How do I create my first Outlook signature?

If you are setting up a signature policy for the first time, a good place to start is with a signature that contains fields from your organization's Active Directory so that information (such as the sender's name and email address) are updated automatically. This ensures that each user's signature accurately reflects information contained within their Active Directory record. The following process shows how this can be achieved:

1. Select the Outlook signature policies branch in the console tree.

2. Click the new button from the toolbar to start the new Outlook policy wizard.

3. On the general window, specify a meaningful name for the policy - for example 'Standard Signature for All Users'.

   Your policy must have a valid name. A valid policy name must be unique and not blank. You should try to make your policy names as descriptive as possible because they are used to uniquely identify the policy in a number of areas. You can also use the policy description to record comments and notes about a policy (such as what it does and under what conditions it triggers). We highly recommend that you use this field to keep a record of changes to a policy over time.

4. Click next to progress with the wizard and choose a signature template. A range of templates are provided but you can also create your own in the template library.

5. Click next to see a preview of how the selected template will appear in email messages.

6. Click next to continue and set conditions under which this policy will be applied. In this case we want the signature to be applied to all users therefore select the Outlook user is anyone option.

7. Click next and then finish to complete the wizard. The new policy is added to the Outlook signature policies branch of the console tree and is selected by default.

8. Select the options tab.

9. Under default signature options, choose to set signature as default for new messages in Microsoft Outlook and set signature as default for replies and forwards in Microsoft Outlook:

   

10. Once you have saved changes, the policy is ready for use. It is a good idea to test the policy in the policy tester to ensure that it works as expected.

    For more detailed information about adding policies, see the adding a new policy topic.