Auto Incrementing Affidavit Stamp

Introduction

The following explains how to set up and use a tool (SEE LINK ABOVE FOR DOWNLOAD OF THE FILE "INCREMENT.PDF") to apply auto incrementing stamps i.e. each time you apply successive iterations of the stamp the letter, or number, displayed on the stamp will be incremented by one.  

The stamp can increment numerically (1, 2, 3 …), lowercase alphabetic (a, b, c …), or uppercase alphabetic (A, B, C…).

The tool can be used to create small and simple stamps which display just the incrementing letter or number, or the stamp can be larger and contain numerous items of text and have the single item of incrementing text positioned as some location within that stamp.

The example use case explained in this guide is an incrementing exhibit stamp to be used when stamping and signing exhibits to an affidavit.

The stamp can be pre-signed if you wish, although that is not required. Stamping affidavit exhibits with the auto incrementing stamp can save a lot of time when an affidavit has a large number of exhibits.

Prerequisites / software requirements

Before setting out to use the incrementing stamp, the user should have the following:

1. Adobe Standard, or Adobe Pro installed i.e. stamping cannot be done in Adobe Reader.
2. A compilation pdf file that contains all of the exhibits to the affidavit. The exhibits should appear in correct sequential order in the compilation pdf file, and the first page of each exhibit should ideally be bookmarked. If the finished document will be printed to paper, consider including blank pages at the end of each exhibit file that has an odd number of pages such that each exhibit will then start on an odd page in the compilation pdf file. This allows one to print the entire compilation file double sided and then add sequential exhibit divider tabs before the start of each exhibit in the paper binder.
3. If you will want the exhibit stamp to be pre-signed, an image file containing the notary’s signature, and that has a clear background. Such image can be created by:
   
   1. Creating a specimen signature by hand on a sheet of white paper using a pen with a thick tip (e.g. a sharpie pen, although not a very wide tip sharpie pen). For example, here is an ugly signature for “John Smith”:

2. Scan that image to pdf.
3. Using the snipping tool, create an “as small as possible” .png image snip of the signature.

4. Using a tool like https://www.fotor.com/features/background-remover, or image editing software like Gimp, to set the image background to be transparent.

Edit the stamp template file

Obtain the template file “Increment.pdf”.

The following assumes you are willing to use the yellow exhibit stamp provided with this guide, and explains how to edit the fields and add your signature to that file. The benefit of the exhibit stamp being yellow is that it is easy to spot the first page of each exhibit when viewing thumbnails of the pdf pages in the thumbnail pane in Adobe.

If you are not willing to use the yellow affidavit stamp provided with this guide (e.g. you want the stamp to have a different colour, size, shape, etc.) then you could modify the Increment.pdf file provided using the standard editing tools in Adobe. 

You will notice that the template file “Increment.pdf” provided with this guide has 3 pages, but you will focus on just the middle one. The middle page has the content that will be on the exhibit stamp, and should appear as follows before you start editing it:

To add or edit text boxes on the stamp:

1. In Adobe, go to Tools / Comment
2. Select the Textbox you want to edit, or if you wish you can add a textbox using the Textbox tool on the Comment menu.

You will typically need to edit the stamp each time you use it for a new affidavit i.e. you will need to update the texboxes containing the deponent name, date, city of execution, etc.

If you are a lawyer who prepares affidavits that you will notarize (e.g. the deponent will come to your office) and also affidavits that others will notarize (e.g. you will email the pdf file to another notary who will print the document and then sign the exhibits by hand), then (before placing your signature on the stamp template) create two copies of the file “Increment.pdf” and name them as follows:

• “Increment (to be signed by me).pdf”
• “Increment (to be signed by other notary).pdf”.

Add the image of your signature to only the file named “Increment (to be signed by me).pdf”.

You can add your signature as follows:

1. In Adobe, go to Tools / Edit PDF.
2. Select “Add Image” from the toolbar.
3. Browse to the image file, which as noted above should have a clear background so that the background detail (e.g. signature line, colour of page) shows through the stamp.
4. Follow the prompts to insert the signature image file onto the page with your stamp.
5. When the image is inserted it will be editable i.e. you can move it, and resize it. If you want to later come back and edit the signature further you need to be on the “Edit” tab of the tools menu in Adobe.

When you are done editing the stamp, be sure to save your changes.

