Quick guide

In this article you will find out how to create an email signature template step by step. You can design templates from scratch, but since the signature template editor comes with a lot of predefined templates that can be easily customized, this article focuses on using one of these templates. See the sections below to learn more.

Launch the signature template editor

To start, launch the signature template editor from within your CodeTwo program:

CodeTwo Exchange Rules and CodeTwo Exchange Rules Pro

If you use CodeTwo Exchange Rules or CodeTwo Exchange Rules Pro, open the Administration Panel, select a signature/disclaimer adding rule (or create a new one) and go to the Actions tab. In the List of actions section, select (or add) one of the following actions:

  • Insert signature
  • Insert disclaimer
  • Apply full composition

and then click Edit (Fig. 1.) to open the editor.

Opening the signature template editor in CodeTwo Exchange Rules Pro.
Fig. 1. Opening the signature template editor in CodeTwo Exchange Rules Pro.

CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365

The signature template editor has been replaced with the new web-based interface. Learn more

If you use CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365, open the Manage Signatures App (soon to be deprecated), select a signature rule (or create a new one) and go to the Design tab. From the drop-down menu, choose how you want your signature to appear in email conversations and click Edit signature (Fig. 2.) to open the editor.

Opening the signature template editor in CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365.
Fig. 2. Opening the signature template editor in CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365.

Choose a template you want to use and quickly customize it before opening

The program launches with the Signature template library (Fig. 3.). You can select a signature template from the collection of built-in templates or from your own templates (if you created them). Click a template you want to use. In this guide, we show how to compose a signature based on a predefined template, but if you prefer to create a template from scratch, skip the template selection and close the window to open the signature template editor. Learn more about managing signature templates

Editor - quick guide - choose template
Fig. 3. Choosing a template from the template library.

Next, you can quickly customize the template you selected (Fig. 4.) before it's loaded into the editor. Select sections you want to include and preview how the template looks like in an email when it's filled with sample data (the Preview tab). To see how the template is built (e.g. which placeholders it contains), switch to the Template tab. When you're finished, click Open.

Quick customization of the selected template.
Fig. 4. Quick customization of the selected template.

Customize the content of your template

Your signature template opens in the editor (Fig. 5.). Here, you can design it to suit your needs. To help you visualize how your signature looks like in a correspondence, your signature template is displayed within a sample email conversation consisting of a new message (under which your signature is added) and a previous message.

A signature template opened in the editor.
Fig. 5. A signature template opened in the editor.

Check template format

Start by checking which template format you're currently using - it's visible in the Format group on the ribbon (Fig. 6.). By default, the format is set to HTML because this is the format for the built-in templates and it offers you the most customization options. You should configure your template in all available formats. At this point, let's continue with the default format and configure the RTF and plain text versions of the template later.

The message format options.
Fig. 6. The message format options.

Customize text, tables and other content

Now it's time to edit your template. Select (click) any part of the template and use commands on the ribbon to customize it. The ribbon changes depending on your selection. For example, if your template contains a table, and you click anywhere inside it, an additional Table tab appears, where you can change the table's appearance.

Use the options in the Font group to change the appearance of text in your signature template. The Insert group allows you to add pictures, placeholders (automatically filled with sender's AD attributes etc.), tables, and more. Find out how to insert various content into a signature template

Add placeholders to automatically pull information such as AD attributes into your template

The template selected earlier (see Fig. 5.) contains a table row with a company name, but no specific name is provided - there's only text: Your Company. You can replace this text with the name of your company by typing it manually, but the name will be the same for all users who get this signature. You can also replace this field with a placeholder so that it's automatically filled with the sender's company name pulled from their Active Directory. This may be a better solution, especially if your organization has subsidiaries (daughter companies), and different users belong to different companies. See the video below to learn how to replace a text phrase with a placeholder, and how to preview what the placeholder looks like when it's filled with information. In a similar way, you can add sender-related information to the template by inserting placeholders such as First name and Last name via the Placeholder button. Learn more about placeholders


Video: How to replace text with a placeholder and preview the final effect.

Tip

You can surround your placeholders with the Remove Text tags (RT tags) to avoid empty spaces in your signature when a placeholder inside your template cannot be filled because the corresponding value (e.g. an AD attribute) is empty. Learn more

Add other email sections

Your template can include more than just a signature. If you want to add side banners or a header, go to the Email layout tab and use the Insert email section group commands (Fig. 7.) to turn email sections on/off. Then design the newly added sections in the same way as your signature. See this article for guidelines.

You can insert other email sections on the Email layout tab.
Fig. 7. You can insert other email sections on the Email layout tab.

Manage how your template is added to email conversations

The Email layout tab also allows you to manage if your signature should be added directly under the latest reply in an email conversation, or at the very bottom. You can also specify if you want to add your signature to every email or to the first email only. For details, read this article.

Important

If you use CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365, some of these settings are available directly in the Manage Signatures App, and other settings require the Custom setup mode. Learn more

Preview your signature template

To see how your template looks like when it is filled with real user data, click the Preview (Editor - Preview button) button on the Main tab of the ribbon. Select a user in your organization, and the program shows how the signature of this user looks like (Fig. 8.). If you have any placeholders, they are automatically filled with information related to the selected user. You can preview your template for all message formats - if the template is missing for RTF or plain text, you need to design it.

Editor - quick guide - preview
Fig. 8. You can preview the signature for a specific user in your company.

Create the template for all message formats

When you're finished with designing your HTML signature template, you need to create the version of this template for the other available message formats. Otherwise, messages sent from email clients and devices set up to send only RTF or plain text emails will not get any signature if a template in that format is missing. You can design a template individually for each message format, by selecting a format in the Format group on the ribbon (see Fig. 6.), or you can automatically convert your HTML template to the other formats. Learn more about managing signature template formats

Tip

If you use CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365, the software can automatically convert plain text emails to HTML so that HTML signatures are added. Learn more

Save the template for future use, apply the changes to your signature rule, and close the editor

When your template is complete, you can apply it to the related signature rule in your CodeTwo software. Before you do that, it's a good idea to save your template for future use. The corresponding options are available on the Main tab of the editor (Fig. 9.). You can add the current template to the template library (Editor 2 - save as template button) or as a template file (Editor 2 - save template as file button) on your local computer. Learn more about template management

You can save and apply your signature template via the commands in the Template group.
Fig. 9. You can save and apply your signature template via the commands in the Template group.

Finally, to apply the template to your signature rule and close the editor, click Apply & Close. After you save the rule in your CodeTwo software, emails that meet the conditions of this rule will get the signature you designed.

In this article

Was this information useful?