What is an Electric Stamp?

A set of plans must be marked by the department showing approval when a permit is issued. Historically, this was done with a physical stamp, but as we transition to using digital records, applying this marking electronically offers many advantages. This process uses the stamp tool within PDF software to apply a graphic to the plans, then the text tools to add the permit number and date of issuance, and finally a certificate-based digital signature that will identify the person applying the stamp and lock the document from being edited once applied.

Adobe Reader

Setting Up the Stamp (One-Time Setup)

1. Save the permit stamp to a suitable location you can access. The permit stamp is available at Drinking Water Engineers - Misc Engineer Files - All Documents (sharepoint.com).

2. Open any document in Adobe Acrobat. (Reader or Pro are both capable of these operations).

3. Open the Stamp menu from within the More Tools section.

4. Click Custom Stamps, then Create.

5. Click Browse, then select the file you saved earlier and click Open.

6. If the file looks good in the preview, click OK.

7. On the next screen, create a new category named EGLE and type in the name for the stamp. Something like CWS Permit would be fine. Click OK to finish setting up the stamp.

8. Your new stamp should now be visible under the Stamp menu within the category label you selected.

Setting Up Your Signature (One-Time Setup)

1. Follow the instructions on the Adobe site for setting up a Digital ID selecting the following options:

   1. Storage Location: Windows Certificate Store

   2. Identify Information

      1. Organizational Unit: EGLE

      2. Organization Name: State of Michigan

      3. Key Algorithm: 1024-bit RSA

      4. Use Digital ID for: Digital Signatures and Data Encryption

2. Once you have your digital ID, you can configure a signature.

   1. First, open a test document.

   2. Select the Certificates toolbar from the More Tools menu.

   3. Select Digitally Sign from the Certificates toolbar.

   4. Click and drag to form a box over the area of the document where you would like the signature to appear.

   5. Select the Digital ID you configured earlier and continue.

   6. Click on either Create or Edit to configure the appearance of the signature.

      1. Here is the recommended configuration:

         1. Turn off the left side content via the selection of None at the top.

         2. Select only name and date from the check boxes in the lower left.

         3. Leave text direction and digit format to default. See example below.

            Open

            

      2. You can enter a name in the Preset Name field so you can reference this configuration later. Click Save to proceed.

      3. Optionally, you can add an image of your physical signature. Instructions for that can be found on Adobe’s site.

   7. Once you have finished configuring the signature’s appearance, you can click the Sign button to apply your signature and check that it looks right. You will have to resave the file in this process.

Applying the Permit Stamp

The process of applying the permit stamp is broken into 3 stages. First, you will apply the stamp, then you will create a text comment containing the permit ID and issued date, then you will apply your signature.

1. Open the file in Adobe Reader.

2. Apply the stamp.

   1. Select the Stamp toolbar.

   2. Select the CWS Permit stamp you loaded earlier under the EGLE category.

   3. Click to place the stamp within the document. If you get an Identity pop-up, fill out the information, click the don’t show again box and then continue. Resize and/or reposition the stamp to fit a location that does not cover up any meaningful content.

3. Apply the text.

   1. Open the Comment toolbar and select the text comment tool.

      Open

      

   2. Click the document (away from the stamp) to place the text comment. Type the Activity ID, add a few spaces and then the date in the following format: MMM DD, YYYY.

   3. Adjust the text size and reposition the text to fit over the appropriate area on the stamp.

4. Apply your signature.

   1. Open the Certificates toolbar.

   2. Click on Digitally Sign and then drag a box over the white space in the lower portion of the stamp. Be particular about this location, as this one is not repositionable.

   3. Select the appropriate Digital ID (you likely only have one) and click Continue.

   4. Select the appearance you configured earlier from the drop down menu.

   5. IMPORTANT: Check the box to lock the document after signing!

   6. Click the Sign button, then select a location and name for the new file to be saved to.

5. The finished stamp should look like the image below. At this point, you should not be able to alter any of the content.

6. The file is now ready to be uploaded into MiEHDWIS as a final, issued permit record.

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