I have a document that I want to be digitally signed by multiple clients, and sent back to me. Since no client precedes another in rank, ideally I would like to send the document to all clients simultaneously. However, I would then need some way to merge the signatures back into a single document.
The question, then is: Do Word 2010 signatures hash the "entire" document (including previous digital signatures) or only the "content" part of the document. If the latter, how do I combine multiple signatures into a single docx package?
I recognize that being able to do this might be considered a security issue, but would argue that the fact that someone has signed something before you isn't particularly relevant so long as a document has all necessary signatures and is otherwise unchanged. (Example: if PersonA considers PersonB's signature to be sufficient reason to provide signoff, there is no reason that PersonA could not sign it before PersonB, so long as PersonB's signature is eventually on the document.)