Save the stamp files into the AppData folder in Windows

The stamp files must be saved into the appropriate system folder within the Adobe collection of system files on your Windows computer. That folder is named “Stamps” and its location will likely be similar to the following:

"C:\Users\[YourUsername]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Acrobat\[Year of your Adobe software, or “DC”]\Stamps"

You will need to access the stamp template files each time you want to edit the affidavit stamp (typically each time you create a new affidavit), and so it is highly recommended to put a shortcut to that “Stamps” folder on your Desktop.

Very important: The script that applies the incrementing number / letter expects the name of the file to be “Increment.pdf”, the incrementing stamp and will not work if the file name is not exactly that name.

Therefore, depending on whether you or someone else will notarize the affidavit, change the name of one of your two stamp files (i.e. “Increment (to be signed by me).pdf” and “Increment (to be signed by other notary).pdf”) to be simply “Increment.pdf”. For, example, if you will be the notary, the stamp file with your signature should be named “Increment.pdf”:

To later prepare an affidavit to be signed by another notary, change the name of the file that contains your signature back to “Increment (to be signed by me).pdf”, and then change the name of the other file that does not have your signature to “Increment.pdf”.

Each time you prepare an affidavit it is essential to ensure that the stamp file you want to use for that affidavit is named “Increment.pdf”. 

Stamps should appear under the Increment category of Stamps in Adobe

After you have put the stamp files into the subfolder within AppData as referred to above, the stamps should automatically appear at: Tools / Stamp / Stamp / Increment.

If you have two stamp files in the “Stamps” subfolder within AppData e.g.

• “Increment.pdf”; and
• “Increment (to be signed by other notary).pdf”,

then you will see two stamps listed under the Increment menu, but only the stamp with the template file currently named “Increment.pdf” will work, and you will have to change the file names as described above to ensure the one that you want to use for the current affidavit is named “Increment.pdf”.

Applying stamps to pdf pages

Perform the following steps to apply the exhibits stamps to the first page of each exhibit.

If your compilation pdf file containing all exhibits has bookmarks, display the bookmarks to allow easy navigation to the successive exhibits as you apply the stamps:

Click on the first bookmark to display the first page of the first exhibit and then go to Tools / Stamp / Stamp / Increment and select the increment stamp, and then click on the part of the page you wish to apply the stamp to. An input box will then be displayed prompting for whether you want to use incremental numbers or letters. Depending on your preference, enter A, a, or 1.

Your specified increment type will then be shown on the stamp inserted onto the page, and you will be able to drag and drop to relocate the stamp as needed:

You can also resize the stamp by clicking, holding, and then dragging the corners of the stamp.

Note the “A” in the stamp shown in the screenshot above, that is the text that will increment when subsequent stamps are applied.

If you have many exhibits you can click “Add Current Stamp to Favourites” to put it in the favourites, which will save clicks when adding the further exhibit stamps:

When added to favourites the stamp will appear directly on the stamps menu:

Click on the successive bookmarks in the compilation pdf to jump to the first page of the successive exhibits, and in each case add an exhibit stamp to the first page of the exhibit, and you should notice that the exhibit number will increment by one each time:

If the signature is pre-applied to the pdf stamps as explained above then it is important that the official notary who is notarizing the affidavit apply the exhibits stamps i.e. the ceremonial step of applying each exhibit stamp is required to meet the “signing requirement” i.e. that the notary certify that the attached documents are truly the exhibits that the deponent was referring to when affirming the affidavit. It is also essential that the deponent review the documents that the stamps are being applied to and be satisfied that those documents are the intended exhibits for the affidavit. Those latter requirements are requirements for all affidavits and the key point being made here is that the notary must sign the exhibits and that is achieved with this tool by the notary putting a signature on the stamp and then being the person responsible for applying those stamps with the signature included.

When done applying all the exhibit stamps you can flatten the compilation pdf file (e.g. by printing the entire file to pdf) to flatten the stamps down onto the page and so prevent them being edited, moved, or deleted.

Consider whether the exhibits need to be printed

The body of the affidavit will be printed to paper and signed in pen, but consider whether the exhibits need to be printed at all, and likely they do not if the affidavit will be filed electronically.

If the affidavit will be filed in hardcopy format, it may be that it can be filed without exhibits (e.g. under British Columbia Supreme Court Civil Rule 22-2(9)). In that case consider just filing the body of the affidavit and then later merging the filed copy of the body with the electronic copy of the exhibits for serving on the opposing parties, and then only print out the exhibits if the application will proceed to hearing.