can do that okay can you go back to that page i just wanted to show something that i saw when i reviewed that file uh you meant to say that adobe page yeah please the instructions this is i think it's the securing cdf tab where was that actually i'm not able to see it okay here so if you scroll down a little bit when i was reading this i saw some areas where it shows um how you allow to allow markup so scroll down a little bit more please okay yep i think you're right there it gives you an option to uh you know at least have people edit the document if they really want to do that so that's possible yeah and a little bit further down there's some more information on that restricting editing of pdf right yeah that's that's the one that's critical that we we will accept it if and there's two things that it can be can be restricted there is but the rest of it has to allow so one of it one of the um things that is restricted is that you not change the the base document but it still allows markups if that makes any sense so that you can't edit the document but you can make markups and so there's two things that we allow so under the more options there i think is where um there are two things that that when we receive it we will accept it with those two items being restricted but sometimes um when files are submitted to us they actually restrict additional uh items and so then that becomes very difficult because then we can't do markups we can't even approve it right there right so right there uh render you see it has it explains like changes aloud printing out that's where they can set all those security settings yep and that's a password thing again i believe if that password has been kept um the professional engineers they'll need to uh share that password with you right well they don't need to there's if there's if they only restrict to two of the items we can work with it if they restrict it completely then quite frankly we can't work with it and so that's um that's where we we run into some issues and those are a majority and and the customers don't really understand so i'm getting a lot of emails on that and that was let me find because i actually took screenshots this morning and sent an email on this i just i'm always behind i'm sorry okay you continue and i i apologize uh when i find it i'll tell you what yep and i think i'm also trying to take the questions alongside kelly um you had a question about how to uh do the the markups prior to the signing so this is these are the settings you know um for allowing the markup so if you um if you're if you're asking about the password protection this is what it's it's it is but if you're just using the acrobat reader dc and then asking to allow the markups you technically don't need to do anything so uh you just leave it like that right and have the document signed as natasha mentioned earlier so if the document is digitally signed and there are markups needed from the city when they do it of course the signature will be you know not trusted but again the trend that the workflow is happening between city and you and when it comes back to you they you can just do the editing resign it and send it back so that is how it will work otherwise you don't need to do any settings to allow the markup so your your standard because cd has the acrobat reader uh sorry acrobat pro so they can edit the documents very easily there i hope that answers the question surrender there's a good question here from gustavo the question is can you have the certificate in a memory stick to be used in various computers or does the certificate and the signing needs need to be dedicated to a single computer very very good question i'm glad that gustavo you brought it up so uh if the answer is yes a usb is not something that uh you know that is stuck to one computer you can have multiple machines and let's say if you have two different computers one in your office one at your home then you do not need to unless you really want it that's a different scenario but it's just one you the drivers on to the second machine the drivers link is there in that installation portal that we have it's there in the city of miami beach website as well i can share that link and you just need to the drivers it takes only two minutes to the drivers on the second machine once you have the drivers plug in the it'll detect the it'll detect the signatures the same way as you did it on your master computer okay that is number one situation number two is let's say if you think you know what um i i don't want to keep juggling between my usb i don't want to carry my from my office to my home or multiple computers and i travel a lot i mean once we are out of this situation and then you know in that scenario you can always buy a second additional and we can allow you to replicate that certificate onto the second when you do that both the s will be activated and you can plug in any anytime both would be password protected again remember the security is the the most important one there'll be password protector you know the password and if you're traveling you just take one in your bag and you just sign it wherever you are and when you're back in your office just get your your standard and sign the documents okay and [Music] let's see um can i pull that up here okay uh so natasha do we have uh other questions coming up i i hope i did not miss any no i i i asked you i think the last one that was um not repetitive there's a few that are kind of city process questions and i'm answering them in the chat and whatever we can't get to today i'll continue to answer them and post them on our website absolutely and uh now to quickly wrap it up uh after we have this uh i can okay here you go so this is the link uh i'm sorry this is a link here and i think we have this link in the cds website as well so digital signal how to get the digital signature now that we know how it works the next step can be how to get the digital signatures number one we have a special link we have a special pricing metrics with city of miami and the city of man beach and now you just need to click on this buy now button but before i do that i actually want to take you to the faqs and ordering instructions so every single step here it's very neatly mentioned you just need to do what like click nah buy now button and then go to the okay let me take this out okay um certificate create your account with us then you need to fill in your details uh your certificate identity what's the name of the the person who's going to get the certificate then make your payment our verification process happens now the two ways to do the verification one where you know your organization is vetted that is very simple that is very easy to happen because organizations are mostly registered and it is easy to get the details from our from the data approved databases but when it comes to individuals still does not matter the only caveat to that is to verify an individual will need to have a notarized copy of the driver's license now you can get it notarized from any ups or any bank which means that it will be easy for us to verify the notary and confirm that they actually signed your drivers notarize your driver's license so once that is done we verify that we'll just confirm the order on a phone call with you to make sure that you are the one who approved the order no one else was barging in another security measure and once that happens your wedding is complete and we will ship a usb to your you know uh to your address be to your home address be it your office address if you think now that's another point the standard process is any anywhere between one two three business days but if you