Create a signature rule (classic experience)

This article will help you create your first signature rule in CodeTwo Email Signatures 365. A signature rule contains the layout of your email signature and/or disclaimer, as well as conditions that need to be met to add this signature/disclaimer to messages.

Signature rules are configured and managed through a web interface available at app.codetwo.com. You can create two types of signature rules:

You can create two types of signature rules:

• Cloud (server-side) signature rule adds a signature after an email is sent and works with any email client or device (including mobiles).
• Outlook (client-side) signature rule adds a signature in Outlook and OWA as users compose their emails. For users to see and use this signature, you need to deploy a signatures add-in in their Outlook.

For more information about the available signature modes, see this article.

How to create a cloud (server-side) signature rule

Sign in to app.codetwo.com. To add a new cloud signature rule, click the Add () button in the SIGNATURE RULES section and select Add server-side signature rule (Fig. 1.).

Fig. 1. Adding a new cloud (server-side) signature rule.

The first tab - Overview - lets you fill in the name of your signature rule and add an optional description (Fig. 2.).

Fig. 2. Naming and describing the new cloud signature rule.

The three tabs that follow (Senders, Recipients and Keywords) allow you to configure conditions (and optional exceptions) which need to be fulfilled to add your signature to emails.

Move on to the Senders tab to apply the rule to appropriate users (Fig. 3.). In the upper section (top list), you can define senders whose emails will be stamped with your signature. You can add cloud (server-side) signatures to messages sent from user, shared and resource mailboxes). The lower section (bottom list) allows you to add exceptions, i.e. the users who will not get this signature (learn more about this condition). In this example, we're adding the signature to all users (All senders) except the members of the Sales and Marketing group (for example, because we plan to create a dedicated signature rule for them later).

Fig. 3. The Senders tab with one condition (All senders) and one exception (Sales and Marketing).

Make sure to define at least one user in the top list. If you leave this section empty, signatures will be added to all users specified in the connectors wizard (learn more). The program will notify you about that (and automatically add All senders to the list) when you submit your changes via the Save () button. If you would like to create a rule, but do not want to apply it to any users, you can temporarily disable it via the switch () button.

On the Recipients tab (Fig. 4.) you can decide if this signature rule should be applied to emails sent to anyone, to internal/external emails only, or to emails sent to specific recipients (e.g. email addresses or domains) – use the top list to define the recipients. You can also exclude your signature from emails sent to selected recipients (that is, email addresses, domains, members of selected groups in your organization, etc.) by specifying them on the bottom list. In this example, we would like our signature to be added to emails sent to any recipient, so we only add All recipients in the top list (Fig. 4.).

Fig. 4. Choosing the recipients. Here, the cloud signature rule is set to apply to emails sent to anyone.

On the next tab - Keywords - you can define specific phrases that will trigger or suppress your cloud signature rule (Fig. 5.). When adding keyword phrases, you can use asterisks (*) as wildcards (to substitute other characters). The keyword settings are optional, but might be very useful, for example if you want to quickly remove your signature from a specific message. In this example (Fig. 5.), typing #nosignature (or any longer phrase that includes #nosignature - hence the surrounding asterisks) in the email subject or body will prevent the rule from being applied. Learn more

Fig. 5. The Keywords tab.

Proceed to the Design tab. Here, you can compose your signature template and decide how it will be added to an email conversation thread (Fig. 6.). Start with the email thread settings by selecting one of the options available in the drop-down list to have:

• the same signature in every email,
• different signature in the first email and different in subsequent emails,
• signature in the first email only,
• custom setup (manually configure how your signature will be added to an email conversation threads).

Fig. 6. The Design tab.

To create or modify a signature template for your rule, click the Edit signature button. This will open a built-in signature template editor. In the example shown in Fig. 6., we created a signature based on one of the built-in templates, as described in this quick guide. If you want to design your signature template from scratch, see this article instead for a step-by-step guide.

The last tab, Options (Fig. 7.), allows you to:

• decide what the software should do if a particular rule is (or is not) applied. These settings are useful when you configure many rules and want to create a conditional rule flow, or when you add multiple signatures. Learn more
• schedule an activity period for each rule (according to your time zone). Note that if the Scheduler feature is turned off for a given rule, this rule will be active all the time. Learn more

Fig. 7. Rule processing and scheduling options.

Finally, save your signature rule using the Save () button in the SIGNATURE RULES section to apply the changes to CodeTwo services and start using the new rule in your organization.

How to create an Outlook (client-side) signature rule

Access app.codetwo.com. After you sign in, click the Add () button in the SIGNATURE RULES section and select Add client-side signature rule (Fig. 8.).

Fig. 8. Creating a new Outlook (client-side) signature rule.

The new signature rule is added under the Client-side signatures group and the Overview tab opens, where you can enter the name of that rule and, optionally, provide a short description (Fig. 9.).

Fig. 9. Providing a name and description of the Outlook signature rule.

On the Senders tab, specify which users in your organization will have access to that signature from their Outlooks (after you have deployed a dedicated Outlook add-in). Use the upper section (list) to select users or groups of users that will get the signature. The bottom section (list) lets you add exceptions to your Outlook signature rule, which means users or groups of users that appear on that list will not get the signature. In the example shown in Fig. 10., our rule will apply to all users (All senders) except for members of the Sales and Marketing group.

Fig. 10. Selecting users to which the client-signature rule will apply.

Make sure to add at least one user to the upper list. Otherwise, when you save the rule, the program will notify you that there are no senders defined for that rule and automatically apply that rule to all users (in other words, All senders will be automatically added to the upper list).

The next tab, Design, is where you select a signature template (or create one from scratch). Click Edit signature to open the editor and design your signature the way you want. Once you finish, the signature preview will be shown on the Design tab (Fig. 11.).

Fig. 11. Signature template preview.

The last tab, Options (Fig. 12.), allows you to:

• set the signature as the default one for all new messages sent from Outlook 
• set the signature as the default one for all reply and forward messages sent from Outlook
• remove all user-defined signatures in Outlook (works only with the legacy COM Add-in).

Fig. 12. Additional options available for Outlook signature rules.

You can also use the Scheduler option to specify time ranges (in your time zone) during which the rule will be active. Learn more about the Scheduler 

When you're done, click  in the SIGNATURE RULES section to save your client-signature rule. The signature will become available for the specified users in Outlook and OWA.

See next

Start managing email signatures in your organization - learn more about different ways of managing signature rules