Quick guide to creating policies

The basic configuration of CodeTwo Email Signatures for Email Clients is very easy. Nevertheless, it is important to get familiar with a few details and settings required for its smooth and uninterrupted operation.

This article contains the following sections:

• Deploying policies
• Creating policies
• Distributing policies' settings
• Demonstration of the program

Deploying policies

While creating the policy, you will be asked to configure its deployment method first as the settings from the policy have to be distributed onto email clients (Outlook, OWA, Office 365, Google Apps / G Suite). CodeTwo Email Signatures for Email Clients uses two methods to accomplish that: Client Application or Central Updating Service. Depending on the policy type, the corresponding deployment mechanism needs to be defined.

Learn more about deploying policies via Central Updating Service (on the example of OWA 2010/2013/2016 policy)
Learn more about deploying policies via Client Applications (on the example of Outlook policy)

Creating policies

The policies contain sets of rules that manage the creation of signatures in a new mail message in Outlook, OWA, Office 365 and G Suite (formerly: Google Apps). Within a policy, you can define the users for whom the policy will be applied as well as design the signature that will be inserted to the messages of end-users. Certain aspects of the email body (font type, its size and color, theme etc.) can also be customized.

Learn more about creating and deploying policies

Distributing policies' settings

Once the policies including signatures along the deployment method are ready, their settings need to be distributed to email clients. If you are using the Central Updating Service for OWA 2010/2013/2016, Office 365 or G Suite (Google Apps) policies, neither the Administrator of the program nor the end-users won't have to do anything to obtain the settings yet have the signatures updated. The whole process is fully automated and handled centrally. On the other hand, if you are using Client Applications for Outlook or OWA 2007 policies, the Administrator can decide about the way the settings will be distributed and updated on email clients encompassed by the policy. This can be done either using Network shared folder or Settings Service. Either update method you choose, the settings will be updated automatically via Client Applications installed on each end-users machine.

Demonstration of the program

The example below shows how to create the OWA 2010/2013/2016 policy using CodeTwo Email Signatures for Email Clients.

To create a new OWA 2010/2013/2016 policy type, click the Add button in the Administration Panel of the program. The context menu with available policy types will display. Choose the OWA 2010/2013/2016 policy (Fig. 1.).

Fig. 1. Choosing a new OWA 2010/2013/2016 policy.

If the policy of this type is created for the first time, the Policy deployment must be configured before a policy configuration window opens. To configure the deployment method, choose if the deployment will be configured now or later (Fig. 2.). It is not possible to create the policy if the deployment of the chosen policy type is not configured.

Fig. 2. Enforcing the policy deployment configuration.

In the notification that opens, choose Yes and move on to configure the deployment (Fig. 3.).

Fig. 3. The policy deployment configuration window.

By default, the Deploy local OWA 2010/2013/2016 policies will be marked. Now click the Configure access link responsible for opening the wizard for setting up the connection with your on-premises Exchange Server (this is the server where the mailboxes you want the policy to be applied to reside).

Fig. 4. Enabling the policy deployment configuration.

The first step of the connection wizard window will display (Fig. 5.).

Fig. 5. Configuring Target server connection.

On the first screen of the wizard (Fig. 5.), choose the connection method to your server: you can either connect automatically using Autodiscover or manually.

In the next step, enter the Administrator's credentials (Fig. 6.) and move on to the verification step (Fig. 7.).

Fig. 6. Entering the Administrator's credentials.

Fig. 7. The verification step of the connection wizard.

Once the verification is succeeded, you may check the impersonation rights on the selected user's mailbox via the Test button located at the bottom of the window (Fig. 8.).

Fig. 8. Testing impersonation rights on users' mailboxes.

After configuring the deployment, the policy configuration window will display automatically (Fig. 9.).

Fig. 9. New policy configuration window.

The window contains multiple tabs which allow you to choose the end-users encompassed by the policy, design the signature template and configure all other settings modified by the policy:

In the first tab - General (Fig. 10.), name your policy and describe it. The description may include various information, such as usage cases of the particular policy.

Fig. 10. The edition policy view - General tab.

In the next tab, you need to define the list of end-users to which the particular policy will apply. Furthermore, you can also define here the exceptions from the users' list choosing the users to which the policy will not apply (Fig. 11.).

Fig. 11. The list of policy users and the exceptions from this list.

Note that users need to be chosen via the expandable context menu (Fig. 12.). Furthermore, the choice is restricted to: Active Directory User, Group or Organizational Unit. Moreover, if you choose to add the whole domain as the Organizational Unit, the policy will apply to all users within your organization regardless of their group membership.

Fig. 12. Choosing the OWA 2010/2013/2016 policy user.

Once you define the end-users of the policy, move on to create a signature that will be included in the message at the time the new email is being created. To start creating the signature, click the Edit button (Fig. 13.).

Fig. 13. Policy edition view - Signature template tab.

Note that by default, the options to deploy and include a new signature to the outgoing messages on OWA 2010/2013/2016 will be activated. It means that the signature will be automatically added to the list of signatures in OWA and included in each new email by default. If you don't want the signature to be either added to the list of available signatures or included in each new email, unmark the corresponding checkbox.

This will open the Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor (Fig. 14.).

Fig. 14. Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor.

The editor includes the set of tools that enable creation of a fully professional signature. For example, using the editor you can adjust the format, font of the signature, insert pictures, tables, hyperlinks or make use of the dynamic fields that will be filled with data pulled from Active Directory. Additionally, if you don't want to create a signature from scratch, you can also pick one of the ready-made templates from the Library. Click the Library tab, select the template and hit Load Template. The selected template will be loaded to the Editor (Fig. 15.). 

Fig. 15. The Signature/Disclaimer Template Editor with the signature loaded from the library.

After having your signature ready, you can also decide about the default email format and font of new messages created in the OWA clients encompassed by the policy. These two options are available within the last tab called Other (Fig. 16.). To enable them, mark the corresponding checkbox and choose your format (HTML, Plain Text) or adjust the email font (type, size, bold, italicize, underline, color).

Fig. 16. The Other tab.

Note that all options in the Other tab are switched off by default. Furthermore, these options have the direct impact on the OWA settings. It means that even though you disable them, all changes applied to your OWA will remain.

To finalize the creation of your policy, click the Finish button located in the Edit policy window. Next, save the newly created policy by clicking Save in the ribbon of the Administration Panel (Fig. 17.).

Fig. 17. Saving the newly created policy.

And that's all - from now on, all settings configured within the Administration Panel will be automatically distributed to clients.

See next:

Creating and deploying policies - you will learn here about creating and deploying all types of policies. Additionally, you will also read about the distribution methods of the Client Applications and check the answers to the most common issues associated with the configuration of the policies' deployment mechanism.