How to add an upcoming out of office period to email signatures

Learn how to use CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 to automatically add an upcoming out of office (OoO) note to:

1. All emails sent outside your organization (Fig. 1., item A):
   • To let your customers know in advance that your organization will be closed.
   • To make customers & partners aware that you won’t respond to their emails during the OoO period.
2. Emails sent by specific users in your organization (Fig. 1., item B):
   • To inform co-workers about upcoming out of office dates.
   • To include the information about a substitute & avoid missing deadlines or unnecessary delays when someone else could take over the project.

Fig. 1. A sample signature with a global (A) or personal (B) out of office note.

Configuration

Depending on your use case, you can either add a global note to all email signatures in your organization (e.g. informing about your organization’s being closed in a given period) or you can let your users add an individual out of office note to their own email signatures.

• How to automatically add an OoO note to all external emails
• How to automatically add an OoO note to emails sent by specific user(s)

How to automatically add an OoO note to all external emails

In this scenario, we will show two approaches to creating an organization-wide out of office note:

• Method 1: Create a rule that adds the upcoming out of office note to all signatures (cloud/server-side mode only)
• Method 2: Create a separate email signature with the upcoming out of office note (any signature mode)

Method 1: Create a rule that adds the upcoming out of office note to all signatures (cloud/server-side mode only)

Using this method, you will create a separate cloud (server-side) signature rule that will be executed first to add the OoO note, while still allowing other rules to execute as well. Thanks to that, each email your users send will get the out of office note in addition to their signature in a 100% automated way.

1. Sign in at app.codetwo.com with your credentials.
2. Create a new cloud (server-side) signature rule, and name it as you like, e.g. Company closed note.
3. Go to the Senders step and choose All senders – thanks to that, the note will be added for all your users.
4. In the Recipients step, it’s reasonable to select External recipients, because only your customers and partners possibly need information on when your organization is going to be closed.
5. Move on to the Scheduler step, enable Scheduler, and configure it as follows (Fig. 2.):
   1. Choose your Time zone.
   2. Choose Custom for Rule activity pattern.
   3. Set Start time to the date when you want to start informing customers & partners about the upcoming OoO period.
   4. Set End time to the last day of the OoO period – this is when you want to stop adding the note.

Fig. 2. A sample configuration of Scheduler for an out of office note.

6. In the Logic step, select option If this rule is applied > Process the next rule on the list (Fig. 3.) and click Next.

   Important

   This step is very important. If you leave the default option (Do not process any more rules) selected, your users won’t get any email signature in their emails but only the OoO note.

Fig. 3. Setting the logic to add the out of office note along with a user’s signature.

7. Go to the Design step and click Edit signature to open the signature template editor.
8. Type the text of the message that will be added to inform external recipients about your company’s out of office period. For greater visibility, change the color of your message (e.g. to red), as shown in Fig. 4., so that it stands out from your email signature. A good idea might be also to add an empty line below the message by pressing Shift + Enter – that way, the note will not blend with a user’s signature added below.

Fig. 4. The message that informs customers and partners about your organization’s OoO in the nearest future.

9. Next, save your signature design by clicking Apply & Close and your signature rule by using the Save & Publish button.
10. Finally, move your newly published rule to the top of the Server-side signatures list. To do it, select the rule and use the Move up button (Fig. 5.).

Fig. 5. Placing a rule at the top of the Server-side signatures list.

The OoO note will start being added to emails sent to external recipients according to the Start time setting in the Scheduler. You don’t need to remember about deactivating the rule as well – the Scheduler will do it automatically on the day defined in the End time setting.

To reuse the OoO note-adding rule on a next occasion, you only need to update the dates in Scheduler, modify the message contents in the signature template editor, and save your changes.

Method 2: Create a separate email signature with the upcoming out of office note (any signature mode)

With this approach, you will clone an existing signature rule, update its design with a global OoO note for your company, and use the Scheduler feature to apply it temporarily as the default signature until your office is open again.

