Suppress Office Signing Providers

This policy setting controls whether users can apply a default Microsoft Office signature line to Word 2007 documents and Excel 2007 workbooks. Digital signatures provide assurances of authenticity, integrity, and non-repudiation to electronic documents. In Excel 2007 and Word 2007, users can add visible representations of their signatures to a document at the same time that they add digital signatures. The ability to capture digital signatures by using signature lines in 2007 Office documents makes it possible for organizations to use paperless signing processes for documents such as contracts or other agreements.

If you enable this policy setting, you can choose from four options for enabling the default 2007 Microsoft Office signature lines:

- Enable Western and East Asian - Both Microsoft Office Signature Line and Stamp Signature Line are available from the Signature Line drop-down menu on the Insert tab of the Ribbon.

- Suppress default Western - Users cannot add the Microsoft Office Signature Line to documents.

- Suppress default East Asian - Users cannot add the Stamp Signature Line to documents.

- Suppress both Western and East Asian. Neither of the default signature lines is available. This only takes affect if there is at least one other valid third party signature provider installed.

If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, Excel 2007 and Word 2007 include support for two kinds of signature lines, called Microsoft Office Signature Line and Stamp Signature Lines. The choice(s) available to the user vary according to the editing language(s) that are configured for the application at installation.

- Microsoft Office Signature Line displays the letter "X" followed by a horizontal line, a familiar convention for handwritten signature lines.

- Stamp Signature Line is only available to users of the Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, or Korean language versions of the 2007 Microsoft Office release, or to users who have installed the 2007 Microsoft Office release Multi-Language Pack for one of these languages. This signature line displays a square, a convention in countries where rubber identity stamps (called hanko in Japan and South Korea) are used to sign documents.

Both kinds of signature lines allow signers to specify their name, title, and e-mail address. If neither kind of signature line is appropriate, third-party signature products can be added to Office applications to serve different needs.

If the correct signature line is not available for users to choose, they might be prevented from digitally signing documents.

Note - This policy setting only applies to visible signature lines in Excel 2007 workbooks and Word 2007 documents. It does not affect the ability of users to add invisible digital signatures to Excel 2007 workbooks, PowerPoint 2007 presentations, and Word 2007 documents.

Supported on: At least Windows Vista




  1. Enable Western and East Asian
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry PathSoftware\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Signatures
    Value NameSuppressOfficeDefaultProvider
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value0
  2. Suppress default Western
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry PathSoftware\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Signatures
    Value NameSuppressOfficeDefaultProvider
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value1
  3. Suppress default East Asian
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry PathSoftware\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Signatures
    Value NameSuppressOfficeDefaultProvider
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value2
  4. Suppress both Western and East Asian
    Registry HiveHKEY_CURRENT_USER
    Registry PathSoftware\Policies\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Signatures
    Value NameSuppressOfficeDefaultProvider
    Value TypeREG_DWORD
    Value3


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