Locking a form make the form non-modifiable. This is useful when legal forms are being generated and has the second usefulness in that signed forms can be also kept.

The process of locking the form is simple. Click on the lock button. A drop down menu displays showing two entries:

 

Lock

The lock option starts the locking process. The system will permanently write all merge fields into the form:

is converted to:

Note that the button state changes to indicate that the form is locked and all fields are removed from the form.

 

Signature Pages

If the form had any signature fields, those pages are flagged so they can replaced by scanned pages that contain signatures.

The drop down changes, enabling the Signature Pages entry and creating a list of the pages:

Selecting the page displays it and then prompts for the replacement page:

Once the replacement is selected, it is placed in the form and removed from the list of pages that can be replaced.

 

Unlocking a form

Care must be taken when locking a form, as there is no mechanism for unlocking the form nor replacing the signature pages once set.