1. Sign in at app.codetwo.com with your credentials.
2. From a signature rule list, select the email signature that you want to use as the basis for creating a new signature template with the OoO notice.
3. Next, click Clone above the list (Fig. 6.) and finally click Clone once again in the pop-up window to confirm your action.

Fig. 6. Cloning a company-wide basic signature.

4. Click the cloned signature rule to open its settings. You can rename it the way you want, e.g. Basic signature with an out of office note.
5. Go to the Scheduler step and configure the Scheduler in the same way as outlined in the section above. That way, the signature with the out of office note will be automatically added to your users’ emails only during the specified period of time.
6. In the Logic step, the settings should be as follows:
   • Cloud (server-side) signature: If this rule is applied > Do not process any more rule and If this rule is not applied > Process the next rule on the list.
   • Outlook (client-side) signature: the first two checkboxes Set this signature as default for new messages and Set this signature as default for replies and forwards need to be selected.

     Tip

     If you use different Outlook (client-side) signatures for new messages and replies/forwards, and you want to include the OoO note just in new messages, leave only the first checkbox selected (Set this signature as default for new messages).

7. Move on to the Design step and click Edit signature to edit the signature visually.
8. In the template editor, type or paste your note either before (Fig. 7.) or after the signature contents.

   Tip

   To create a new empty line for your out of office note, click somewhere in the very top left corner of the editing area and press Shift + Enter.

Fig. 7. Adding a global OoO note above the existing signature contents.

9. Next, save your signature design by clicking Apply & Close and your signature rule by using the Save & Publish button.
10. Finally, move your newly published rule to the top of the rules list. To do it, select the rule and use the Move up button, as shown in Fig. 8..

Fig. 8. Placing a rule at the top of rule list.

The OoO note will start being added to emails sent to external recipients according to the Start time setting in Scheduler. You don’t need to remember about deactivating the rule as well – the Scheduler will do it automatically on the day defined in the End time setting.

To reuse the OoO note-adding rule on a next occasion, you only need to update the dates in Scheduler, modify the message contents in the signature template editor, and save your changes.

How to automatically add an OoO note to emails sent by specific user(s)

In case of this scenario, we will create CodeTwo custom attributes that will be used by your user(s) to add information (a note) about upcoming out of office periods to email signatures and supplement the information with additional details, e.g. substitute email address.

• Create a custom attribute
• Method 1: Create a rule that adds the upcoming out of office note to all signatures (cloud/server-side mode only)
• Method 2: Modify an existing rule to add the upcoming out of office note to specific signature (any signature mode)
• Let users turn on/off the notification about their upcoming out of office

Create a custom attribute

To start, sign in at attributes.codetwo.com using your Microsoft 365 global admin credentials. On the default Attribute visibility settings page, you can manage the attributes that are visible and editable by end users. You can also add custom, user-editable attributes. Let’s do this now. Click the Add button (Fig. 9.).

Fig. 9. Adding a new CodeTwo custom attribute.

Name the new custom attribute, for example, Upcoming out of office. Click Add to create the attribute (Fig. 10.).

Fig. 10. Creating a custom attribute for upcoming out of office periods.

Let’s also create two additional attributes, Substitute email and out of office soon?.

Next, click Save.

In this example of use, the attributes will be used as follows:

• out of office soon? lets a user control if they want the information about upcoming out of office periods to appear in their emails (applies only to the Method 1 below).
• Upcoming out of office lets a user provide the time frame when they will not be available.
• Substitute email lets a user provide an email of a colleague's who will substitute for them – that way recipients will know who they can contact during the user’s absence.

Method 1: Create a rule that adds the upcoming out of office note to all signatures (cloud/server-side mode only)

This method shows how to add the information about upcoming out of office periods by using a separate signature rule. Thanks to that, even if you set up multiple email signatures (for example, for different teams), you can add the upcoming out of office note to all of them.

1. Go to app.codetwo.com and sign in with your Microsoft 365 credentials.
2. Create a new cloud (server-side) signature rule, go to the Senders step and select Add > Azure AD filter, as shown in Fig. 11.

