Microsoft Outlook is the go-to email client for most businesses and enterprises. This is no surprise, as it has been around for decades and managed to become the ‘gold standard’ of this software category in the meantime. Outlook has evolved a lot since its first appearance, leading to its supposedly final form, “Outlook 365”. In this article, I’m going to quickly explain what Outlook 365 stands for and how to set up email signatures in this Microsoft-365-powered email client.

• Outlook for Microsoft 365 vs Outlook on the web (OWA)
  • Signature setup in Outlook for Microsoft 365
  • Signature setup in Outlook on the web
  • Limitations
• Central management of email signatures
  • Native solutions
  • Limitations
  • Overcoming limitations with a third-party tool

Outlook 365: Outlook for Microsoft 365 vs Outlook on the web (OWA)

It might come as a bit of a surprise, but officially, there’s no such thing as “Outlook 365”. There are two Outlook versions which this name may relate to: Outlook for Microsoft 365 and Outlook on the web. Both come as a part of the Microsoft 365 subscription, which is probably the reason why so many users came to name them “Outlook 365”. This can be very confusing, especially since the name doesn’t explain whether the user means the app installed locally or the webmail version. The name stuck nonetheless and nowadays can be found all over the Internet, including tech community forums and specialist websites.

To be precise, Outlook for Microsoft 365 is the version of the app installed on desktop or laptop computers. It’s the most recent iteration, originating from a long line of apps included in Microsoft Office suites and standalone programs, so you might say it’s the longest known, as it brings to the table all the features and improvements implemented over the years.

Outlook on the web, on the other hand, is the webmail version of Outlook, allowing you to access your email account through your web browser. Besides being part of a Microsoft 365 subscription, it’s also available for organizations using on-premises Microsoft Exchange Server 2016 & 2019. By the way, the name “Outlook on the web” is being used interchangeably with “OWA”. The abbreviation actually stands for “Outlook Web App”, which was the official name of the app used with Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 & 2010, formerly called “Outlook Web Access” in case of Microsoft Exchange Server versions older than 2010. The biggest difference in comparison to Outlook for Microsoft 365 is that you don’t have to install anything on your computer or mobile device to use Outlook on the web.

Learn more about the differences between Outlook versions on this Microsoft’s site

How to set up email signatures

Now, let’s dive in and have a look at individual processes of setting up email signatures in Outlook for Microsoft 365 and Outlook on the web.

Outlook for Microsoft 365

Follow the steps below to set up an email signature in the desktop Outlook 365:

1. Open the Outlook for PC app from the Start menu or from the taskbar.

2. In Outlook, click File > Options.

3. In the Outlook Options window select the Mail tab and click Signatures in the Compose messages section.

Note: Another way to start configuring your signatures is to open a New Email message, click Signature in the Include group and again Signatures.

4. In the Signatures and Stationery window, click New and provide a name for your signature.

5. Create your signature in the Edit signature section. Use available formatting tools to modify its appearance.

Note: The formatting tools offered in the Outlook signature editor are quite basic. If you wish to achieve a more sophisticated and polished design, you can use a free email signature generator to create an advanced signature template. Simply choose Outlook as the target email platform, select one of the many available templates, adjust it to your needs and there you go. Your signature is ready to be copied and pasted into the Outlook editor.

6. The Choose default signature section can be used to define which email account should get the signature (in case there is more than one email account set up in Outlook), and whether it should be added to new messages and/or replies/forwards. Once you are done, save changes by clicking OK.

7. In case you selected your signature to be treated as default for new messages, you will see it every time you compose a new email.

Note: If you didn’t select your signature as the default one, you will still be able to add it manually every time you write a new email. It will be available after clicking the Signature button in the Include group.

That’s all there is to it. If you wish to create more Outlook signatures, simply follow the steps from point 3 onwards. You can create as many of them as you need – they will appear on a list visible after clicking the aforementioned Signature button.

Outlook on the web

The steps required to configure email signatures in the ”Outlook 365” webmail client are a bit different than in case of the desktop app:

1. Open your Outlook on the web either by selecting the Outlook App in your Office home page, or by using this direct link.

2. Click the Gear icon in the top-right corner and select View all Outlook settings.

3. In the navigation pane on the left, go to Mail > Compose and reply. You can also use this direct link to reach the signature editor panel. Use the provided editor box to enter your signature text, apply formatting as well as to add images or links.

Note: If you wish to achieve a more refined appearance, you can use a free email signature generator with lots of advanced signature templates that you can fill in with all the necessary details and copy into the editor box in Outlook on the web.

4. The two drop-down menus under the signature editor let you decide whether the created signature should be added automatically to your new messages and replies/forwards respectively.

Note: It is possible to create and use multiple signatures for a single mailbox – similarly to the Outlook desktop client. Just click the New signature button after you have saved your first signature to create another one.

Once you are done, save changes and close the settings window.

5. If you select your signature(s) in one of or in both drop-down menus, it will appear in the compose message window as you type your email in the appropriate scenario. In case you left the menus’ default settings (No signature), you will still be able to add your signature manually while composing email.

