Unlock the Power of Online Signature Licitness for Research and Development in Australia

How to eSign a document: online signature licitness for Research and Development in Australia

hey this is eric and in this video we're going to take a look at four free options to add your signature to a google document google docs is a wonderful tool and new features are constantly being added however one option that is still missing is an easy way to digitally sign and insert your signature into a google doc now certainly there are some paid solutions for this but many of those involve turning the google doc into a pdf which may not be what you want and of course they cost money to help with this i have brainstormed four ways that you can sign a google doc that are free and they put your signature right into the document these include using handwriting fonts inserting a signature image signing an embedded google drawing and using the simple signature add-on let's take a look at each of these i will include timestamps in the video description if you want to jump to a specific option or feel free to check out all four options to see what will work best for you option number one using handwriting fonts this first option is by far the easiest but also the most limited in this option the idea is that you can add your signature to a google doc by choosing a handwriting font and then typing your name using that font here's how it works first you want to make sure that you have a handwriting font to use if you don't have one that you like click on the font menu in the docs toolbar and then choose more fonts from the drop-down menu this will open the fonts window where you can access well over a thousand available web fonts to use in your document to find just handwriting fonts click on the show all fonts button and then choose handwriting from the drop-down menu you can now scroll through all of the handwriting fonts until you find one that you like then simply click on the font or fonts that you want to use and then click ok now anytime you want you can use that handwriting font in your documents so to sign your document click in the place where you want to add your signature then choose the handwriting font from the fonts menu and then simply type in your signature if needed you can adjust the font size or make the text bold or even change the text color if you want to for this option the positives are that it is super easy to do the negatives are that well it's not really your handwriting option number two inserting a signature image another option for adding your signature to a google doc is to create an image of your actual handwritten signature and then insert that image into the dock if you want to sign a physical piece of paper then you could scan the image and clean it up as needed in a graphics program or if you have a touch screen you could write your signature in a tool like google drawings and then save that as an image let's take a look at both options if you want to sign your name digitally start by creating a new google drawing or use any graphic program that you like for google drawings next click insert and then line and then scribble you can now use the scribble tool to sign your name if needed you can adjust the line thickness as well when done signing you can move the signature around as needed and resize the canvas so that it fits your signature without any extra space around it finally just give the drawing a name and then download your image by clicking file and then download and then png image it is necessary to choose png image for the image type so that the background stays transparent on the other hand if you want to scan your signature first you need to begin by signing your real signature on a clean white piece of paper next you'll want to scan your signature using a scanner or a photocopier or you could even take a picture of it with your phone as long as you have good lighting so there aren't any shadows if needed you could then open that up in whatever graphics program you prefer to do some editing and clean up for example you could change the image to just black and white and you could delete out any stray marks you could make the background transparent and again we could trim up the image so there's not any extra unneeded space around the signature when all done we could finally save our signature file no matter which option you use to make your signature image just make sure you save it somewhere that you can get back to easily some options could include the hard drive for your computer your google drive your google photos or even google keep you can now insert your signature image into a google doc anytime you need just click insert and then image and then choose the option for where you have your signature image saved such as uploading it from your computer or choosing it from your google drive or selecting it from your google photos your signature image will now be inserted into your document if needed you can change the text wrapping for the image to be in front of the text which will make the signature free floating so you can move it around anywhere that you need to you can also resize the signature image as needed now if instead you saved your signature in google keep let's show you how you can add that first you'll go and click on the google keep icon on the right side of your google docs screen this will open up the google keep panel you can now find your saved signature image and simply drag and drop it right into your document so for this option the positives are that it is actually your signature and there's lots of places to save it and lots of ways to insert it the negatives are that you do have to take the time to create your signature and you might need a graphics editing program to clean it up option number three signing an embedded google drawing the third option for adding your signature to a google doc is to embed a google drawing into your document where you need the signature and then using the google drawings tools to sign your name you can use this option yourself but you can also use it for a document that you want other people to sign for example you might have a common form that people need to get a copy of and then fill out and sign here's how it works first click in the spot of your document where you want your signature to go next click insert and then drawing and then new this will open the pop-up google drawings window click on the down arrow next to the line tool and then choose the scribble option you can now use the scribble tool to sign your name as before if needed you can adjust the line thickness as well when done click on save and close to exit the google drawings window as before if needed you can change the text wrapping so that the image is in front of the text which will make the signature free floating so you can move it around anywhere you need it to be you can also resize the image so the signature fits properly now if you do need to make any changes to the signature just double click on the image and it will reopen the google drawings window where you can easily make edits now if you want other people to use this method to sign your document i recommend pre-embedding the google drawing so they don't have to do that now you can't pre-embed a totally blank google drawing so you would need to add something to it like a white rectangle to give them a place where they know to sign here's how to do that like before click in the spot of the document where you want their signature to go then click insert drawing and new now you can set up a spot for them to sign by adding a white rectangle to the drawing click the shape menu and then choose shapes and then choose the rectangle shape you can now click and drag out a rectangle use the paint can button to change the fill color to white you may want to leave the border black though so they can easily see where to sign now click save and close to insert the placeholder drawing into the document anyone can now sign the document by simply double-clicking on the placeholder drawing and then using the scribble tool like before to sign their name so for this option the positives are that it is actually your signature and it doesn't require any extra tools everything is just part of google docs so this can be especially helpful if you need other people to sign the doc the negatives are that the person signing does need to know to double-click on the embedded drawing and how to access the scribble tool so you most likely will need to include some directions for the signer option 4 using the simple signature add-on the final option for adding your signature to a google doc is to use a free add-on for google docs called simple signature this awesome tool actually lets you do all three of the earlier options including using a handwriting font or uploading your signature image or writing your signature right in the add-on here's how it works first you will need to the add-on if you haven't done so yet click on extensions in the top toolbar of google docs and then choose add-ons and then choose get add-ons this will open the google workspace marketplace here you can browse or search for the simple signature add-on when you find it give it a click and then click on the button you will need to select your google account and give the add-on permission to the add-on will now be installed and ready for you to use anytime you need it to use the add-on click extensions then simple signature for google docs and then insert signature this will open the simple signature panel on the right side of your document the add-on allows you to type your signature or upload your signature or draw your signature let's try out all three to type your signature choose the type tab and then type your name in at the top you can now choose the font that you want to use and adjust the color if you want and then simply click insert signature as normal you can drag the signature around and resize it as needed now if you do have extra space around the signature that you want to get rid of you can simply double click on the signature and that will open up the cropping bars you can then grab the cropping bars to tighten that up if you need to let's try the next option if you want to upload your signature click on the upload tab and then click in the upload box to browse and select your signature image once again just click the insert signature button and as usual drag your image around to put it where you want it to be and let's try the final option to draw your signature click on the draw tab select the color that you want to write with and then next adjust the line width now your mileage may vary but i have found that a thinner line seems to work better with this add-on and then go ahead and sign your name in the signature box finally click the insert signature button as usual you can drag the image around resize it as needed and even double click on it to crop it if you want to do that as well so for this option the positives are that you can use any of the three options including a handwriting font or uploading your signature or writing your signature right in the add-on it's also really easy to use the negatives are that whoever is signing the document does have to the simple signature add-on and although it is free sometimes schools do block certain add-ons and sometimes these third-party add-ons stop working or being supported and that's it hopefully one of these four methods will work for you when you need to add your signature to a google doc if you have suggestions for other solutions please share your ideas i would love to learn from you and for all the rest of my educational technology resources be sure to visit my site at control alt achieve.com follow me on twitter subscribe to my youtube channel sign up for my email newsletter and check out my book control alt achieve rebooting your classroom with creative google projects thanks so much and take care