UPDATE: This article was updated on July 18, 2019
Back in the day, when Exchange 2016 was released, OWA was replaced with a brand new and shiny Outlook on the Web. A few years later, Outlook on the Web is still called OWA by most people, but at the same time, the NEW Outlook on the Web, available as optional for some time, becomes the default experience for Office 365 users.
If you haven’t had a chance to set up a new email signature in either of Outlooks on the Web yet, just follow the steps below to learn more. Mind that in the new Outlook on the Web, the path to the email signature settings has changed.
- Set up an email signature in the NEW Outlook on the Web (Office 365)
- Set up an email signature in Outlook on the Web (Exchange 2016 & Exchange 2019)
Set up email signature in the new Outlook on the Web
The layout of the new email signature editor in the new OWA has changed, although, its functions are primarily the same. Two buttons were added: format painter and the quote.
- Log in to your Office 365 account and go to Outlook, or use the direct link to the new OWA.
- Next, open the settings by clicking the gear icon in the top-right corner and click View all Outlook settings on the bottom of the pop-up window:
- In the Compose and reply settings category you can create or edit your email signature, and choose whether it should appear automatically in your messages. If no checkbox is chosen, you will be able to add the signature manually. This settings windows should also be accessible by the following link: https://outlook.office365.com/mail/options/mail/messageContent
- Instead of creating your signature from scratch, you can use the free email signature generator to quickly create a well-formatted email signature and paste it into the OWA editor.
Set up an email signature in Outlook on the Web
- Log in to your Outlook on the Web account and go to the Mail app. Below you can see two examples of the apps view: in Office 365 and Exchange 2016 OWA.
And Exchange 2016 OWA:
- Then, go to the settings (it’s a gear icon at the top right-corner of the screen) and click Mail (Office 365) or Options (Exchange 2016).
- On the left pane, extend the Mail section, then Layout and select Email signature.
- To make signature appearing in every new email message, check the Automatically include my signature on new messages I compose box. Then, compose your email signature using available formatting tools. You can also compose your signature within an email signature generator and then paste it to Outlook on the web’s editor.
- Once your signature has been created, hit the Save button so that all changes take effect.
- Go back to your main Mail view and click the plus icon next to the New button or click the arrow and select Email message.
- Your signature should be already applied to a newly opened message.
That’s it! Now you do not have to waste time on creating a signature every time you write a new email. Your signature will be already there.
If you want to change your email signature just follow the above steps again.
Central email signature management
While the method above is a quick and easy way to set email signatures in OWA, it has some drawbacks (For more information on this topic see Problems and risks of email signatures set up by end users). If you want to ensure that every mail is well-branded and includes all the details you require, you should manage email signatures centrally, from one place. See the links below to learn how to do this natively.
- How to set up email disclaimers on Exchange Server
- How to create company-wide email signatures and disclaimers in Office 365
Limitations of the native email signatures solution
The native methods of central email signature management can help you unify email signatures in your organization. Sadly, this approach is still not perfect, as it lacks some significant features. To mention a few:
- Placing the signature directly under the latest reply or forward,
- Including inline images in email signatures (so that they do not show as attachments),
- Viewing email signatures in the Sent Items folder,
- Including individual users’ photos,
- Removing empty lines from signatures (e.g. if a user misses an attribute)
If you are looking for a solution which overcomes all those limitations, you have to use a third party tool, like CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365 (for Office 365) and CodeTwo Exchange Rules (for Exchange Server).
Suggested reading
How do I add a signature in Windows 10 mail programme Outlook?
Hi Göran,
To set up a signature in Windows 10 Mail app, follow the steps below:
1. In the Windows Mail app, go to Settings (the cog icon)>Options.
2. Then, go to the Signature section where you can compose your email signature. Make sure the Use an email signature option is ON.
3. Your signature should appear automatically while creating a new email message.
However, as far as I know, the signature editor in Windows 10 Mail app does not allow formatting or adding images.
Hope this helps!
What you said is correct Milena. I have the Windows 10 Mail app and adding images in the signature is not allowed. I don’t know why they removed such a nice feature.
How do I include logo, that is “moving”. I have the signature in .html file
Hi Marie,
Do you mean an animated logo? If that is the case, add the logo the way you would add a standard picture. It is easiest done using the signature editor, like in the instructions above. Just click insert pictures inline and point to the location of your animated gif file.
In Office 365 webmail, can I use an automatic signature only sometimes when I choose, rather than “always when replying” or “always when composing”?
Hi Michael,
You can add the signature only sometimes if you like. To do so, do not check any of the options you mentioned. Then, while composing an email, click the … symbol next to the discard button and choose Add a signature from the list. It is not automatic, but it will give you a chance to add the signature only when you want.
