Digital signature for PDF documents

To digitally sign PDF documents ...

  • ... A valid personal certificate must be available.
  • The certificate must be applied for and downloaded. You can find instructions on how to do this here.
  • The certificate must be imported into the certificate store of the operating system.

Service mail address

it-support@hs-wismar.de

Service hours

Mon-Thu: 8:00 - 17:00
Fri: 8:00 - 14:00


Please note our recommended procedure in case of IT problems:

Troubleshooting and support »

Importing your certificate in Windows

Import certificate

  1. Navigate to the location of your certificate file and double-click on the certificate to start the certificate import wizard (Fig. 1).
  2. Select "Current user".
  3. Confirm by clicking on "Next" (Fig. 2).
  4. Confirm the next window with "Next".

Finalise import

  1. Enter the password for your certificate (certificate password that you also use when sending an encrypted mail).
  2. Deactivate all ticks except the last one.
  3. Confirm by clicking on "Next". (Fig. 3)
  4. In the following dialogue, activate "Automatically select certificate store".
  5. Confirm with "Next". (Fig. 4)
  6. Complete the import by clicking on "Finish". (Fig. 5)
  7. You will receive the message "The import process was successful". (Fig. 6)
Importing your certificate in MacOS

In the "Keychain Management" app (Fig. 1) on the Mac, select either the "Login" or "System" keychain (Fig. 2).
Drag and drop the certificate file onto the "Keychain Management" app (Fig. 3).
Enter the name and password of an admin on this computer when prompted (Fig. 4).

Signing a PDF form digitally
  1. Open the document to be signed in a PDF editor (e.g. Adobe Reader). Opening a PDF document via a viewer directly in the browser is not sufficient.
  2. Click on a signature field (Fig. 1).
  3. If you have several certificates, you must select the correct one (Fig. 2).
    Then click on "Next".
  4. In the next dialogue, click on "Sign" (Fig. 3).

If you wish, you can edit your digital signature by clicking on "Edit" and create your own signature as you wish.
You can configure your signature in different ways and save the result under a name. (Fig. 4)

You can, for example, insert a graphic signature. (Fig. 5)