How to let your users choose their preferred signature

While you might be using CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 to take advantage of centralized signature management, you can still allow your users to choose their preferred signature. In fact, this idea is not at odds with having control over users’ signatures because it’s still you who designs and deploys the signatures.

Giving your users the option to choose their preferred signature is especially useful if:

your organization’s structure is complex and management via Microsoft 365 groups is difficult,
your users manage several different brands and need separate signature templates for each brand (see this article to learn about different methods of adding signatures in various languages),
some users send most of their emails from mobile devices and want a signature design specifically tailored to mobile email apps,
some users want to add simplified signatures (for instance, without a marketing banner or social icons) rather than full-size versions,
certain departments (such as Sales or Marketing) change their email signature periodically, e.g., use another signature to promote current offers or seasonal promotions.

With CodeTwo Email Signatures 365, users can choose their preferred signature template in two ways:

In the CodeTwo add-in pane in Outlook – this will work for Outlook (client-side) signatures. See the setup instructions for this scenario
In the My user info app – this will work for both cloud (server-side) and Outlook (client-side) signatures. See the setup instructions for this scenario

New to CodeTwo?

Learn more about signature modes our solution can work in. See how to set up your first signature rule and design an email signature template.

My user info and Attributes manager are extra apps included for free in your CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 subscription. Learn more

Preferred signature selected in the CodeTwo add-in pane

This solution works for Outlook (client-side) signatures.

In this example, we’ll set up two signatures. Users will be able to choose either one as their preferred signature in the CodeTwo add-in pane, and it will then be automatically added to all new emails, replies, and forwards (Fig. 1.):

Full signature – a standard company signature.
Signature for Marketing – an alternative signature to promote an ongoing marketing campaign. It will use a different layout, color palette, and visual elements.

Tip

The following instructions also apply to the other use cases mentioned at the beginning of the article.

Fig. 1. An Outlook (client-side) signature marked as preferred in the CodeTwo add-in pane.

To start, sign in to the Signatures app, click CREATE RULE, and select Outlook (client-side signature). See this article for detailed instructions on how to create Outlook (client-side) signature rules, or read on for a quick overview of the steps.

In the Name step, enter the rule’s name and (optionally) a description. In the Senders and Recipients steps, configure conditions (and exceptions) as desired. Right now, we’ll configure a general signature rule to add signatures to emails sent by all senders to all recipients.

Go to the Logic step and make sure the Set this signature as default for new messages and Set this signature as default for replies and forwards options are enabled. Learn more about these options

Go to the Design step and create an appropriate signature template.

Once done, submit your rule by clicking Save & Publish.

Now, let’s create another rule to add a dedicated signature for Marketing. To create the rule, repeat the steps above, with one exception – in the Senders step, click Add > Group members (inside organization) in the top section, and select only the Marketing team.

Tip

You can also add more signature rules, e.g., for internal signatures. However, note that a signature marked as preferred is only added to an email when a matching signature rule applies. For example, if a user sets an internal signature as their preferred signature, it will not be added to external emails.

Each user can have only one preferred signature at a time.

Once your signature rules are ready, sign in to CodeTwo Admin Panel, select your tenant on the Tenants page, and go to the Outlook add-in tab. Next, click Show advanced settings and enable the Allow users to set their preferred CodeTwo Outlook (client-side) signatures in Outlook setting (Fig. 2.).

Fig. 2. Enable this setting to let users choose their preferred signature in the CodeTwo add-in pane.

That’s it – once the changes in the add-in settings propagate (it may take up to 4 hours), your users will be able to choose their preferred signature in Outlook. To do this, they only need to open the CodeTwo add-in pane, click … next to a relevant signature, and select Set as my preferred signature (Fig. 3.). Learn more about this option

Fig. 3. Setting a preferred signature in the CodeTwo add-in pane.

Preferred signature selected in My user info

This solution works for both cloud (server-side) and Outlook (client-side) signatures.

In this example, we’ll create two signatures – one in English and one in German – your users will be able to choose, depending on which language they use when contacting their customers.

Tip

The following instructions also apply to the other use cases mentioned at the beginning of the article.

Create a custom attribute for choosing the signature

The general idea behind this example of use is as follows: first, you need to create a CodeTwo custom attribute. Next, your users will be able to decide which signature they want to choose by typing an appropriate value for the attribute.

To start, sign in at attributes.codetwo.com with your Microsoft 365 global admin credentials. The Attribute visibility settings page will appear.

If you use the manager for the first time, you need to consent to permissions requested by our web app on behalf of your organization.

In the CodeTwo custom attributes section, click the Add button. Type the name of the attribute, e.g. My chosen signature, and click ADD (Fig. 4.).

Fig. 4. Creating a custom attribute whose value (selected by users) will determine signature choice.

Once you’ve created the custom attribute, make sure that checkboxes Visible and Editable next to it are selected (Fig. 5., item 1). That way, your users will be able to see the attribute and edit its value. Finally, click Save to apply your configuration (Fig. 5., item 2).

Fig. 5. Making sure that users can see and modify the attribute's value.

When the CodeTwo custom attribute is configured, you can move on to creating two (or more) email signatures your users will be able to choose from.

Create email signature templates

Sign in at app.codetwo.com to create signature rules for adding email signatures. Use the links below for general instructions for creating:

For this use scenario, the following additional steps are required:

For users to choose the default language version of their signature out of two, you need to create two signature rules (see Fig. 6.) that will add different signatures to emails:
- one in English – you can name it English signature, and
- one in German – you can name it German signature.
If you want your users to be able to select different default signature from more than 2 templates, create additional signature rules.

Fig. 6. Two signature rules with different language versions of the default signature to choose from.

In the Senders step, go to Add > Entra ID (user property) filter (Fig. 7.).

Fig. 7. Choosing the Entra ID (user property) filter condition.

Now, configure the Entra ID (user property) filter as follows:
- Click the User Entra ID attribute drop-down list and choose the custom attribute you created earlier. In our example, this will be My chosen signature (Fig. 8., item 1).
- Choose Equals as the Operator (Fig. 8., item 2).
- In the Value text field, type the value your users will need to enter later on to choose their default signature. For the English signature, type English (Fig. 8., item 3); when configuring the German signature, type German instead.
- Click the Add to list button to add the condition.
- Click OK to finish.

Fig. 8. Adding the condition that activates the rule based on a CodeTwo custom attribute value provided by a user.

(Optional) Configure additional conditions in the Recipients and Keywords steps.
Leave the default settings in the Logic step. That way, regardless of which signature a user chooses (and which mode they use), it will be used as the default one.

Important

In the case of an Outlook (client-side) signature rule, make sure that the two options to use the signature as the default for new messages and replies/forwards are selected. Learn more
Go to the Design step and create a different signature template (in this example – in English and German) for each of your rules.

Result

When everything’s up and running, you need to inform your users about the possibility to choose their default signature by emailing them the following instructions.

Here’s how you can choose which language version of the email signature you want to use by default:

Sign in at user.codetwo.com using your Microsoft account credentials.

Info

If you use the editor for the first time, you might need to consent to permissions requested by the web app.
Look for the My chosen signature field, and type the following value into it:
- English if you want your default signature to be in English (Fig. 9., item A),
- German if you want your default signature to be in German (Fig. 9., item B).

Fig. 9. Choosing the default signature on the My user info page.

Once you’ve typed the desirable value, click Save & update (see Fig. 9.) to apply your settings.
From now on, your default signature will be in the language you chose in step 2 above (Fig. 10.).

Fig. 10. The language version of a signature depends on what users set on the My user info page.