In the digital age, everything is automated, including signatures. E-signatures can help you conduct your business more quickly, especially if you can’t meet with your clients face to face. Signatures are a crucial aspect of any legal document, but they are not limited to legal documents alone. Signatures can also be used in non-legal documents, such as forms.
Today, you’ll learn how to create an electronic signature in WordPress with conditional logic, and we will also take a closer look at non-legally binding signatures in WordPress used to indicate consent, agreement, or acknowledgment of a document. Ready? Let’s go!
Create electronic signature in WordPress without third-party software
Have you heard of s-signatures? If you haven’t, they are a way to sign an electronic document using a typed signer’s name instead of an actual handwritten signature. The signer types their name on the signature line of a document between two forward slashes (for example, /Name Surname/).
If you would like to recreate the s-signature on your form, you can surround the Single Line Text Field with two HTML fields that will have the forward slashes. You can adjust the layout and style of all your fields using the Layout & Styles add-on if you like.
Please note, the slashes are optional since you are creating a non-legally binding signature. You can just use the Single Line Text field. To validate that the user agreed to your document, we will use the conditional logic first before displaying the signature field on your WordPress form. Let’s look at the steps below:
Step 1: Create a checkbox field on your form
Assuming you have your non-legal document agreement ready on your form using the HTML field, add a Single Checkbox to your form. Open up the settings and leave the default value Unchecked. Pre-checked boxes are not allowed as they are not considered to be valid consent under GDPR.
You can rename the Single Checkbox field and even insert the link to the terms and conditions of your agreement directly to the label such as I agree to the <a href=’yourpolicywebsite‘> Terms and Conditions</a>.
Step 2: Add a Single Line Text field to let users type their signature
In our example below, we used a Single Line Text field and renamed it to Signature.
Step 3: Add conditional logic functionality to show/hide a signature field once the checkbox is marked
The last step serves as an extra step to validate the consent of your form visitors. With the Conditional Logic add-on, you can set conditions and show fields or make specific fields required based on the user’s previous selection on the form.
For example, you don’t need to make the Signature field required. Using conditional logic and clicking the Single Checkbox, you can make a Signature field required. You can also hide the Signature field if the user does not check the Single Checkbox field. You have plenty of options here, so it is up to you what you would like to do.
Our Conditional Logic add-on is a powerful tool that your WordPress forms shouldn’t lack, so give it a try today and get it individually or as a part of a membership plan. With a 14-day money-back guarantee, you have nothing to lose!
Want to make your forms more user-friendly for your clients? You can also convert each form submission into a generated and signed PDF document using the PDF Form Submission add-on that lets you create a PDF file of your submission, attach it to the user’s email address, and send it along with an email confirmation. Isn’t that convenient?
You’ve just learned how to create an electronic signature in WordPress with conditional logic!
It wasn’t hard, was it? Accepting non-legally binding signatures in WordPress is easy with our conditional logic plugin, and you don’t need a third-party signature plugin. Now that you are at the end of this article, you might still wonder if typing your name counts as a signature.
In non-legal documents such as WordPress forms, the answer is yes. In legal documents, the answer is also yes, but validity varies from country to country and region to region, and specific rules must be followed. Because of these legal considerations, we’ve not released a signature add-on.
Handling signatures on legal documents is best left to services that specialize in legally binding signatures. If you are looking for a legally binding signature using handwriting, head to our article on accepting e-signatures in WordPress or check the following blog posts to learn more:
How to Collect Digital Signatures in WordPress
Want to Accept E-signature in WordPress Form?
Need a Digital Signature for WordPress Form Submissions?
That’s it for now. We hope you enjoyed this article and quenched your thirst for new knowledge today! If you want to get regular updates on new blog posts from Ninja Forms, sign up below for our newsletter! You’ll also get the latest news, product updates & features, and news from the WordPress world.
