Protecting Word Document with Digital Signatures

This section describes elements of applying digital signatures in Microsoft Office Word. On Windows system, Word 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 as an example to see how we can do this.

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

1. Word 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 can generate one self-signed digital ID for you, if it can not find one. Word 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's "Add a Digital Signature" function is offered in the "File > Info > Protect Document" menu. See the picture below:

Digital Signature in MS Word
Digital Signature in MS Word

Last update: 2018.

Table of Contents

 About This Book

 Introduction of PKI (Public Key Infrastructure)

 Introduction of HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure)

 Using HTTPS with Google Chrome

 Using HTTPS with Mozilla Firefox

 HTTPS with IE (Internet Explorer)

 Perl Scripts Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 PHP Scripts Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 Java Programs Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 Windows Certificate Stores and Console

 .NET Programs Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 CAcert.org - Root CA Offering Free Certificates

 PKI CA Administration - Issuing Certificates

 Comodo Free Personal Certificate

Digital Signature - Microsoft Word

 What Is Digital Signature?

 PKI Digital Signature

Protecting Word Document with Digital Signatures

 Digital ID Needed to Sign Word Documents

 Adding Digital Signature in Word Documents

 View Digital Signatures in Word Documents

 Add Visible Digital Signatures in Word Documents

 Obtaining a Trial Digital ID from DocuSign

 Digital Signature - OpenOffice.org 3

 S/MIME and Email Security

 PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) Terminology

 Outdated Tutorials

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB