Creating and editing signatures

CodeTwo Email Signatures for Email Clients enables definition of policies that include signatures to outgoing messages sent via four types of email clients: Outlook, OWA (2007 / 2010 / 2013 / 2016), Office 365 and Google Apps (G Suite). Signatures for each type of policy can be defined directly within the program using the built-in Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor. Additionally, apart from creating signatures from scratch, this tool lets you also make use of the ready-made templates included in the Signature/Disclaimer Template Library.

This article contains the following sections:

• Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor
• Signature/Disclaimer Template Library

Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor

CodeTwo Email Signatures for Email Clients comes with the built-in Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor which allows for a quick and easy edition of new or existing signatures. To enter the editor, click the Edit button in the Edit policy policy edition window (Fig. 1.).

Fig. 1. Policy edition window.

This action will trigger the Editor to open (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor.

This article contains the following sections:

• Editor's menu - via this menu you create a new signature template, load locally saved templates to the Editor or export the existing templates to the library
• Editor's tabs - available signature template formats
• Properties window - via this window you can adjust basic settings of the selected entry in the template
• Editor's Toolbar - options used to configure the content of the signature's template

Editor's menu

Signature / Disclaimer Template Editor menu can be opened by right-clicking the C2 logo in the upper left corner of the Editor's window. The options found in the menu: New, Export, Import, are used to create a new signature template, import existing signatures from a local drive and load them directly to the program or export the existing signature to the Template Library (Fig. 3.).

Fig. 3. The Editor's Import/Export menu.

Editor's tabs

The editor tabs can be found above the toolbar (Fig. 4.). Switching between the tabs allows you to edit all three available formats of your signature - HTML, RTF and Plain Text. One of the tabs is called Library. Choosing it, lets you use the collection of ready-made signature templates (including the predefined ones that come along with the program) and implement them in the signatures.

Fig. 4. Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor tabs.

Note that the choice of formats the signature can be created in, depends on the selected policy type. The table below shows which formats are supported by the particular policies' types:

Policy type	Format supported
Outlook	HTML RTF Plain Text
OWA 2007	HTML Plain Text
OWA 2010/2013/2016	HTML Plain Text
Office 365	HTML Plain Text
Google Apps (G Suite)	HTML

Properties window

This pane displays the basic information (like size, image paths, etc.) about selected tables or images (Fig. 5.). You can also use the options included in this window to personalize the selected items.

Fig. 5. Object properties window in the Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor.

Editor's toolbar

Using the toolbar, you can access all available options for creating/editing a signature. To make the editor more user-friendly, the toolbar has been divided into the following tabs:

• HTML, available tools are visible in Fig. 6.

  Fig. 6. Toolbar view in the HTML tab.

• RTF, available tools are visible in Fig. 7.

  Fig. 7. Toolbar view in the RTF tab.

  For OWA, Office 365 and Google Apps (G Suite) policy types the RTF format tab is not available. This format is not supported by OWA, Office 365 and Google Apps (G Suite).

• Plain Text, available tools are visible in Fig. 8.

  Fig. 8. Toolbar view in the TXT tab.

  For Google Apps policy type the Plain Text format tab is not available. This format is not supported by Google Apps (G Suite).

The table below shows which options included in the Editor are available for the particular formats of the signature / disclaimer templates:

Editor's Sections	HTML	RTF	PLAIN TEXT
Actions	Convert to RTF / Plain Text	Convert to HTML / Plain Text	Convert to HTML / RTF
View	Designer Source	X Unavailable	X Unavailable
Font	Font type Font size Bold Italic Underline Strikethrough Clear formatting Font color Text highlight color	Font type Font size Bold Italic Underline Strikethrough Clear formatting Font color Text highlight color	X Unavailable
Paragraph	Align left Align center Align right Justify Bulleted list Numbered list Decrease indent Increase indent	Align left Align center Align right Justify Bulleted list Numbered list Decrease indent Increase indent	X Unavailable
Insert	Picture (from local disk / web server / local library) Table Hyperlink Horizontal line Special character Dynamic Field {rt} Remove Text Tag	Picture (from local disk / web server / local library) Table Hyperlink Horizontal line Special character Dynamic Field {rt} Remove Text Tag	Dynamic Field {rt} Remove Text Tag

The examples below describe all sections of the Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor along their most significant features:

• Actions
• View
• Font
• Paragraph
• Insert

Note that each format of the signature has the limited number of sections applicable to the particular format only (these sections are shown in the table above).

Actions

This section (Fig. 9.) contains two vital features:

• Save & close - once you create any content, you need to save it via the Save & close button. Otherwise, the template will not be saved.
• Convert - this feature enables conversion of templates from one format to another. Thanks to this feature, you will not have to create templates for other formats from scratch but convert the existing ones with one click. The rest of options available here are quite similar to the standard MS Word type: you may undo and redo introduced changes, cut, copy and paste content.

Fig. 9. The Actions section in the toolbar.

View

The View section (Fig. 10.) consists of two buttons:

• Designer - enables working on the signature in the standard editor view
• Source - enables viewing and working directly with the source of the signature's content

Fig. 10. The View section in the toolbar.

Font

This section (Fig. 11.) enables operations on the content of the signature, such as font type, font size, font color, background color, etc.

Fig. 11. The Font section in the toolbar.

Paragraph

Within this section (Fig. 12.), you can decide on the layout of the signature's content e.g. add bullet points, justify text, decide about spacing, etc.

Fig. 12. The Paragraph section in the toolbar.

Insert

This section (Fig. 13.) is used to insert objects into the content of signatures / disclaimers.

Fig. 13. The Insert section in the toolbar.

Within this section, you may insert objects such as:

• Picture - this feature enables inserting images to signatures / disclaimers from different resources applicable to different types of policies (Fig. 14.).
   

  Fig. 14. Choice of locations for inserting pictures to signatures / disclaimers.

  For Outlook policy type, you can choose an image either from a local disk (recommended), a web server (Fig. 15.) or the Image Library. 
   

  Fig. 15. Inserting picture from a local disk / a web server.

  Please consult the table below to learn differences between images added from web server and from local disk:
   

  Online images Downloaded directly from server	Embedded images Included in every message
  Advantages
  You can track who received your messages by analyzing web traffic Images can be changed in existing signatures, without touching the Administration Panel Size of final message is always acceptable	Recipients never get prompted for downloading images Images are immediately visible in a message You can be sure that the message will look properly, even during a server failure
  Disadvantages
  Recipients are often asked to download remote resources Some filters may recognize your messages as SPAM In the case of server failure or weak Internet connection your images will not be displayed	Size of a final message might be too large You cannot update images in messages that were sent

  If you select to pick an image from the Image Library, the Image Library Manager opens (Fig. 16.).
   

  Fig. 16. The Image Library Manager opened.

  The manager is divided into three sections: Categories, Pictures and Selected picture's preview. This feature lets you add custom images from any location (e.g. local folder, shared network folder) into the library, group these images into categories and preview selected images along their details (filename and format, size and dimensions).
  
  For all other policy types including OWA 2007 / 2010 / 2013 / 2016, Office 365 and Google Apps (G Suite), you can only insert a picture from a web server (Fig. 17.). While choosing the URL of the web server, you can also define a tooltip and a hyperlink for the chosen image.
   

  Fig. 17. Inserting picture from a web server.

  In regard to inserting images from a local disk or a web server, you can also adjust the appearance of images before inserting them into signatures / disclaimers using dedicated tab in the Insert Picture editor (Fig. 18.). The editor lets you define a size of images (either with pixels or percent) and their layout (alignment, border thickness, horizontal/vertical space).
   

  Fig. 18. Adjusting the appearance of an image.

• Table - this feature enables a complex definition of tables. Thanks to this feature, you will be able to add a table directly to the composition and define its size layout, borders (Fig. 19.) and the background color or picture (Fig. 20.):
   

  Fig. 19. Opening the Insert table editor.

  Fig. 20. The Insert table editor options.

• Hyperlink - via this button you can insert hyperlinks to the content of a signature / disclaimer. Additionally, this feature (Fig. 21.) enables you adding the display text and the tooltip to the selected URL address and set the color of the hyperlink via its configuration window:
   

  Fig. 21. The Insert hyperlink editor.

• Dynamic field - this feature enables adding Active Directory variables directly into the signature / disclaimer. Once you choose the particular dynamic field, it will reserve a place within a signature / disclaimer template and fill it with a value specified in the attributes of the particular user's account in the Active Directory database after processing by the program.

Fig. 22. Choosing the dynamic content.

Below is the table containing the list of all default dynamic fields available in the program. Therefore, the table shows the dynamic fields in terms of their type and availability in the particular policy type and the message template formats.

