The date signed field

The signer is never asked

Date signed sits in the group of field types the sender cannot pre-fill and the signer cannot type into. When the envelope is saved, any value supplied for one is discarded. When the signer opens the document, the box is not an input at all. There is no way for either party to put a different date on it, which is the whole point of having the field rather than a text box labelled Date.

Where the value comes from

The timestamp recorded on the recipient row at the instant their submission was accepted. That same timestamp is what the certificate of completion prints as the moment that person signed, so the date on the page and the date in the evidence come from one value rather than two. It is written once, when that signer's fields are stamped, and never revisited.

How it prints

As a short month date, in the style of Aug 22, 2026. It sits on a rule and shrinks in quarter point steps until it fits the box, so a narrow field yields smaller text rather than clipped text. The default box is 140 points wide by 24 tall, which comfortably fits that format at a normal size and lines up with the other single line fields.

A preview appears once there is a signature

In the signer's browser the box stays blank until they have added their mark, and then shows today's date. That is a small honesty: before you have signed there is no signing date, so showing one would be a guess. After you have, the date you can see is the one that will be printed.

The block has its own version

If you are using a signature block rather than loose fields, turn its Date line on and you do not need a separate date field at all. That line behaves the same way: it is stamped from the signing moment, the signer cannot type it, and the panel says so beneath the toggles. Use a standalone date field only when the date has to appear somewhere the block is not, such as a header or a schedule.

How it works, in three steps

1. Step 1

   Place it beside the signature

   Drag Date signed from the palette onto the dated line of the agreement, for whichever signer you have selected.

2. Step 2

   Size it to the printed rule

   140 by 24 points is the default. Narrow it and the text shrinks to fit rather than being cut.

3. Step 3

   Leave it alone from there

   There is nothing to configure. It fills itself when that signer submits, and matches the timestamp on the certificate.

Limits worth knowing

• The format is fixed as short month, day, year. There is no day-first or ISO option.
• The date is always the moment of signing. You cannot put an effective date or a future date in this field.
• The time is recorded in the audit trail and on the certificate, but only the date is printed on the page.
• Marking a date field required changes nothing, since it fills itself either way.

Questions people ask

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