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Setting up a Corporate Signature

Within a company, you usually want to control the signatures that users are using when sending
mail outside of the company. Most companies want to include at least a “disclaimer” text, others
want to control the amount of contact details as well and still others want to control the entire look
and feel of the signature.

Outlook offers no direct means to do this since the Signature feature in Outlook is a client side
feature and thus users can create and modify their own signature. You can lock down the access
to the Signature feature by using Group Policies but that still doesn’t take away the issue of
creating/generating a standard signature in the first place and deploying it to the users.

This guide discusses the features that Exchange offers to create and manage signatures at server
level. Also, additional methods are being discussed to manage it without an Exchange server or
when using earlier versions of Exchange. Finally, an overview of 3rd party solutions is provided for
alternative solutions.
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Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 for Outlook.com and
Gmail
Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 do not directly offer features to set up managed signatures
and disclaimer text. A supported method is to use an SMTP transport event sink. Microsoft has Disable Conversation
provided the required code for this in order to achieve that via Visual Basic or VBScript. View in Outlook Web
App

Toolbox
Exchange 2007 Add to Favorites
Exchange 2007 has the Transport Rules feature which you can use to set up a default disclaimer Popular Add-ins
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for each outgoing email message. Attachment Save
Add to Outlook RSS
1. Open the Exchange Management Console. ABF Outlook Backup
Print this page
2. In Organization Configuration select Hub Transport and then select the Transport Rules tab. Mail Merge Toolkit
3. In the Actions Pane click New Transport Rule…
Email this page
Easy2Sync for Outlook
4. Name your rule and optionally add a Comment. For instance;
More
Name: Corporate disclaimer MAPILab Toolbox
Comment: This transport rule adds a standardized disclaimer text to all outgoing emails. DataNumen Outlook
5. Press Next. Repair
6. On the Conditions screen select the following 2 conditions;
Bells & Whistles for
from users inside or outside the organization
Outlook
sent to users inside or outside the organization
7. In the bottom pane, modify the conditions so that they read;
from users Inside the organization Polls
and sent to users Outside the organization Do you still use the Outlook Today feature?
8. Press Next.
9. In the Actions screen select the action; Yes, every day! Don't take it away!
append disclaimer text using font, size, color with separator and fall back to action if Yes, occassionally. Keep it please.
unable to apply.
10. In the bottom pane you can modify the conditions to your preference. Yes, but I can do without it.
Click on disclaimer text to set your default text. No, I stopped using it.
Note that the disclaimer text is Plain Text only so you can’t type HTML code. If you
No, never used it.
want to add a link, you’ll have to type it in full.
11. Once done, press Next. Outlook Today? Never heard of it before.

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/corporatesignatures.htm[5/30/2014 19:31:52]
Setting up a Corporate Signature | HowTo-Outlook

12. You can set any exception as you see fit. You can continue without any exceptions as well.
Vote
13. Press Next.
14. On the Create Rule screen you’ll see the PowerShell command that will be executed when
View Results
clicking the New button.
View Polls Archive
15. After pressing the New button the wizard has been completed and a summary is shown.
Assuming it completed successfully, your Transport Rule has been created and is active
now. Clicking Finish will close the New Transport Rule dialog.
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Disclaimer options in Exchange 2007
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Creating Signatures
Mail Merge
Exchange 2010
Exchange 2010 also has the Transport Rules feature just as Exchange 2007 but has support for Popular Tips
some additional customization as well. The most notable regarding signatures is that HTML code is Setting the Sent Items
now supported and that you can also use user information that has been stored in Active Directory folder for IMAP
to construct the signature dynamically. accounts in Outlook
2013
1. Open the Exchange Management Console.
2. In  Organization Configuration select Hub Transport and then select the Transport Rules tab. Links do not open: This
3. In the Actions Pane click New Transport Rule… operation has been
4. Name your rule and optionally add a Comment. For instance; cancelled due to
Name: Corporate signature restrictions in effect on
Comment: This transport rule adds a standardized signature and disclaimer text to all this computer
outgoing emails. Windows 8, Windows
5. Press Next. 8.1 and Outlook
6. On the Conditions screen select the following 2 conditions; compatibility
from users that are inside or outside the organization
Starting Outlook in Safe
sent to users that are inside or outside the organization, or partners
Mode
7. In the bottom pane, modify the conditions so that they read;
from users that are Inside the organization No Mail icon in Control
and sent to users that are Outside the organization Panel
8. Press Next. Book
Inbox Repair Tool
9. In the Actions screen select the action; (scanpst.exe)
append disclaimer text and fall back to action if unable to apply.
10. In the bottom pane you can modify the conditions to your preference. Enlarge font in Reading
Click on disclaimer text to insert your default disclaimer text and add variables to Pane
include user information (see below for an overview of variables which you can use). Fixing Instant Search
Note that the disclaimer text allows you to use HTML code (including in-line CSS). This
Disable virus scanner
will allow you for instance to set different font size and colors for the signature and
integration?
disclaimer part, add a horizontal line, hyperlink text or include a logo.
You can use up to 5000 characters Opening eml-files with
When a Plain Text message is sent, the HTML tags are automatically stripped off. Outlook
11. Once done, press Next. My book written with Sue
12. You can set any exception as you see fit. You can continue without any exceptions as well. Mosher Awards
13. Press Next.
14. On the Create Rule screen you’ll see the PowerShell command that will be executed when
clicking the New button.
15. After pressing the New button the wizard has been completed and a summary is shown.
Assuming it completed successfully, your Transport Rule has been created and is active
now. Clicking Finish will close the New Transport Rule dialog.

Supported variables
You can use the following variables in your disclaimer text. When using them, place them between
%% characters.
Example: %%DisplayName%%

UserLogonName Street
DisplayName POBox
FirstName City
Initials State

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Setting up a Corporate Signature | HowTo-Outlook

LastName ZipCode
  Country
PhoneNumber  
OtherPhoneNumber Title
HomePhoneNumber Department
OtherHomePhoneNumber Manager
PagerNumber Office
MobileNumber Company
FaxNumber  
OtherFaxNumber Notes
Email CustomAttribute1 – CustomAttribute15

Disclaimer template text with HTML and variables in Exchange 2010

Outlook Signature deployment via script

If you are not using Exchange or are looking for a client (Outlook) level solution to generate your
signatures, you can do this via a script. There are various ways to do this of course but there are a
couple of common things to keep in mind when going for a custom script;

The signature has to end up in the user’s Signatures folder.

A single signature contains a Plain Text, HTML and Rich Text version of your template with
their corresponding file formats;
*.txt, *.htm and *.rtf
You’ll need to query Active Directory via LDAP if you want to include user specific
information.
Consider how you want to update the signature. For instance;
Are you going to run the script each time at logon or only once and then users can run the
script manually via a Start Menu shortcut?
Are you going to disable access to the Signature feature via Group Policies?
Note that you cannot set the deployed signature as the default via Group Policies; this
requires an additional one-time Registry modification (see below script example for further
details).

Below you’ll find a sample script to help you on your way, it is not intended for use as-is.

'Option Explicit
On Error Resume Next

Dim strSigName
Dim strFullName, strTitle, strCompany, strTel, strFax, strEmail, strWeb, strCorpEmail
Dim boolUpdateStyle

'==========================================================================
' Some script variables
'==========================================================================

' Name signature

strSigName = "Standard Signature"
' If signature exists, overwrite (true) or leave alone (false)?
boolUpdateStyle = true

'==========================================================================
' Set some static information
'==========================================================================

' Company information

strCompany = "Your Company Name"
strTel = "+12 1234 567890"
strFax = "+12 9876 543210"
strWeb = "http://www.yourdomain.com"

' Fallback email address when no address is found

strCorpEmail = "contact@yourdomain.com"

Click in the area above and press CTR+A to select all. Press CTRL+C to copy the code.
'==========================================================================
' Read User's Active Directory information
Open Notepad, paste the code in the editor and save the text document as a vbs-file.
'==========================================================================
Dim objSysInfo, objUser

SetSetgenerated signature as the default signature

objSysInfo = CreateObject("ADSystemInfo")

As Set objUser
mentioned = GetObject("LDAP://" & objSysInfo.Username)
before, you’ll need to set and remove additional Registry values in order to have
strFullName = objUser.displayname
Outlook
strTitle
use the deployed signature as the default for newly created emails and replies and
= objUser.title
strEmail
forwards. = objuser.emailaddress

If Trim(strTitle) = "" Then strTitle = "_"

If Trim(strEmail) = "" Then strEmail = strCorpEmail
Remove the First-Run value name from:
Set objUser = Nothing
Set objSysInfo = Nothing

'==========================================================================
' Get Signature Folder
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'==========================================================================
Setting up a Corporate Signature | HowTo-Outlook

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Outlook\Setup
Add the NewSignature and ReplySignature value names to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<version>\Common\MailSettings
Their string values need to be set to the name of the signature.

After Outlook has been started, the First-Run key is being added back again and the
NewSignature and ReplySignature values are automatically being removed. When multiple mail
accounts are configured, they will all have their new and reply/forward signature set to the ones
specified in the Registry file.

The example below makes the appropriate Registry modifications for Outlook 2010 and the
signature name of “Standard Signature”.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\Setup]
"First-Run"=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\MailSettings]
"NewSignature"="Standard Signature"
"ReplySignature"="Standard Signature"

3rd party solutions

If all of the above solutions do not fit your needs, not to worry! There are plenty of 3rd party
solutions available to manage corporate signatures at either Exchange or Outlook level. A short list
can be found below;

CodeTwo Exchange Rules

Supports Exchange 2000/2003 and Small Business Server 2003
 
CodeTwo Exchange Rules 2007
Supports Exchange 2007 and Small Business Server 2008
 
CodeTwo Exchange Rules 2010
Supports Exchange 2010 and Small Business Server 2011
 
CodeTwo Exchange Rules 2013
Supports Exchange 2013
 
GFI Mail Essentials (free)
Supports Exchange 2000/2003/2007/2010/2013
 
DisclaimIt
Supports Exchange 2000/2003/2007/2010/2013
 
Symprex Mail Signature Manager
Supports Exchange 2000/2003/2007/2010/2013/Office 365
 
Exclaimer
Exchange 2003/2007/2010/2013
 
Smart-X Signature One (free)
Add-in for Outlook 2003/2007

OpusFlow Disclaimer for Outlook

Add-in for Outlook 2000/2002/XP/2003/2007

Last modified: June 21, 2013

Related Posts or Add-ins

Time Date Signature
Add Instant Messaging links to your Signature
Setting Outlook Group Policies
OpusFlow Disclaimer for Outlook
Setting Permissions on a Mailbox

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/corporatesignatures.htm[5/30/2014 19:31:52]
Setting up a Corporate Signature | HowTo-Outlook

MAPILab Disclaimers for Exchange

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