How To Display All Digitally Signed Content In Word

Whether you kn0w it or not, sometimes there is information in the content of a document that you cannot see when in your current view (i.e., hidden text). So how do you know if there is hidden content in your document? Well, you can see if your document has hidden content by viewing the additional details regarding the signature (which I covered in How To View Digital Signature Info In Word 365) and looking to see if there is a message at the top of the Additional Information dialog that says the current view of your document is not showing some things that were signed.

Follow the steps below to learn how:

1. Open the document that contains the signature you would like to view.
2. If the signature is digitally signed, it will open with a yellow Signatures notification at the top of the document.
3. Click View Signature.
4. In the Signatures Task Pane that appears, click the signature that you would like to view, and click the arrow on the right-hand side and Signature Details.
5. In the Signature Details dialog, click See the additional signing information that we collected.
6. In the Additional Information dialog, look for this message at the top: The current view of this document is not showing some things that were signed (for example, hidden text).

Should you see this message, Your document may be set up so that it does not display particular sorts of content, listed below, which can be hidden in your current view of the document:

• Headers or Footers
• Hidden Text
• Drawings
• Pictures
• Field code values
• Revision marks
• Reviewer comments
• Fonts

Some hidden content can be displayed in a signed document. To display that hidden content, choose one or more of the options below:

• To display headers and Footers — Click View | Print Layout
• To display hidden text — Click File | Options | Display and under Always show these formatting marks on the screen, select Hidden Text
• To display drawings — Click File | Options | Advanced and under Show document content, choose Show drawings and text boxes on screen
• To display pictures — Click File | Options | Advanced | under Show document content, clear Show picture placeholders
• To display field code values — Click File | Options | Advanced | under Show document content clear Show field codes instead of their values
• To display revision marks — Click Review | Display for Review | All Markup. Point to the arrow next to Show Markup, and be sure that all of the following have been selected
  • Comments, Ink, Insertions and Deletions, and Formatting

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