CodeTwo Signatures Add-in for Outlook
CodeTwo Signatures Web Add-in for Outlook, co-engineered with Microsoft, adds signatures to emails in Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac and Outlook on the web (OWA). See the video below or continue reading the article to learn how the Web Add-in works and how to use to manually select different email signatures.
Information for admins
The Web Add-in is a component of CodeTwo Email Signatures 365. If you want your Microsoft 365 users to get automatic signatures in Outlook, you need to:
If you are looking for instructions on how to deploy and use the legacy CodeTwo Signatures Add-in for Outlook (COM Add-in), refer to this section. For a comparison of the two Outlook add-ins, see this article.
How to use the Web Add-in
Once you start typing an email in Outlook, a signature is automatically inserted into the email body (Fig. 1.), according to the configured Outlook (client-side) signature rules. A different signature can be inserted to new messages and a different one to replies/forwards. The Web Add-in uses the newest event-based activation feature from Microsoft to completely automate the signature adding process (there's no need to launch the add-in first).
Fig. 1. The Web Add-in automatically adds an Outlook (client-side) signature to the body of an email.
If the event-based activation doesn't work in a desktop Outlook app, it may be that your version of Outlook doesn't fully support the Web Add-in. Try updating your Outlook or change the Microsoft Apps update channel, as described in this article by Microsoft. You can still add signatures manually, as described below.
To insert a signature manually, first click the CodeTwo Signatures button on the ribbon (Fig. 2., item 1). Next, in the pane that opens, click Use this signature below the signature that you want to use (Fig. 2., item 2).
Fig. 2. Inserting an email signature manually from the CodeTwo Signatures pane.
To open the Web Add-in's pane while composing a message in Outlook on the web (OWA), click CodeTwo Signatures at the bottom of the message. If you can't see the button, click More apps (
) first, as shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Opening the CodeTwo Signatures pane in Outlook on the web / OWA.
If you want the Web Add-in's pane to automatically open each time you compose an email, pin the pane to Outlook by using the button shown in Fig. 4. Click the pin button again to unpin (hide) the pane.
Fig. 4. Use this button to pin/unpin the Web Add-in's pane in Outlook.
Changing an email address in the From field
If you have multiple accounts added to your Outlook desktop app and you change the account in the From field while composing an email, the Web Add-in's pane will show email signatures set for the selected account. After the account change, you need to manually add a signature to an email by clicking Use this signature in the pane, as shown in Fig. 2.
If you are sending an email as or on behalf of another account, the Web Add-in will:
- continue to show your own email signatures (default behavior), or
- show email signatures configured for the user selected in the From field (this behavior needs to be set by the admin).
Either way, after selecting a new email address in the From field, you still need to manually add a new signature to an email.
Using the Outlook / Cloud toggle
This feature needs to be enabled by the admin. Learn more
If you see the Outlook / Cloud toggle in the Web Add-in's pane (Fig. 5.), you can use it to switch between Outlook (client-side) and cloud (server-side) signatures.
- In Outlook mode, the Web Add-in works as described above in this article.
- In cloud mode, signatures are added in the cloud, after you send an email. However, you can use the Web Add-in to preview cloud signatures, as described in this article.
Fig. 5. The toggle lets you switch between cloud (server-side) and Outlook (client-side) signatures.
Legacy CodeTwo Signatures Add-in for Outlook (COM Add-in)
CodeTwo Signatures Add-in for Outlook adds signatures to emails in Outlook for Windows.
COM Add-in installation and configuration
The add-in can be installed centrally by the admin (see instructions for GPO or Intune) or manually by individual users (as described here).
How to use the COM Add-in
To have access to Outlook (client-side) signatures, you need to sign in to the add-in with your Microsoft 365 account credentials. CodeTwo signatures added by the COM Add-in are available just like any other Outlook signatures. If they are set as default by your organization's admin, they are added automatically when you compose a new message or when you forward/reply to an email (Fig. 6.).
Fig. 6. CodeTwo Signatures Add-in for Outlook automatically adds your default signature as you type. You can also preview the other available signatures via the add-in pane.
You can also add them from your Outlook ribbon - in compose mode, go to the Message tab, click Signature on the ribbon (Fig. 7.) and choose any signature that is available to you (if a signature is already added to your message, it will be replaced with the one you selected).
Fig. 7. You can use Outlook's ribbon to add/change a signature.
Click the add-in button on the Outlook ribbon to show/hide the add-in pane. Note that the button might not be visible if you open a message in a new window. You can use the add-in pane to:
- quickly preview the signatures that are available to you,
- force signature refresh (Fig. 8.) if you do not want to wait for automatic signature synchronization that occurs every couple of minutes,
- sign in or sign out of your user account.
Fig. 8. You can access the Force signature refresh functionality by opening the add-in pane.