
Introducing HelloSign for Google Docs - guiseppecalzone
https://www.hellosign.com/google-docs-add-on
======
rafeed
Interesting, I've been happy using Preview.app for signatures by just
downloading/saving as pdf and signing it through there. It's not as seamless
as doing it online through this, but at least it's secure and easy to do, and
Apple's had it available for a couple years now. I guess it's not much of a
pain point for me to find another solution. Also, the fact that you have to
use your mouse to sign it ensures a pretty crappy signature every time.

~~~
guiseppecalzone
Joseph here, cofounder of HelloSign.

Appreciate the feedback. We have a lot more signing options on HelloSign.com.
For example, you can create a signature on HelloSign.com by:

1\. Using your smartphone

2\. Uploading a signature image

3\. Typing it in

4\. Drawing it in

For V1 of the Google Docs integration, we only added the draw it in option for
Docs Add-ons. The other types are coming. Either way, if you want to upload a
signature, you can still do it on our website and it’ll show up in Google Docs
as saved.

Preview is useful, but there are a few reasons people still use us:

1\. We’re closer to the documents than Preview

\- You can sign directly in Google Docs, Gmail
([https://www.hellosign.com/gmail](https://www.hellosign.com/gmail)), Google
Apps, and elsewhere.

2\. We do signature work flows.

\- You can request signatures, cc key parties (like a cofounder or lawyer) and
other business functionality.

3\. We’re cloud based

\- You can use us anywhere.

~~~
bigd
The feature he's saying is that mac os preview allows you to take a picture of
a piece of paper with your signature on, and then places that in the pdf. You
should implement this - or at least try it. There's no dragging mouse that
will be ever be close to how natural this feels.

~~~
mrkurt
Disclosure: I'm a happy HelloSign user.

This is what HelloSign has done since the beginning. Take a picture with your
phone, send the signature in, and you can attach it to most anything. It
sounds like it's not directly exposed in the Google docs addon, but you can
still jump to the full app to do it.

~~~
jfarmer
Does it work the same as Preview? Preview actually detects my signature on the
page I'm holding up and creates a vectorized version of it automatically. It's
not just a photo.

------
ForHackernews
Wait, so it's not a digital cryptographic signature...it's just like an image
of your handwritten signature stamped on a document? Does that have some kind
of magic legal force?

~~~
bmm6o
The cryptographic implementations are usually called "digital signatures",
while this sort of thing is usually called an "electronic signature".
Engineers understand the differences and pros/cons, but end users really just
want a picture of a signature and don't want to learn about certificates and
PKI.

~~~
gst
That really depends on the country. For example, in Austria there's the
"Buergerkarte" which is essentially a smartcard that can apply digital
signatures. Your public key on that card is certified by a government agency.
If you want to submit government forms you can either sign them and send the
original document via postal mail, or you can use the Buergerkarte to
cryptographically sign a PDF file that you can submit via the Internet. As far
as I know things like copies of physical signatures won't be accepted.

~~~
bmm6o
I'm sure you're right, I should have specified that the end users I've spoken
to have all been in the US.

------
gk1
Interesting. I've been using EchoSign
([http://www.echosign.com](http://www.echosign.com)) for years without
complaints, but I don't think their UI has been updated much since being
acquired by Adobe a while ago.

~~~
guiseppecalzone
Joseph here, cofounder of HelloSign.

Another integration we have that's unique to HelloSign is the ability to sign
documents directly in Gmail. It’s one of my favorite integrations we’ve built:

[https://www.hellosign.com/gmail](https://www.hellosign.com/gmail)

~~~
gk1
Thanks Joseph. This made me interested in giving it a try (I sent about 1 - 3
docs for signature each week), but this stopped me in my tracks:

"Add HelloSign to Gmail? It can:

\- Access your data on all websites

\- Access your tabs and browsing activity"

I'll give the regular HelloSign a try, but no way would I add an extension
with those permissions.

~~~
dflock
Chrome Exstension permission names are incredible broad and not very granular
- and there's nothing that extension devs can do about it:
[https://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/answer/186213?hl=...](https://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/answer/186213?hl=en)

For example, want to access the DOM from your extension? You'll trigger a
'Your Data on all websites' warning, whatever it is you're actually doing:
[http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/8550/why-do-
chro...](http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/8550/why-do-chrome-
extensions-need-access-to-all-my-data-and-browsing-activity)

------
emrehan
"This app would like to: ... Allow this application to run when you are not
present ..."

No, thanks. It will also cost if I sign more than 3 documents per month.

~~~
burnout1540
The phrasing is misleading. The add-on cannot run without you present. In
order to fetch the document without any formatting problems we needed to use
ScriptService which causes this permissions prompt.

See related: [https://code.google.com/p/google-apps-script-
issues/issues/d...](https://code.google.com/p/google-apps-script-
issues/issues/detail?id=3122)

~~~
emrehan
Thank you for indicating this bug.

