Sign it yourself
1. Insert a picture of your signature
Sign a sheet of white paper, scan or photograph it, and save it as an image. In Word, place the cursor where the signature goes and select Insert → Pictures (in Word for the web, Insert → Picture). This works in Word on Windows, on a Mac and on the web, and Microsoft suggests it for the web because Word for the web has no signature command of its own.
2. Write it on the Draw tab
On a touchscreen, a trackpad or with a mouse, you can write your signature in ink. In Word for Windows, open the Draw tab, choose a pen and write; you need to be in Print Layout. If the tab is missing, turn it on under File → Options → Customize Ribbon. On a Mac, the Draw tab is in Microsoft 365 and Office 2019 for Mac or later.
3. Add a Signature Line (Windows)
Select Insert → Signature Line → Microsoft Office Signature Line, fill in the signer’s details, and the line appears in the document. Signing it adds both a visible signature and a digital signature, which needs a signing certificate to prove who you are. Microsoft’s instructions for this are for Word on Windows.
Get someone else to sign it
With Microsoft 365 eSignature
Microsoft 365 has its own service for sending Word documents and PDFs for signature, available worldwide except Indonesia, so Australian organisations can use it. It isn’t switched on by default: an administrator links an Azure subscription for pay-as-you-go billing and turns it on in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Microsoft lists the price as US$2.00 a request, with up to 10 recipients on each. Sending from inside Word is available on the Beta, Current and Monthly Enterprise update channels, so not every copy of Word has it yet.
With a PDF and an e-signature service
The way that works everywhere is to save the document as a PDF and send that. A PDF fixes the layout, so what the signer sees is exactly what gets signed.
- Windows: File → Save a Copy (or Save As), choose PDF in the file type list, then Save.
- Mac: File → Save As (or Save a Copy), choose PDF under File Format, then save.
- Word for the web: File → Print, then choose Save as PDF as the printer.
Then upload the PDF to an e-signature service, add the people who sign, place a signature field for each, and send. Refrendo works from PDFs: you can put an approver ahead of the signers, and everyone is emailed a link to download the signed PDF and a completion certificate recording who signed, when and how they were identified. Step-by-step instructions.
Is it legally valid?
For most documents in Australia, yes, however the signature was added, as long as the method identifies the person and shows their intention and the other party agrees to sign electronically. Some documents, such as wills and some deeds, have their own rules. See are electronic signatures valid in Australia?
Details about other products are from their public websites as of October 2026 and may have changed. Product names are trademarks of their owners; Refrendo is not affiliated with them.