Perhaps you already know what works for you when it comes to email signatures in your company. But do you know what will definitely NOT work, while you are persistently trying to achieve it? This article will give you some insight into the Exchange Server 2013 and 2016 limitations related to email signature management in your organization.
Note: For the purpose of this article, I assume that your company uses Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 or 2016 that controls internal and external email flow. The second assumption is that you create an email signature directly on the server side (not within an email client e.g. Microsoft Outlook).
Limitations of Exchange 2013/2016 email signatures
If you are trying to create email signatures directly on the server side and you have noticed that they do not work as you want them to, perhaps you encountered one of the Exchange email signature limitations. Let’s see then, what you CAN’T do when using native signature solutions:
Limitation 1: Email signature cannot be inserted right under the latest reply/forward messages
- What you want: Have every email signature nicely added after a reply or forward.
- What you get: Piles of email signatures stored at the end of every email conversation.
Limitation 2: Exchange does not remove lines from your signature even if they are not filled with Active Directory data
- What you want: Get an email signature with all contact details nicely organized no matter a user has all Active Directory details available or not.
- What you get: Insupportable empty space in the middle of contact details in email signatures because some of users do not have phone number value available in Active Directory.
Limitation 3: Exchange does not provide a GUI editor but a harsh template editor where you need to code your email signature in pure HTML code
- What you want: Create a nice HTML email signature with photos, social media buttons and hyperlinks.
- What you get: Messy email signature as you where supposed to only design a professional email signature, not to learn HTML coding.
Limitation 4: Exchange does not allow for embedding images in the signature
- What you want: Be sure that your recipients will see a professional email signature with a correctly displayed company logo and your brand new marketing banner.
- What you get: Your recipient can only see “red crosses” instead of images and does not have time to download those graphics to notice and marvel over your impressive email signature.
Limitation 5: Exchange does not display email signatures in user’s Sent Items folder
- What you want: View email signatures in the Sent Items folder to make sure a recipient got the email with your signature added.
- What you get: No email signatures in emails in the Sent Items folder to check whether signature was added correctly and if it was added at all.
How to overcome the Exchange Server limitations?
It is understandable that you get annoyed when your email signatures do not look as expected. All in all, every company would want to be perceived as a professional and serious business partner, but it can barely be achieved when recipients get emails stamped with sloppy email signatures.
To overcome Exchange limitations, there are email signature management tools like the ones from CodeTwo. They extend native Exchange functionalities providing you with powerful tools to help you outgo your competition – at least when it comes to email signatures.
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