Hello @neman 

You are welcome to the Docusign Community!

In general, you can configure your Docusign to permit different types of electronic signatures to your signers.

For example, you can configure to permit them to upload an image to be used as their signature. 

See details in this article: https://support.docusign.com/s/document-item?language=en_US&bundleId=jux1643235969954&topicId=xmt1578456441423.html&_LANG=enus

On your proposed scenario you internal signers will sign normally with their esignatures and your external signers will upload an image as the esignature. You don’t need to depend on Word features for that.

I hope that helps!

Best,

Alexandre

Question kindly answered on a call with Chris in support. It’s not a matter of content controls, it’s a matter of workflow sequencing. When a DOCX is upload to Docusign, the current state of the content control (filled with a value or unfilled) is locked and cannot be edited within Docusign. So...

1. I create the form with content controls and enable editing restrictions. That’s our “template.”
2. Customer interaction begins. We make a copy of the file and fill in all fields relevant to us.
3. We email the partially-filled DOCX as an attachment to our customer, with the explicit instruction if they use Docusign, they must sign only after all fields are completed as the form can no longer be edited. (This should be obvious to anyone who uses Docusign.)
4. Customer receives the attachment and fills all fields relevant to them.
   1. If they’re signing by uploading an image signature, they “sign” and email the DOCX attachment back to us. The DOCX is the legally binding item.
   2. If Docusign is their method of signing, they upload the DOCX to Docusign, sign, and we receive an uneditable PDF. The PDF is the legally binding item and the DOCX is now irrelevant.
5. We forward the customer-signed DOCX or customer-signed PDF to our Legal department for their countersignature using Docusign. Legal signs using Docusign, and the resulting PDF is the legally binding item.
   1. If we originally forwarded a DOCX to Legal, the DOCX is now irrelevant.
6. We receive the PDF signed by whatever means the customer used, countersigned by our Legal team using Docusign, and do the thing we’re actually being paid to do.

Thank you @Alexandre.Augusto. In my particular case I don’t (and won’t) have a Docusign licence, so my end of the workflow must be 100% in Word, and I email the DOCX as an attachment. Otherwise your solution looks like it would elegantly solve the problem for anyone with a Docusign licence. Much appreciated!