Create an email signature using built-in templates - quick guide

CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 comes with a signature template editor built into the signature management app. The easiest and quickest way to design your first email signature is to use one of the predefined, professional templates that can be easily customized in the editor, as described in this article.

Note that you can use the information below to create templates for autoresponder rules as well. 

Watch our video tutorial to see how to quickly create a signature template or check out detailed instructions below.

First, sign in to app.codetwo.com, select a signature rule (or create a new one) and go to the Design step. From the drop-down menu, choose how you want your signature to appear in email conversations and click Edit signature (Fig. 1.) to open the editor.

Fig. 1. Opening the signature template editor in CodeTwo Email Signatures 365.

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

If you are configuring a template for a given signature rule for the first time, the editor launches with the Signature template library (Fig. 2.). 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

Fig. 2. Choosing a template from the template library.

Next, you can quickly customize the template you selected (Fig. 3.) 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.

Fig. 3. Quick customization of the selected template.

Customize the content of your template

Your signature template opens in the editor. Here, you can design the template to suit your needs. To help you visualize how your signature looks in a conversation, click the Show sample email thread button on the Main tab (Fig. 4.). This opens two additional sections in the editor: the upper one mimics a new message in an email thread (under which your signature is added) and the lower section mimics older messages in the same thread.

Fig. 4. A signature template opened in the editor, shown within sample email thread sections.

Start by checking which template format you're currently using - it's visible in the Format group on the ribbon (Fig. 5.). By default, the format is set to HTML. This is the format of 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 plain text version of the template later.

Fig. 5. The signature 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 Entra ID / Azure 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 Entra ID / Azure AD attributes into your template

The template shown in Fig. 6. contains a table row with a company name, but no specific name is provided - there's only text: MY-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 Entra ID. This may be a better solution, especially if your organization has subsidiaries (daughter companies), and different users belong to different companies. To replace a text phrase with a placeholder (in this case – the name of the company), first select the entire phrase in the editor. Next, click the Placeholder button on the ribbon and select Message Sender > Company (Fig. 6.). 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

Fig. 6. Replacing text with a placeholder to automatically insert information from Active Directory.

You can click Signature preview to see what the placeholder looks like when it's filled with sender's information. You'll learn more about the preview feature later in this article.

Add other email sections – cloud (server-side) signature template only

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.

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

Manage how your template is added to email conversations – cloud (server-side) signature template only

The Email layout tab also allows you to manage if your signature should be added directly under the latest reply or forward in an email conversation (this is the default setting) 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.

Preview your signature template

To see how your template looks like when it is filled with real user data, click the Signature preview 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 plain text template is missing, you need to design it.

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 plain text version of this template. Otherwise, messages sent from email clients and devices set up to send only 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. 5.), or you can automatically convert your HTML template to the plain text format. Learn more about managing signature template formats

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. Click the Templates button on the Main tab of the editor (Fig. 9.) and select Save as template to add the current template to the template library or Save as file to save a template file on your local device. Learn more about template management

Fig. 9. You can save and apply your signature template via the Templates button.

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