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How to use Anchor Text

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Anchor text is a group of text-based placeholders for different Signority tags such as signature or initial tags.  For longer documents, using these can save a lot of time.  You can manually type in the anchor text into the document and the system will automatically place the corresponding Signority tag where the anchor text has been typed.  This feature is very useful for API integrations.  In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to use anchor text when creating a new Template.

Anchor Text Basics

Before we get started with the tutorial, we need to know what the designated anchor text characters are.  Below is a list of anchor text characters and what Signority Tag they correspond to.  The first letter defines the tag type, and the digit represents the recipient.  Placing an “o” in front of the tag-defining character makes the tag optional.

Tag Type Mandatory version Optional Version Recipient
Signature Tag \s1\ \os1\ Recipient 1
Initial Tag \i1\ \oi1\ Recipient 1
Date Tag \d2\ \od2\ Recipient 2
Radio Button \r2\ \or2\ Recipient 2
Checkbox \c2\ \oc2\ Recipient 2
Text Tag \t3\ \ot3\ Recipient 3
Masked Text Tag \mt3\ \omt3\ Recipient 3
Number Tag \n1\ \on1\ Recipient 1
Note Tag Not Applicable \ono1\ Recipient 1
Attachment Tag \a3\ \oa3\ Recipient 3

Defining Radio Buttons with Anchor Text

Radio buttons are a bit unique in Signority.  Since radio buttons always come in groups of two or more, Signority uses a special method to identify them with anchor text.  Let’s say you want to create three radio buttons for your first recipient to choose their gender from.  Then you would type \r1_gender_1\, \r1_gender_2\, \r1_gender_3\ in the respective spots.  The initial “\r1” tells Signority that there should be radio buttons where the text is placed.  Then “_gender_” tells Signority that the radio buttons are all part of the same group called “gender”.  Finally, the digits following “_gender_” distinguish the radio buttons from each other.  These final digits can also be replaced using letters from the alphabet (A, B, … , Z).
Note that there must always be at least two radio buttons in each group.

New Document with Anchor Text

Now that we have the basics, here’s how to create a new document in Signority with anchor text.  First, you will have to create a document in your desktop that has anchor text in them.  In the demo document below, there are two recipients.  For the sake of demonstration, we’ve made the anchor text black, but when you’re using anchor text, you can change the text colour to be white so that it can’t be seen.

Once you have your document prepared, sign into your Signority account and click on “+New” in the top left corner of your Dashboard.  Then click “New Document”.  You will be brought to the document upload page.  At this point, make sure to tick the checkbox next to “Add tags automatically based on anchor text” on the right side of the page before uploading your document.
Once you have uploaded your documents, click “Add my recipients” or “Next” and add your recipients.  Signority will automatically detect how many recipients need to sign the document based on the anchor text that you have inputted.


After adding your recipients, continue to the document editor by clicking “Next”.  You should see Signority Tags placed on top of the areas where you inputted anchor text.

From here, double check to make sure everything is in the right place.  Then click send and wait for your document to get signed!

New Template with Anchor Text

Here’s how to create a new Template with Anchor Text.  The first step is to create a document and type the placeholder text into them.  In the example below, there are three tags for each of two recipients: a signature tag, a text tag, and a date tag.  Note that when preparing a document, the text can be set to be white so that the recipient does not see the tags during the signing process.

Once you have a document set up, sign into your Signority account and click on the “+New” in the top left corner of your Dashboard.  Then select “New Template” and choose one of the options that is shown in the window that pops up.  For this example, we will create a Regular Template.
You will then be brought directly into the document designer page.  From here, click on “Add files”.


In the window that pops up, tick the checkbox next to “Add tags automatically based on PDF anchor text.  Then upload your document(s).

When your document is uploaded, you should see the Signority tags automatically placed onto the document.

In this example, the anchor tag text is visible for demonstration purposes.  When you are preparing your documents, you can set the text to be white so that they are not visible on the document.

After this step, the template is ready for use.

Resizing Anchor Tags

Anchor tags can be resized by inputting a custom width and height into the anchor text. In general, the format for defining width and height of an anchor tag is \s1_W_H\, where W and H are replaced by custom numbers. Only Signature tags, Initial tags, Text tags, Masked Text tags, Number tags, Date tags, and Note tags can be resized.

The size of the tag is determined by multiplying the width and height by the default size of the tag. Below is a table containing each tag’s default size.

Tag TypeDefault SizeExampleActual Size
Signature TagWidth: 107, Height: 33\s1_2_3\
W = 2, H = 3
Width: 214, Height: 99
Initial TagWidth: 85, Height: 27\i1_1.35_0.5\
W = 1.35, H = 0.5
Width: 114.75, Height: 13.5
Date TagWidth: 53, Height: 13\d1_2_1\
W = 2, H = 1
Width: 106, Height: 13
Text TagWidth: 107, Height: 13\t1_2.4_1\
W = 2.4, H = 1
Width: 256.8, Height: 13
Masked Text TagWidth: 107, Height: 13
Number TagWidth: 107, Height: 13
Note TagWidth: 107, Height: 13

In the example below, anchor text has been used to create and resize a text tag, a signature tag, and a date tag. The text is set to 0.75 times, or 75% of the default width, and 1 time, or 100% of the default height. The signature tag is set to 1.5 times, or 150% of the default width, and 1 time, or 100% of the default height. Finally, the date tag is set to 1.2 times, or 120% of the default width, and 1 time, or 100% of the default height.

Anchor text can also be used in API integrations with Signority.  For more information about our API, you can check out our online API documentation. 
If you don’t have a Signority account, check out our plans and pricing, and sign up for a free trial today!

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