Is it possible to set up multiple email signatures because I can only seem to set up one
Hi Ross,
Outlook on the Web lets you set up only one email signature at a time. To set up more, you can connect your account to Outlook.
How to make the social media linkage work If I just copy/paste your signature template to the web outlook?
Hi,
The easiest way would be to highlight a social icon the same way you would highlight a chunk of text. Then, click More > Insert hyperlink in the editor’s ribbon and insert links to the according social media profile. Repeat for the rest of icons and you are done. You can also use the email signature generator if the template you have chosen is also in the generator.
How do you create an email link and phone link if you’re using 365 Outlook for web?
Hi Tara,
To create a link, click the Add hyperlink button and in the field in which you normally paste an URL, type mailto:YourEmailAddress for an email link and tel:YourNumber for a phone link.
Thank you. This was very helpful.
I followed these instructions and it looks great on my end when I start a new email. When someone gets the email the photos come up as gibberish text making the body of the email extremely long.
How can I insert a banner with a link to an intranet/internet page in the signature in outlook365. Simply copying it is not working.
Thank you.
Hello Johan,
Do you mean that when you paste the banner it does not appear or that clicking the banner in a signature does not lead you to the page?
If there is no link on the banner, highlight the banner and click the Insert hyperlink button and enter the URL of your choice.
If the banner does not appear altogether, use the Insert picture option first, and then follow the step I mentioned above.
Dear Sir
Kindly note that i make my signature from other web and now its make big problem for me , i cant delete there signature due its automatically shown and even i make new outlook email its also show ,
really i need your help , its make big problem to me with my boss
Could you explain what you mean by “the other web”? If you are using Outlook and there is a signature which shows automatically, you should be able to turn it off in the settings. Go to File > Options > Mail > Signatures and turn the problematic signature off. If it is in OWA, follow the path in the article above and unmark the options which automatically add the signature. If neither of those solutions works, please specify which email client you use.
When changing email signature the chosen formatting such as bold/italics/colours are not showing despite them being saved in settings? How do I fix this?
To make sure I understand you correctly – in the signature editor, you can see all the formatting changes, whereas in the email message, you cannot? It might mean you are composing your messages in plain text format. Please check if there is the Switch to HTML option available under the More actions button.
I am having an issue with inserting my logo and my social media buttons. I am copying it from my desktop Outlook and pasting into my boss’ O365 version but it does not work, it just shows as strange boxes in that spot. I tried the “insert hyperlink” suggestion above but that does absolutely nothing. Any suggestions?
Hi Kathy,
The Insert hyperlink option will not help you with graphics – it is used to add hyperlinks. If you copy the signature from Outlook signature editor, you might want to try copying the signature from an actual email. If this does not work, simply use the Insert pictures inline option in the OWA signature editor to replace those strange boxes with actual pictures.
I’m having trouble with OWA changing the size of the signature image. I have the images sized correctly, but when I add it by either pasting or inserting an image it gets very large and sometimes blurry. No matter how small I resize the image in an editing program OWA makes it huge in the signature box. I cannot resize within the signature box. Can you help me resolve this?
Hi Adrienne,
One way to resolve issues like that is to compose the signature in HTML with the right width and height tags and then copy the signature to OWA. You can use one of the signature templates from our free email signature generator to make this job easier.
Hi, we have a shared mailbox The signatures are defined in both (outlook + owa) but in the Internet mail (owa) the signature is not saved correctly. Is it possible to overcome this? If so – how?
Do you mean the signature is not added to emails? Or that you get an error when you try to save the signature in OWA?
One way to make sure that the correct email signature is applied every time would be to add the signature on the server level. Then, it would not matter which email client you use to send emails. How to create company-wide email signatures and disclaimers in Office 365
THANK YOUUUU
Made my life sooo much easier!
I have added my photo as a thumbnail to my signature, but it is huge. I am trying to just delete it from my signature and can’t seem to make it go away. How do I delete or resize my photo in my signature?
Hi Jennifer,
You can (and should) use a graphics editor to crop and resize your photo before adding it to the signature. Generally, people are not happy when they get a 1MB+ sized emails just because there is a photo in the email signature. The next step is to add width and height parameters to your img element in HTML. If you are not familiar with HTML code, you can use our free email signature generator, which will take care of the formatting for you.
How can I use HTML for a signature using Outlook on the Web?
It always just shows the code as text instead of rendering the HTML.
There is no option for entering code or file. It is just a WYSIWYG editor,
Hi Mark,
Currently, there is no way to paste HTML code directly to the Outlook on the Web’s signature editor. If you have HTML code which is not rendered, you can save it in an HTML file, open the file in a browser, copy the signature and, finally, paste it into the signature editor.