How to Add a Signature in Exchange 2019 (10 Easy Steps)

Using a centrally managed signature in Exchange 2019* lets you give all users the same template no matter which device or email client they send mails from. This means all outgoing messages from your organization will have an Exchange email signature appended to them.

Managing an Exchange Server email signature centrally also has the added benefit of ensuring end users cannot modify the signature design you give them. This is vital for maintaining control over your corporate brand and ensuring compliance with email law.

*This will also work for companies using Exchange 2016 and Exchange 2013.

Create a signature in Exchange 2019 step-by-step

Read our guide below to learn how you can easily add a signature in Exchange.

1. Open your Exchange admin center. You’ll need Exchange Administration credentials.

2. Choose mail flow from the admin options. This will open a new set of options in a tabbed list. Choose rules.

3. Click the Add (+) icon and select Apply disclaimers from the drop-down menu. You will now create the mail flow rule that will be used to apply your Exchange signature to messages sent from your organization. This is commonly known as a Transport Rule.

4. A new lightbox window will appear. This lets you specify the details of your Transport Rule. Firstly, give the rule a name that is easy to remember such as which department it is to be assigned to.

Then, click on the drop-down menu for *Apply this rule if…, which will specify how the signature will be added to messages sent by your users. For example, you could set it so that the signature is applied to all emails sent internally or externally.

5. The Apply a disclaimer to the message option should already be selected. However, you can confirm this by:

• Clicking on the drop-down menu for *Do the following…

• Choosing Apply the disclaimer to the message

• Clicking the append a disclaimer option

6. Click on Enter text. This will let you copy and paste your Exchange email signature template and/or disclaimer. This can be in either a plain-text or HTML format.

Remember, if you want to include images in your email signature design, you will need to host these on an external location and add the relevant URLs. Microsoft Exchange does not have an in-built HTML editor so you cannot embed images directly into a signature.

If you want to ensure the contact details for each user are correct, you need to use Active Directory (AD) attributes in your Exchange email signature template. A full list of AD Attributes can be found in this TechNet article.

To add these to your signature, simply place the attribute in the relevant location and add two percentage symbols on either side, i.e. %%DisplayName%% or %FirstName%.

7. When you’re finished, click OK.

You now need to specify what will happen if the signature cannot be added to an outgoing email. Click Select one… which will give you three options to choose from:

• Wrap – the signature/disclaimer is appended to a new email with the original message attached.

• Ignore – the message is sent without an email signature or disclaimer. We recommend you choose this option.

• Reject – the email is not sent and an NDR is received by the sender.

8. Click save and test if the Transport Rule is working correctly. If you want to do more, you can click More options… which will let you add things like exceptions, e.g. the signature is not applied to certain users in a group.

9. If you’re happy with everything, make sure that under Choose a mode for this rule, you have to Enforce selected. Finally, click Save to confirm. There are also a number of Test… options available if you wish to log your Transport Rule’s actions but not interfere with any email content.

10. To enable/disable the Transport Rule, just click on the checkbox to turn it on or off. If you ever need to modify the configuration, highlight the rule and click on the pen icon, which can be found next to the Add (+) one.

Learning how to add a signature in Exchange is not a difficult process. However, there are some pretty big limitations to designing and controlling email signatures and disclaimers using just Microsoft Exchange.

Using an Exclaimer email signature solution

If you use Microsoft Exchange to send emails, you need Exclaimer’s email signature software for Microsoft Exchange Server. Our robust and powerful offering adds professional email signatures to any message processed by your Exchange server.

• Control all Exchange email signatures via a web browser with nothing to install or download.

• Use Azure AD data to give different email signatures to different departments, depending on the job role.

• Use advanced rules to let you define which emails get an Exchange signature.

• Apply signature updates in real-time allowing you to run dedicated email signature campaigns.

• Pass control of Exchange email signature updates to your marketing team without giving them access to IT infrastructure.

Find out more about Exclaimer’s third-party tool for Exchange email signature management.