Electronic Signatures?

[David Schuler]

I'm looking into creating paperless workorders. I'd like to create a
small excel sheet that emulates our companies work orders. However,
the snag I am hitting is how to transfer the customers signature into
the worksheet.

I'd like to be able to go out onsite and have the client sign their
name on our Pocket PC. The name then gets put into the excel sheet. Is
there a program similar to this already? Or do I have to have them
sign their name in Paint, then save it as a jpg and insert it into the
excel sheet?

I'd think there is a smoother way to do it, but I haven't been able to
find any help on the net.

Anyone got any suggestions?

~ Dave

 

[Dave Peterson]

First, I'm not a lawyer.

If you're doing this for legal purposes, I don't think that this will help.
(Check with your legal department.)

If you're doing it just to make it pretty, you could ask if they have a
scanner. If they don't, maybe they (or you) have a pc that can accept faxes.
Then have them fax the signature and you could edit it in your favorite graphics
editor.

 

[David Schuler]

Well, it's not for any legal purposes really. It's more to look tech
savvy in front of clients. Right now, we just have them sign the work
order with a pen. I think it would be neat to have them sign
electronically, like you do with credit card signatures at your local
supermarket.

I got the work order all done in excel. I left a cell open to accept
images. But I was hopingthere was some writing program out there that
transfers the signature into excel neatly (behind the scenes so to
speak).

 

[Dave Peterson]

If you have the picture of the signature (*.bmp, *.jpg, ...), then you could add
that picture whereever you wanted.

 

[glen herrmannsfeldt]

I'm looking into creating paperless workorders. I'd like to create a
small excel sheet that emulates our companies work orders. However,
the snag I am hitting is how to transfer the customers signature into
the worksheet.

I understand it isn't what you are asking about, but there is
a government standard of some kind for electronic signature.

They are encryption or one way function based, such that one
can authenticate that it was supplied by the appropriate
person.

-- glen

 

[Harlan Grove]

If you're doing this for legal purposes, I don't think that this will help.
(Check with your legal department.)

Why bother? It should be clear to anyone by now that digital images of
hand-written signatures can easily be forged. Unless one is using a system in
which digitized handwritten signatures can only be *entered* by a stylus in
contact with a writing surface moved across that surface (e.g., the delivery
signature pads that FedEx and UPS drivers carry), then digitized signatures are
so much pointless artwork. A pasted JPEG, GIF, BMP or whatever graphic format
file could have been pasted by *ANYONE* with access to the file. Therefore, they
ain't signatures in the legal sense.

Legally valid and binding digital signatures are one (rather long) part of a two
part (even longer) key. Both pieces together can be used, in effect, to decrypt
each other resulting in a valid authorization. Usually these require special
authentication systems that keep the private portion VERY PRIVARE and VERY
SECURE. Anything & everything in a spreadsheet file is ipso facto unsecure, so
digital signatures in Excel are a pipe dream.

 

[Dave Peterson]

That was my point, but I figured anyone asking the question wouldn't/shouldn't
believe a response found on an excel newsgroup. I thought that they would
believe they own lawyer.

 

[Patrick TJ McPhee]

% That was my point, but I figured anyone asking the question wouldn't/shouldn't
% believe a response found on an excel newsgroup.

This is cross-posted to comp.text, though, so it's probably legally sound.