Documents
Document with a signature block
An execution block is the part of an agreement people get wrong most often, usually by typing underscores. A signature block gives every party the same structure, and it is also what the signing flow reads to place its fields.
One party, one block
Each party gets a role heading, a rule to sign on and the labelled lines underneath: Name, Title, Date. Two parties sit side by side on the page, which is the convention and also the practical arrangement, because it puts both signatures on the same sheet instead of stranding one on a page of its own.
Why underscores are not good enough
A row of underscores gives a signer nowhere to write their title and no prompt for the date, which is the field most often left blank and the one that matters in a dispute. The labelled lines are a checklist. They also survive being converted to signing fields, which a row of underscores does not.
It becomes the signing fields
When a document is sent for signature, each signature block party becomes one signer, carrying their name, email and signing order. The block on the page and the field the signer completes are the same thing, so a document laid out properly needs no separate field placement.
Put it under a heading, at the end
An execution section with a heading, then the blocks. That gives the layout engine something to keep the blocks with, so the signature does not end up alone at the top of a final page, which is the single most common ugly page break in an agreement.
How it works, in three steps
Step 1
Add an execution heading
It gives the blocks something to stay with when the pages are laid out.
Step 2
One block per party
Role, rule, and the Name, Title and Date lines underneath.
Step 3
Send it for signing from the same document
Each party becomes a signer, so there is no separate field placement step.
The full walkthrough with screenshots is in the guide Send a document for signature.
Limits worth knowing
- A signature block is content, not an input field. It becomes a signing field only when the document is sent for signature.
- Each party carries a name, an email and a signing order when it is sent.
- Two parties side by side is the practical limit on an A4 page.
See it on a finished piece
Questions people ask
Is a signature block the same as an e-signature field?
On the page it is content. When you send the document for signing, each party in the block becomes a signer with their own fields, so the two are joined up rather than separate.
How many parties can sign?
As many as the agreement has. Two side by side is what fits comfortably across an A4 page, and more stack down it.
Why not just type a line of underscores?
Underscores give no prompt for a title or a date and do not convert into signing fields. The labelled block does both.
Make your own document
The button opens the generator with this use case already described. Change the wording to match yours, generate, then edit anything you like.
Create a document with OneCraftRelated pages
Send a document for signature
A document written here already knows where the signatures go, because the signature block on the page is what becomes the signing field. There is no export, upload and drag step in between.
Numbered clauses in a document
Numbering is what makes an agreement usable. Without it nobody can point at anything, and every conversation about the contract becomes a conversation about which paragraph you both mean.
Document components
There are 45 block types. You will use about twelve of them regularly, and knowing which twelve is most of the difference between a document that reads as designed and one that reads as typed.
More finished work of this kind is on the document examples hub.