------
jacobheller
I've been using HelloSign since the beginning, and don't really sign my
documents any other way if I can avoid it. This may be more relevant in the
legal space, where I've had to sign and fax things way too often, but just
being able to do everything online in a simple, clean, interface is a major
improvement. Looking forward to using this in Google Docs.

~~~
changdizzle
Thanks so much for the kind words Jacob!

------
kevin_morrill
Is there a new API for Google Docs I haven't heard about?

It looks like Google Docs might finally be ready to go after Microsoft Office
in the enterprise, now that they have an API to beat out Visual Basic for
Applications.

~~~
burnout1540
Yes!

Add-ons have been released: [https://developers.google.com/apps-script/add-
ons/](https://developers.google.com/apps-script/add-ons/)

------
nwenzel
Awesome! Anything to get rid of paper from my workflow. Not so much about the
environment (though, that's good too). But dealing with paper is such a
productivity killer.

------
tzm
It doesn't appear to be in Google Apps Marketplace for businesses yet. ETA? I
have a few clients that would be interested in using this.

 _\--Edit--_

It is available for businesses. First verify the domain's Drive settings ->
"Allow users to install Google Docs add-ons". Then "Manage Apps" in the
individual Drive account.

[http://monosnap.com/image/M05IeqhZWU4HVEfZ96GXzvLKx3zXa3](http://monosnap.com/image/M05IeqhZWU4HVEfZ96GXzvLKx3zXa3)

~~~
changdizzle
sending you an email!

------
brudgers
I don't see this sort of product exlanding the market for Docs significantly.

A hundred bucks per user per year is not an unreasonable business proposition.
Yet part of the attraction of Google Docs is that it's free as in hog pens and
slop troughs and there seems to be an impedance mismatch which only grows as a
user winds up with several third party tools of congruent utility and similar
cost.

------
eli
So I'd like to make it easy for clients to sign sales contracts. I see a lot
of companies using DocuSign or EchoSign for this. Is the advantage of
HelloSign the integration it has with various services like Google Docs?
(Well, and it also appears to be cheaper.) Is that helpful even if clients
don't want to install any plugins or apps?

~~~
changdizzle
Yes! Not only on the price point and the Docs add-on, we're the sole
e-signature service to offer a direct gmail plugin to sign within your inbox
([http://www.hellosign.com/gmail](http://www.hellosign.com/gmail)) and your
clients don't need to sign up for anything or download anything to sign. With
our API
([http://www.hellosign.com/info/api](http://www.hellosign.com/info/api)) you
can even build a seamless experience (Iframe overlayed on your website).

If you have any other questions feel free to reach out to e-mail me: ed [at]
hellosign [dot] com

------
xerophtye
Umm... since these signs are "legally binding" therefore these require atleast
as much security as a user's passwords, no? So exactly what security measures
are in place?

With a typical text password, you don't even store it in plain-text, for fear
of a compromised DB. So how are you protecting these signatures against a
compromised DB?

------
sonar_un
My only comment so far is that the sign-in button doesn't conform to the
Google+ Branding Guidelines.

[https://developers.google.com/+/branding-
guidelines](https://developers.google.com/+/branding-guidelines)

~~~
changdizzle
Thanks for that! We'll get it over to the team.

------
protomyth
from
[http://www.hellosign.com/info/legal](http://www.hellosign.com/info/legal)

"HelloSign authenticates document signers so you know who is signing your
documents. Any person signing a document must either have login information
for HelloSign, or have received in their email account a request for
signature."

Do you verify the e-mail receiver as being the correct person? How does this
work with the law?

~~~
changdizzle
Great question - we verify that the user owns the e-mail address by verifying
they have access to it - essentially when we e-mail them a link they have to
click to get access to the document on HelloSign. We also log their IP address
and browser, it may seem like a low bar but we feel it's inherently more
secure than in real life where people fax documents to shared machines and
mail items to shared/unsecured addresses. For Google Accounts, we trust Google
to verify they own the e-mail address via OpenID.

For our standalone product @
[http://www.hellosign.com](http://www.hellosign.com) you can also add a second
layer of authentication by using a signer PIN that you can set and send to the
signer via a different method (phone call, text message, alternate e-mail
address).

~~~
protomyth
So, if I had to go to court and the non-account signer said they didn't
receive the e-mail and were not the one to sign it, what would you do to prove
they were indeed the signer?

~~~
changdizzle
All documents are provided with an audit trail of when the different parties
view the document and other relevant info. This method of verification is
standard across the different e-signature providers. Feel free to contact me
if you have other questions at ed [at] hellosign [dot] com

------
elwell
As much as I realize why it's required, I'm not going to give permissions to
view/edit _all_ my Google docs.

------
dylanz
Is this something RightSignature can do?

~~~
guiseppecalzone
Joseph here, cofounder of HelloSign.

No, they don’t have an integration with Google Docs Add-ons.

------
havoc2005
How are you different from PandaDoc?

~~~
changdizzle
We allow self-signing documents which PandaDoc doesn't. Outside of Google Docs
add-ons we're also the only e-signatures provider that has a direct Gmail
plugin integration
([https://www.hellosign.com/gmail](https://www.hellosign.com/gmail)). We also
have an API for developers to integrate the signing workflow seamlessly into
their app.

------
pbreit
HelloFax/Sign doing some neat things but needs to figure out if it is 2
services or 1.

And what's with the 1300 pixel wide pages?

