Create an Exchange 2007 Signature

With the advent of Exchange 2007 came Hub Transport rules. These were introduced to, amongst other things, apply messaging policies to emails that would flow to and from an organization using Exchange 2007. You could now set up a default email disclaimer more easily than you had ever been able to when using Exchange 2000 or Exchange 2003.

With this in mind, this guide will show you how easy it is to create your own Exchange 2007 signature, also referred to here as a disclaimer, using these Hub Transport rules.

For other versions of Exchange, check out our articles below

• Exchange 2019 & 2016

• Exchange 2010

1. Open the Exchange Management Console where all the Hub Transport rules reside on your Exchange Server.

2. In Organization Configuration, select Hub Transport.

3. Select the Transport Rules tab.

4. A number of options will appear in the Actions Pane. Choose New Transport Rule…

   

5. The New Transport Rule wizard will run you through the setup process. Firstly, you need to give the rule a name and an optional description, which is recommended especially if you will be using multiple Transport Rules.

   Click the Enable Rule box under Comment so that the rule will run automatically when the wizard completes. Click Next.

   

6. The next screen asks you to define the conditions for your new Transport Rule. Basically, these let you decide what action/s have to be met for your Exchange 2007 signature to be applied to an email. For example, if you wanted your signature to be added to all external messages, you would choose the sent to users inside or outside the organization.

   Every time you choose a condition, you can provide additional details in the field named Step 2: Edit the rule description by clicking an underlined value.

   

7. When you're done, click Next.

8. Now choose the append disclaimer using font, size, color with separator and fallback to action wrap if unable to apply checkbox. Click the disclaimer text link that appears in the Step 2 field.

   

9. A dialog box will appear that will let you add your signature/disclaimer text. Be aware that you can only input plain text so you won’t be able to add any HTML code and weblinks have to be typed out in full.

   Click OK when you're done.

   

10. The other options in Step 2 can also update your preferences:

    1. append - this defines where your Exchange 2007 signature will be added inside the message. The two choices are append (if you want a footer) and prepend (if you want a header).

    2. Arial - choose the font you wish to have in your Exchange disclaimer. You can select either Courier New or Verdana if you don’t want to use Arial.

    3. smallest - this lets you choose the size of the disclaimer text for your Exchange 2007 signature. You can choose from Smallest, Smaller, Normal, Larger and Largest.

    4. Gray - lets you change the font color from a drop-down list.

    5. with separator - a separator is a line that separates the disclaimer text from the main message. If you don’t want this to appear, click on the ‘with separator’ link and select ‘without separator’ from the drop-down menu.

    6. wrap - this lets you set up a fallback action when the Exchange 2007 signature cannot be applied to a message for some reason.

       The choices are:

       • Wrap (recommended) - your Exchange server will create a new message with the signature/disclaimer attached.

       • Ignore - your signature/disclaimer will not be added to the message.

       • Reject - your email will not be delivered and the sender will receive an NDR message.

11. On the next screen, you can enter exceptions for your Exchange disclaimer. This means that if an email meets any exceptions you specify, your signature/disclaimer will not be added. You don’t have to choose any if you wish.

    Click Next when you’re done.

    

12. You’ll now see a summary of the rule you’ve created. If you’re happy with everything, click New or click Back to make any amends.

13. Finally, click Finish. As you clicked the Enable Rule box at the beginning, your rule is now active and user emails will get the new Exchange 2007 signature/disclaimer whenever they send a message.

    They won’t be able to see it while they compose a message though. Instead, it will be added as the email is processed by the Exchange Transport Rule Agent.

Doing more with your Exchange 2007 signature

Now that you have set up your new Exchange 2007 signature, you may have noticed there aren’t many options available for customization. You can’t use Active Directory data to populate signatures with your users’ details, use HTML formatting, include images or create reply signatures.

Right now, you might be thinking that you actually want your Exchange 2007 signature to look more professional and symbolize your corporate brand. Well, in order to do so, you need to use third-party email signature software that will give you high-quality HTML email signatures on all devices including mobiles.

Find out more about Exchange email signature software from Exclaimer