No need to use a third-party program.
For years there have been numerous products on the market for Exchange Server that automatically add signatures to outbound emails.
These products traditionally need to run on the Exchange Server and retrieve information from Active Directory. There is also usually a PC-based console on which to create the signatures and administer the system.
These solutions also exist for Exchange Online in Office 365, but it is possible to add outbound signatures using Exchange Online itself. All it takes is a little bit of reading to understand the variables involved.
Before starting it is important to have your user information up to date in the Office 365 administration portal. It is assumed that first name and last name are fine, however if you want to automate things such as phone numbers and address details then these need to be present in the user properties.
The first step is to log into the Microsoft Online Portal and select the option to Manage Exchange Online settings.
You’ll then need to select the Mail Control menu option which will open up in the Rules sub-section.
At this point we begin defining our rule. Select the options as per the screenshot on the right.
Specify the variables you want to use from the following list:
DisplayName
FirstName
Initials
LastName
Office
PhoneNumber
OtherPhoneNumber
Street
POBox
City
State
ZipCode
Country
UserLogonName
HomePhoneNumber
OtherHomePhoneNumber
PagerNumber
MobileNumber
FaxNumber
OtherFaxNumber
Notes
Title
Department
Company
Manager
CustomAttribute1 to CutomAttribute15
This will show up as blank text, however if you have any HTML or CSS skills you can use these to improve the aesthetics. Also linking to graphics such as company logos is supported – however you may find that the recipients company may block calling external files within an email.
Select OK, and the rule is applied immediately.
The problem is if you don’t set an exception your email signature or disclaimer will be added to each additional reply. So going back to the Exchange Online rule, open up the signature rule you created and select More Options.
We’re now able to add an exception which allows the rule to be ignored if the email is a reply.
Under the exception menu select The subject includes… and add “RE:” to the field.
Press OK, save the rule, and now the rule isn’t applied on a reply.
Obviously the signature I’ve created in this example is quite plain, so it would be a good idea to get a web designer involved who can write the relevant HTML and CSS to make the signature appear more to your liking.
You now have fully functional automatic signatures! No need to configure Outlook for every new user, and a great way to keep a standard signature across all users.
Loryan Strant is a Microsoft Office 365 MVP (Most Valuable Professional). Follow him on Twitter @TheCloudMouth.
