Digital ID Needed to Sign Word Documents

PKI Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples - Version 2.10, by Dr. Herong Yang

PKI Tutorials - Herong's Tutorial Examples

∟Digital ID Needed to Sign Word Documents

This section describes the requirement of adding a digital signature in MS Word: you need to purchase a digital ID (a personal certificate) from a 3rd party vendor.

Now let's use John Smith as an example to experiment MS Word's digital signature function. Since John is new to digital signature technology, he has no personal certificate (MS Word calls it as personal digital ID) installed on his Windows computer.

When John finishes writing a document, he wants to add a digital signature to the document. In MS Word 2007, John can create a digital ID by Word itself.

But in newer version of Word, when John clicks "File > Info > Protect Document > Add a Digital Signature", he gets the "Get a Digital ID" message box:

To sign a Microsoft Office document you need a digital ID, 
would you like to get one from a Microsoft Partnet now?

If John clicks "Yes", he is redirected to the Find digital ID or digital signature services Web page at support.office.com/en-us/article/find-digital-id-or-digital-signature-services -b06cfc76-56a1-4a74-b2dd-91a55de79cdf. The Web page asks John to purchase a digital ID (a personal certificate and its private key) from 3rd party vendors: Comodo, GlobalSign, or IdenTrust.

John checks out prices on those 3rd party Websites:

Vendor       Price

Comodo       Free - For personal use
Comodo       $27.16/year - For business use
GlobalSign   $369.00/year
IdenTrust    No price published
DigiCert     $379.00/year

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