think that something is super urgent and we have a you know big project and it has to go out tomorrow that is a time you need to talk to me just shoot me an email sent and you know call me should be an email natasha has already shared my my contact in the in the window and uh just tell me that horrendous we need this done quickly asap the standard is one to three businesses but the best time that i have done for for my customer is 22 hours now how's that 22 hours i don't even say 24 24. oh i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry wait what is that oh can you hear me oh okay yeah there was an echo there i don't know what what happened so yeah 22 hours is what best we can do uh in that we only need the fedex account number from the customer we will expedite and we will overnight the let's say you start the application and it takes only 10 minutes for the application and then it'll go to our verification team they'll they'll you know will expedite it internally so that we can expedite it within 22 those 22 hours and in the meantime your goes out through fedex and they deliver it tomorrow 10 o'clock once you have the your verification is completed it is only a matter of 15 minutes with the instructions which are listed right here and once the instructions once you have that and you find the certificate is installed you can start signing a document before noon next day so here here you see the instructions are already here when you receive the usb follow the instruction guide this is this goes to our global sign page this gives you the whole link and in fact this has a link to the drivers as well as you see number two download and the safenet authentication client drivers very much possible so you can you can just click on that link it'll take you the drivers and there might be another question that it says windows how about max yes macs are very much possible we do have many clients using mac and there is a little tweak to that settings in the in when it comes to mac and if you see here mac version support oxx catalina so we have all that if there is any issue there is a you know plan b also so we need to do this little tweak and into the settings of adobe and that is how we are able to get the digital signatures detected because mac has the different security policies the drivers and everything so you know this is the way out to get that going on the max so yeah every instructions is in there and once you do that you have uh you already know uh how to sign the documents there are videos available uh i think uh it's oh yeah one thing yeah you can see the videos here uh where you go oops it is not going away signing tutorials adobe signing overview right this will show you how to sign the thing there is a video here as well whatever we just did i know it's recorded but yeah you can always go to this link it'll show you how to sign the bluebeam as well there you go there's a signing bluebeam reboot they just use a revo 2015 as a standard but it'll give you a very clear idea on how to digitally sign the documents both in bluebeam and adobe the most standard things to uh the pdf that we use so that's uh that's pretty much it and again uh it says that for any questions regarding installation support we do have a technical support as well um they are very much efficient and they can help you to uh to get this thing going but on top of everything i take pride myself on you know letting my customers know that before anybody else i'm the person who can assist you from a to z to make sure you are the one who you're you're you're going to sign the documents and you are the one who was who's dealing with a live person not just machine or not just you know waiting on the line i know supports can be overwhelmed sometimes but my line is always available to the extent some of my you know big customers they have my cell phones as well so my cell phone number is always available as well in case you really urgently need something and it's a super urgent situation so we are we're trying our best to be available to make sure you know the experience that you get from us is is is i would say the best i won't say world-class whatever it's it's the best yeah so that's it from my side uh everyone uh again natasha um thank you very much for uh for pulling me in and making sure that we were able to assist we were able to answer questions i'm still open if we still have a few minutes if anyone has any questions i can i can take them yes hi i have a question can you hear me yes who is this uh my name is charles all right hi does the digital signature have to be over the seal or can it be on the side of the drawing i'm sorry can you can you repeat that digital signature has to be on what did this digital signature need to be over the seal on the drawing or can it be off to the side because when i put the digital signature over the ceo it covers a lot of the seal you're right it has to be on the side like as you saw in the demo as well there are two sides left side and the right side the left side is reserved for the seal and the right side is all is is hard-coded it is for the text it is it gives the information digitally signed by my harinder singh and date and time well my seal is already on the sheet so i'm not doing a digital sign and seal i'm just doing a digital sign uh my suggestion uh charles is instead of doing the double work of stamping it first and then adding the digital signatures uh you should add your seal into the into the digital signature itself so that will save you time and uh that will answer your question as well it will not overlap onto your digi onto your stamp well my seal has already come on the sheet so it's not double work so i have a you know my cat has the seal already on it so i'm gonna only add my signature so the question is so i should just put the signature to either the right or the left of the seal correct so yes covered yes i agree i agree with that so that it doesn't cover your seal okay yeah and the best thing on that charles to go a little further is that city is going to click on the digital signature as long as they see that signature is valid they should be happy about it and as long as they're able to see your stamp which is not covered as you said yes they should be very happy with it okay one last question um from this point forward the architectural plans cannot be you know signed and scanned correct or they still allow to the end of the year sure scan i was told that the engineers are still allowed to print and scan their sheets till the end of the year is that still the same for the architect or the architect is no longer cloud yes it's still the same for the architects as long as you're submitting the affidavit in lieu of the digital seal as well every time you submit because we just submitted a printed scan said that the city rejected it and said okay send me send me the permit number charles and i'll look into that offline okay and what's your name what's your email again i'll type it in the chat box right now okay okay thank you harinder very much for this this was very informational and helpful i think for myself and hopefully for everyone else thank you for taking the time to do this i really appreciate it yep yep my pleasure natasha and um thank you very much again for inviting me to do this and again um i'm open as as it is you know if we need more information you have already shared my contact i'm more than happy to answer any questions that way and if we need another level of demo you know if we need more demos like this i'm always available as you know great thank you so much take care everyone thank you for joining us thank you everyone have a wonderful day bye bye bye oh