Limitations of signatures set up by users

As you can see in the above guides, setting up a professional email signature is a fully manual process. From the company’s viewpoint, it comes with some limitations and risks:

• If a company cares about their brand and wants to have unified look of their emails, the process needs to be repeated individually for or by everyone within the organization. It’s highly time-consuming, especially when you consider some less proficient users who will require support to properly apply their signatures. Not to mention the recurring efforts in case of any signature updates in the future.
• The more users requiring signatures, the higher the risk of incomplete or outdated data, inconsistent design, missing legally required information (no disclaimers or company data).
• Creating original, visually appealing (and working properly across different email clients and devices) signatures requires advanced HTML and CSS skills.
• Nothing stops users from using wrong personal information or applying custom layout.
• And more.

Being aware of those limitations, you may want to change the way email signatures are managed in your organization. Instead of leaving this task to users, many companies decide to manage email signatures centrally.

Central management of email signatures

Building and promoting a company’s brand is a continuous process and every employee interacting with customers or business partners needs to be seen as a brand ambassador. Email correspondence takes up a considerable part of that professional interaction, therefore email signatures should not be underestimated. They are a powerful way to convey the sender’s professionalism and tell the recipients whether the organization cares about its image.

Managing email signatures centrally ensures that they are kept under control and stay up-to-date, consistent in design and aesthetic and are personalized across the whole company. This way, email signatures can be carefully crafted (and implemented organization-wide) to send a strong message that helps the brand, promotes offers and supports the business.

It also allows for automation of a rather unexciting task, letting employees focus on their own work instead. Not to mention getting rid of issues connected to user carelessness or lack of technical skills.

Central management via Exchange Online

Exchange Online allows for central management of email signatures and disclaimers for the entire Microsoft 365 organization. It is possible to set up email signatures and legal disclaimers, which are added to email messages that enter or leave your organization. To achieve this, it is necessary to create a mail flow rule (with the Append the disclaimer action specified) that adds the required information to email messages. And since mail flow rules may include many different conditions and exceptions, it is also possible to create separate signature templates for different departments or even specific users.

However, the process might turn out to be troublesome for someone doing this for the first time. That is why we’ve prepared a short video guide explaining:

• How to set up an email signature rule in the Exchange admin center.
• Where to get the HTML code with Active Directory placeholders for the signature template.
• How the global email signatures work from the user’s perspective.
• What the limitations of signature rules are.
• What tricks are possible to make the signature-adding-rule more useful.

Besides the Exchange admin center, it is also possible to achieve similar results using PowerShell and VBScript. The immediate drawback of these two methods is that the former only works for Outlook on the web (OWA) and the latter only for the desktop client.

Limitations

Although those management methods are better than setting up all email clients separately, they are still not perfect. They come with a lot of limitations:

• Lack of a dedicated, user-friendly HTML editor.
• No automatic users’ photos in email signatures.
• Delegation of signature management is impossible.
• Signatures don’t show up directly under replies/forwards.
• It’s not possible to use embedded images.
• Signatures not visible while typing or in Sent Items.
• Blank spaces in signatures in case of missing Active Directory values.
• No Active Directory attribute picker.
• Forcing email format is not available.
• No multitenancy support.

The above list is intended to highlight the constraints most commonly faced by businesses and as such is not exhaustive. Read this article to learn more about the limitations of native functionalities

Central management via CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365

While the above list seems a long one, overcoming all those limitations is easier than you might think. Although they cannot be fixed natively, a dedicated tool, such as CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365, can solve all related issues and do much more.

The service reinvents handling email signatures in Microsoft 365 organizations:

• Manage all signatures centrally
  You can use a single rule to apply personalized email signatures to everyone in a Microsoft 365 organization. Signatures are added to emails sent from every device and email client. You can adjust signature templates to look differently for chosen departments or users.
• WYSIWYG HTML template editor
  Easily create advanced email signatures that work on all email clients and mobile devices, automatically convert your signatures into HTML, Plain Text and RTF formats, insert Active Directory placeholders, edit signature layout, change colors and fonts, insert images, logos or Microsoft 365 users’ photos, etc.
• Signatures visible while composing emails and in user’s Sent Items folders
  CodeTwo Email Signatures for Office 365 is the first email signature management software for Microsoft 365 that allows you to preview signatures that will be added in the cloud and to display signatures in users’ Sent Items folders across various devices and email clients.
• Support for AAD fields and custom attributes
  Besides the fields available in Azure Active Directory, you can add custom attributes that are not available in Azure AD, or you can let your end users update their signature information themselves (without impact on the original values stored in AAD).
• Embedded logos and images
  Add company logo and marketing banners as inline attachments. This way, images are not blocked by recipients’ email clients on receiving an email.
• User photos in email signatures
  Add Microsoft 365 users’ photos to email signatures.
• And a whole lot more.

See the product’s page to learn more and test the tool for free or watch the following short video to learn why companies choose our software: