Archived: Applying Digital Signatures with Word 2007

This section describes elements of applying digital signatures in Microsoft Office Word 2007. On Windows system, Word 2007 uses digital IDs (certificates linked with private keys) from in 'Personal' certificate store managed by Internet Options.

To add a digital signature to a document is usually a function of the document authoring tool. Let's use Microsoft Word 2007 as an example to see how we can do this.

Based on reading some related topics in the documentation, my understanding of Microsoft Word 2007 digital signature function can be summarized as:

1. Word 2007 finds digital ID from the "Personal" certificate store of the Windows system. Digital ID, also referred as digital certificate, is the PKI certificate with its corresponding private-public key pair. Of course, the certificate must be signed by trusted CA. The "Personal" certificate store can be managed by the "Internet Options" tool in "Control Panel" or by IE (Internet Explorer).

2. Word 2007 can generate one self-signed digital ID for you, if it can not find one. Word 2007 also suggest you to get a commercial digital ID from Microsoft partners like ARX CoSign Digital Signatures, Avoco secure2trust, GlobalSign PersonalSign, and ChosenSecurity Digital ID.

3. Word 2007's "Add a Digital Signature" function is offered in the "Prepare" menu under the "Office" button. See the picture below:

Digital Signature in MS Word 2007
Digital Signature in MS Word 2007

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 Microsoft Edge

 Using HTTPS with Apple Safari

 HTTPS with IE (Internet Explorer)

 Android and Server Certificate

 iPhone and Server Certificate

 Windows Certificate Stores and Console

 RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) and Server Certificate

 macOS Certificate Stores and Keychain Access

 Perl Scripts Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 PHP Scripts Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 Java Programs Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 .NET Programs Communicating with HTTPS Servers

 CAcert.org - Root CA Offering Free Certificates

 PKI CA Administration - Issuing Certificates

 Comodo Free Personal Certificate

 Digital Signature - Microsoft Word

 Digital Signature - OpenOffice.org 3

 S/MIME and Email Security

 PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) Terminology

Archived Tutorials

 Archived: Viewing Server Certificate in Chrome 40

 Archived: Viewing Server Certificate in Firefox 35

 Archived: Viewing Pre-Installed Certificates in Firefox 35

 Archived: Firefox 35 Displaying Certificate Error Page

 Archived: Adding Security Exception in Firefox 35

 Archived: Windows XP Component "Update Root Certificates"

 Archived: Creating Certificates Console on Windows XP

Archived: Applying Digital Signatures with Word 2007

 Archived: Creating a Digital ID and Sign Word Documents

 Archived: Viewing Digital ID Created by MS Word

 Archived: Obtaining a Trial Digital ID from ARX CoSign

 Archived: Viewing Digital ID Obtained from ARX CoSign

 Archived: Windows XP Component - Removing "Update Root Certificates"

 Archived: IE 8 Displaying Certificate Error Page

 Archived: IE 8 Displaying Certificate Error Icon

 Archived: Viewing Certificate Path Validation Error in IE 8

 Archived: Importing Root Certificate from a File to IE 8

 References

 Full Version in PDF/EPUB