I’ve been filling in the Notary Certs using Adobe for over a year with no complaints. Texas allows applying your Notary Seal electronically. Check your State’s regulations to make certain you’re in compliance.
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I’ve been using Adobe to do this since the beginning. I’ve never had a company object. However, I only fill in those areas that apply to the notary. I do not pre-fill anything related to the borrower(s). Even on those forms where it only states “borrower signature” rather than their printed names, I have the borrowers print their names underneath, rather than me typing them in. Architer is correct, on rare occasion there just is not enough space for handwriting and even typing at times. In those instances I will insert an asterisk with “see below/above” and type the names or info in another location. Still have had no pushback on that.
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I just did this on a big package and I’m grateful! It’s so neat since I don’t have best handwriting. I only filled in State, County, year and my commission expiration on the acknowledgments but it looks great! I didn’t put in the actual date just in case something changes before the signing.
Thanks for this tip!
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Thanks Jerry, very much appreciated. Great info.
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No need to spend any extra $$$ to do Fill & Sign which is a free part of Adobe Reader which is free to download. 
You are not permitted to change the documents in any way. Writing that info in is not the same as opening the document and making changes.
Be very careful with how you’re using that program Yes, it is convenient, but that document now shows open and edited, so the question becomes do you want to take on that risk.
You are not entirely correct and it’s clear you didn’t read everything in this thread. You are correct we cannot modify the lender documents but we ABSOLUTELY can use Fill and Sign to fill in the Notary documents provided in the set of documents… the Acks and Jurats. Those are OUR documents and we can fill in their names, the signing date, and our names.
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Kristin is right that the electronic document will show the date and time of the most recent modification in the PDF properties. But most of us are not sending the electronic document back to the hiring party or title company, we’re sending back paper. Of course, since the changed information will be neatly printed by the computer, the recipient will think we might have edited the PDF.
But another way to do the same thing, if the changed text is not mixed right in with the unchanged text, would be to print the PDF from the title company as-is, and then create a new blank document with the new writing in a part of the page that lies over a blank area in the printed document. Then run the unaltered printed page from the PDF through the printer a second time, to combine the new and old text on the same page. There will be no way for the recipient to know which procedure was followed.
That’s the kicker …We can use adobe for our OWN documents; YEP
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Exactly, it’s too bad some so-called “experts” don’t understand that.
Do what makes you the most comfortable. However, I have had no issue with editing the notary section on loan documents. We make those changes before we print the documents for signing. Once printed and if we need to scan them back, any modifications that may have been made prior do not show up. This is now a different document and only fresh modifications will be evident when returned electronically. It is always recommended to do the most prudent thing and share that information. But, I don’t believe we should be cautious to the point of not being innovative and/or efficient. When in doubt, always ask your contractor.
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I believe some of the SS are aware that some notaries are doing this. I have seen a few orders stating that “Notaries should not prefill in documents prior to closing”… could this be the reason why?.. just wondering.
Could be but not necessarily. Pre-fill can be by ink printing or typing. So that doesn’t have anything to do with the PDF utility per Se. How would they know if you printed them in by hand ahead of meeting? And why would you penalize one notary and not another based on the type of pre-fill? If they want us to not modify the forms in Acrobat they can lock the form, and there is a more direct way to say that, but I haven’t seen it.
No idea how a signing service is figuring out that notaries are filling in forms before the signing. I see nothing wrong with filling in things in the notary certificate such as the signer’s name, the date, the notary’s commission expiration date, etc. But the notaries should not be signing or applying their seals to the notarial certificates.
Maybe that’s what they are referring to
Well, of course. That makes sense.