Applying Digital Signatures with MS Word 2007

PKI Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - Version 2.04, by Dr. Herong Yang

PKI Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Digital Signature - Microsoft Word 2007

∟Applying Digital Signatures with MS Word 2007

This section describes elements of applying digital signatures in Microsoft Office Word 2007. On Windows system, Word 2007 uses digital IDs (certificates linked with private keys) from in 'Personal' certificate store managed by Internet Options.

To add a digital signature to a document is usually a function of the document authoring tool. Let's use Microsoft Word 2007 as an example to see how we can do this.

Based on reading some related topics in the documentation, my understanding of Microsoft Word 2007 digital signature function can be summarized as:

1. Word 2007 finds digital ID from the "Personal" certificate store of the Windows system. Digital ID, also referred as digital certificate, is the PKI certificate with its corresponding private-public key pair. Of course, the certificate must be signed by trusted CA. The "Personal" certificate store can be managed by the "Internet Options" tool in "Control Panel" or by IE (Internet Explorer).

2. Word 2007 can generate one self-signed digital ID for you, if it can not find one. Word 2007 also suggest you to get a commercial digital ID from Microsoft partners like ARX CoSign Digital Signatures, Avoco secure2trust, GlobalSign PersonalSign, and ChosenSecurity Digital ID.

3. Word 2007's "Add a Digital Signature" function is offered in the "Prepare" menu under the "Office" button. See the picture below:
Digital Signature in MS Word 2007