Dynamic field type	Dynamic field name	Policy type	Template format
Message sender	{City}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Company}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Country}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Department}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Description}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Display name}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365 Google Apps (G Suite)	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Email}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365 Google Apps (G Suite)	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Email as link}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365 Google Apps (G Suite)	HTML RTF
	{Fax}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{First name}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Home phone}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Initials}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{IP phone}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Last name}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Mobile}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Notes}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Office}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{P.O. Box}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Pager}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Phone}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Photo}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016	HTML
	{Postal code}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{State}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Street}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Title}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Web page}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{Web page as link}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365 Google Apps (G Suite)	HTML RTF
	{ExchAttr1-15}*	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365	HTML RTF Plain Text
Dynamic content	{Rotating image}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365 Google Apps (G Suite)	HTML RTF
	{Rotating text}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365 Google Apps (G Suite)	HTML RTF Plain Text
General	{Current Date/Time}	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365 Google Apps (G Suite)	HTML RTF Plain Text
	{QR Code image}**	Outlook OWA 2007 OWA 2010/2013/2016 Office 365 Google Apps (G Suite)	HTML

*Refers to Office 365 policy only. In order for the program to correctly resolve Exchange Attributes on Office 365, you need to configure them in the appropriate way. Follow this Knowledge Base article to learn more.

**Once you choose to insert the QR code dynamic field, its configuration window will display (Fig. 23.). Thanks to this option, you will be able to generate a QR code image directly within the program, containing bear text value or inserting Active Directory variables.

Fig. 23. QR code image dynamic field's configuration window.

The QR code image configuration window is divided into four sections:

• Size of image - here you define the actual size of an image in pixels; this section additionally shows how many chars the image may contain.
• Add dynamic field - instead of typing the dynamic field manually, you can use this button to automatically insert the desirable dynamic field by choosing it from the provided list.
• Text area - here you can type the text value that will be used to generate the image. Note that if you automatically insert the dynamic fields using the Add dynamic field button, they will also appear within this area. Furthermore, each dynamic field's properties may be changed here by right-clicking it and choosing properties. Additionally, once you save changes and open up the created image, the properties of the dynamic field will be available only via the Properties button.
• Preview - shows how your QR code image will look like.
• Remove Text Tag - as some users may not have the attributes of particular dynamic fields filled in Active Directory, it's worth to use the {rt} Remove Text tag to avoid adding the empty dynamic field to signatures / disclaimers (Fig. 24.).
   

  Fig. 24. Choosing Remove Text Tag.

  Thanks to this solution, if such user's mail is processed by the program, the empty dynamic field will be removed along the empty line from the signature / disclaimer keeping the professional look of the sent mail. If you want to remove the specific empty dynamic fields from the signatures / disclaimers, embrace the chosen dynamic field with Remove Text Tags. Note that if you insert RT Tags at the beginning and the end of the same row, the empty dynamic field will be removed but the empty space will remain. The example below shows how to insert the RT Tag to have the empty line removed along the dynamic content:
   

  Regards, [First name] [Last name] [Company] [Department] Phone: [Phone] {RT} Mobile: [Mobile] {\RT} Email: [Email]

  Regards, [First name] [Last name] [Company] [Department] Phone: [Phone] {RT} Mobile: [Mobile]{\RT} Email: [Email]

Office 365 signature size limitation

When saving a signature template for Office 365 policy you may be presented with a pop-up window similar to the one below (Fig. 25.). All Microsoft's Exchange Server OWA webmails restrict signature template size. However, in the case of Exchange Online (which hosts Office 365), contrary to Exchange On-premises, the maximum size for the signature template is fixed and set to 8KB. The window presented below is displayed when your template is bigger than 7.2KB (7168B). A margin of 10% (~737B) has been set to account for unpopulated placeholders that might be used in the signature. You can ignore the warning and attempt to update the signatures anyway but be aware that this may result in some parts of signatures going missing or not getting updated at all, if the signature was in fact 8KB or bigger. For the convenience of diagnosing such issues, the software keeps records of the size of each signature it uploaded, in the log files.

Fig. 25. Signature size warning.

Signature/Disclaimer Template Library

The Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor can be used to store the custom made signature templates in the Template Library. The Library also provides the selection of ready-made signature templates that come along with the program. To open up the Template Library, select the Library tab right above the toolbar in the main window of the Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor (Fig. 26.).

Fig. 26. Signature/Disclaimer Template Library tab.

The left pane displays a list of available templates. When a certain template is selected, its preview displays in the right pane. To load a template, select it from the list and then click the Load selected template button (Fig. 27.).

Fig. 27. Loading a ready-made template.

To remove a template from the Library, select it from the list and then click the Delete selected template button. (Fig. 28.).

Fig. 28. Deleting the template from the library.

You can also delete or rename the sample templates using their context menu. Right-click the particular template and choose Rename or Delete (Fig. 29.)

Fig. 29. The context menu of sample templates in the library.

Once a template is loaded, it will be visible in the Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor (Fig. 30.).

Fig. 30. Example template loaded from the library.

To create a new user-created template, import or export template from the Library, click the C2 icon in the left upper corner of the Editor and select one of the available options (Fig. 31.).

Fig. 31. Template editor's context menu.

See next:

Forcing policy update time - this article describes how to force the policies update time.