Fig. 11. Using the Azure AD filter as a signature rule condition.

3. Select the out of office soon? attribute from the Azure AD field drop-down list, use Contains as the Operator, and enter yes in the Value field. Click Add to list to create the condition (Fig. 12.). This way, the information about upcoming out of office periods will be added only if a user or admin chooses to activate it (by entering the yes phrase as the value of the out of office soon? attribute, as discussed later on).

Fig. 12. Azure AD filter with a condition set for the custom attribute.

4. In the Logic step, select option If this rule is applied > Process the next rule on the list (Fig. 13.). This way, once you move the newly created out of office rule to the highest position on the rules’ list (as explained later), CodeTwo Email Signatures 365 will add the information about the upcoming out of office period in addition to users’ email signature.

Fig. 13. Configuring the signature rule logic to apply to more than one signature rule.

5. Finally, go the Design step and click Edit signature (Fig. 14.).

Fig. 14. Editing signature design.

6. Type the text of the message that will be added to a signature if a user is going to take an out-of-office soon. You can color your message (e.g. in red) for greater visibility. Use your other custom attributes (Upcoming out of office and Substitute email) in the text. To do it, place the cursor exactly where you want to insert a given attribute and go to Placeholder > Message Sender > Additional attributes (Fig. 15.).

Fig. 15. Adding the custom CodeTwo attributes in the signature template editor.

7. Highlight the text and click Remove empty placeholder (Fig. 16.). This way, if the custom attributes are not filled in by a user, the whole text block will not be added to the signature, even if the condition set up in step 2 is met.

Fig. 16. Remove empty placeholder.

8. Use the Apply & Close button before leaving the editor.
9. Back in the rule creation wizard, click Save (without publishing the rule yet).
10. In the main view of the signature management app, select your new rule on the Server-side signatures list, use the Move up button to place it on top of other rules and click Publish (Fig. 17.) to apply the rule in your organization. Learn more about how cloud (server-side) rules are processed 

Fig. 17. Placing a rule at the top of the Server-side signatures list and publishing it.

Method 2: Modify an existing rule to add the upcoming out of office note to specific signature (any signature mode)

In this method, the upcoming out of office note is added to the same rule that adds an email signature, based on whenever users modify their custom out of office attributes. This makes it easy to add the notice about upcoming out of office dates to Outlook (client-side) signatures.

1. Go to app.codetwo.com and sign in with your Microsoft 365 credentials.
2. Choose the signature to which you would like to add the information about upcoming out of office period by clicking the related rule on the list.
3. In the Design step, click Edit signature (Fig. 18.).

Fig. 18. Editing an existing email signature design.

4. Type the text that will inform an email recipient about upcoming out of office period. Go to Placeholder > Message Sender > Additional attributes (see Fig. 15.) to add the custom attributes you configured earlier (Upcoming out of office and Substitute email).
5. Highlight the text and click Remove empty placeholder (see Fig. 16.). This way, if the custom attributes are not filled in by a user, the whole text block will not be added to the signature.
6. Use the Apply & Save button before leaving the editor.
7. Back in the rule creation wizard, click Save & Publish.

Let users turn on/off the notification about their upcoming out of office

The last part requires users to fill in the information about their upcoming out of office periods and (optionally) who will be their substitute when they are away. That’s how a user does it:

1. Sign in to user.codetwo.com with your Microsoft 365 credentials.
2. Fill in the information in the following fields (Fig. 19.):
   • out of office soon? (applies to the Method 1 only) – type yes to start adding the note about an upcoming out of office period to your signature(s),
   • Upcoming out of office – provide the period in the future when you will not be available at work.
   • Substitute email – provide an email address of a person/team that can be contacted during your absence.
3. Click Save & update. The changes are applied immediately.

Fig. 19. Filling in custom attributes used for informing about upcoming out of office plans.

See also

How to set up consistent & branded out of office replies - see how to make sure your OOF replies are not only informative, but also help you promote your brand among external recipients.