Good Practices for designing an email signature
A signature is the perfect opportunity to brand every message you send. It can establish and reinforce who you and the company you represent are. Email signatures can help to boost your brand, increase engagement and generate leads. In other words, your email signature serves as your digital business card. Follow this guide to create and design professional signature templates effortlessly.
Guidelines to design professional email signature
- Use Table (Rows and Columns) format for a consistent signature design
- Dynamic fields to directly pull Active Directory details
- Display / Hide fields property to remove empty AD fields
- Use high resolution images
- Set Alt text for the images
- Use images with PNG or JPG formats
- Allow signatures to be compatible with dark modes
- Sync AD changes for new updates in Active Directory
- Disable default signatures from Outlook
Use Table (Rows and Columns) format for a consistent signature design
Tables for consistent signature design
It is recommended to use tables to keep the signature layout consistent and to avoid signature elements fields shifting around in different mail clients and screen resolutions. Sigsync provides different table components as per the design requirement. To insert a table, just drag and drop a required shape of the table component into the design area from the left side of the editor.
You can set the 'Table' properties on the right side of the editor
Insert a custom table
To insert a table with multiple rows and columns, simply drag and drop the 'Custom table' component.
Enter the number of columns and rows as per the design requirement and click 'Apply' button
Insert a row
To insert a row, select the 'Table Cell' and choose the 'Table Rows' option under the 'Row & Column - split, Merge, Insert, Delete' tab on the right side 'Properties' Panel. Now, select 'Insert Above' or 'Insert Below' from the dropdown
Click the 'Apply' button
Delete a row
To insert a row, select the 'Table Cell' and choose the Table Rows' option under the 'Row & Column - split, Merge, Insert, Delete' tab on the right side 'Properties' Panel . Now, select 'Delete Row' from the dropdown
Click the 'Apply' button
Merge Rows
To merge rows, select the 'Table Cell' and choose the 'Table Rows' option under the 'Row & Column - split, Merge, Insert, Delete' tab on the right side ‘Properties’ Panel . Now, select 'Merge Row' from the dropdown and enter the number of cells to be merged.
Click the 'Apply' button
Merge columns
To merge columns, select the 'Table Cell' and choose the 'Table Columns' option under the 'Row & Column - split, Merge, Insert, Delete' tab on the right side 'Properties' Panel . Now, select 'Merge Column' from the dropdown and enter the number of cells to be merged.
Click the 'Apply' button
Dynamic fields to directly pull Active Directory details
Dynamic fields to directly pull Active Directory details
Sigsync supports Azure Active Directory fields (Example: ${displayName}, ${jobTitle}, ${companyName} ) to include in Signature. These fields automatically pull details from your active directory. With this, you can manage all the users signatures in a single template.
You can use individual as well as group of Active Directory Fields (Personal, Address, Contacts)in your signature.
To insert a single Active Directory field, drag and drop the 'AD Fields' component from the left side panel.
Select the required Active Directory fields from the list and click the 'Apply' button
To insert a group of Active Directory fields, simply drag and drop the required component in the template design area.
For instance: Let’s drag and drop 'Personal' fields component
You can keep the default fields or add new fields. Click the 'Apply' button
Display / Hide fields property to remove empty AD fields
Display / Hide fields property to remove empty AD fields
To prevent empty fields in your signature when the corresponding Active Directory value is not available, Sigsync provides 'Display / Hide Signature fields' property in the signature editor.
For an instance:
Suppose if 'Fax Number' is not filled in your active directory, an empty field will appear in the email signature. To remove the empty space, just set the 'Hide' property for the label/icon around the 'Fax Number' field.
In the below screenshot, after the label 'F:' there is an empty space in the preview pane
To remove the empty space, select the label and under the 'Display / Hide signature fields' tab on the right side 'Properties' panel, choose the 'fax number' field and click the 'Apply' button.
The empty field with the label gets removed on the preview pane.
Use high resolution images
If your email signature looks blurry when viewed on a mobile phone, tablet, PC ,the simplest option is to use a high resolution image in your email signature and scale it down to the desired size using the height and width attributes.
Important Note: When using large-scale images in your email signature, there is a possibility that your email client, such as Outlook, Outlook Web Access (OWA), or Gmail may display them as attachments. This occurs because email clients handle images in signatures differently. When the actual image used in the signature is large, the email client may be unable to display it directly within the email body. Consequently, the image is treated as an attachment rather than being shown as part of the email content. This issue is particularly noticeable in replies and forwarded emails. The recommended solution is to resize the original images according to the specified height and width in your signature templates for each image.
To insert Profile Photo from Active directory, drag and drop 'Profile Photo' component into the template design area.
Click the 'Apply' button
You can set the image width to the required size
To insert a banner image or static profile photo in the signature template, drag and drop the 'Banner' image component into the design area.
Upload the image either from the local computer or use an online picture and click the 'Apply' button
Set the image width to the required size
Set Alt text for the images
Alt text describes what the image is supposed to be if the images are not appearing for the recipients. It will make your signature more accessible to the visually impaired and will serve as a backup if your image cannot be shown for some reason.
For instance: Add Alt Tag and Image Title for the Banner Image
Drag and drop 'Banner' image component to the design area
Drag and drop 'Banner' image component to the design area
Enter the appropriate Alt Tag and Image Titles and click the 'Apply' button
Use images with PNG or JPG formats
Use images with PNG or JPG formats
It's recommended to utilize standard image formats like PNG or JPG (JPEG), which are supported by the vast majority of email clients. Before including images in your signature, ensure that they are scaled down.
For instance: Insert a banner image
Drag and drop 'Banner' image component to the design area
Choose either 'Local picture' from the computer or 'Online Picture'. In the below screenshot 'Browse From Local' is selected
Select the banner image
Enter the appropriate Alt Tag and Image Titles and click the 'Apply' button
Set the image width to the required size
Allow signatures to be compatible with dark modes
Consider how your signature will seem against a dark background when selecting font colors, icons, images etc. Use images or icons with translucent backgrounds if feasible.
Sigsync provides pre-designed dark mode signature templates from its 'Signature Gallery'.
Select 'Manage Signature' > 'Signature Gallery' tab from the Sigsync dashboard
Choose the 'Dark Mode Signatures' from the category panel and pick any template suitable for you.
You can keep or modify the template as per the requirement
After the modification, 'Save' the template.
Sync AD changes for new updates in Active Directory
If you've added new users or changed any details in your Office 365 Active Directory, sync the changes with Sigsync. This ensures that the new updates for your email signatures are available. This syncing process ensures secure login by redirecting you to the 'Microsoft Sign in page'.
To sync the Active Directory changes select the 'Manage Signatures' and 'Settings' tabs from the Sigsync dashboard.
Click the ‘Sync AD Changes Now’ button and proceed with the authentication in Microsoft sign in page.
Disable default signatures from Outlook
If you have set a default signature in Outlook, just disable the default signature to avoid your recipients getting both default signature and Sigsync signature.
Follow the below steps to disable Outlook default signatures for individual users in OWA ( Outlook Web Application)
- Login to Exchange Admin center.
- Choose 'permissions' from the left panel and click the 'Outlook Web App policies' tab
- Double-click the policy that is assigned to the user to stop adding the OWA signature.
- Navigate to features and click on the More options link to get more features.
- Uncheck the Email signature feature as shown below.
Click here to disable outlook default signatures for all the users at once
Streamline Email Signature Management with a Free On-demand Demo from Sigsync
Sigsync email signature service provides effortless, centralized signature management for Office 365 and Exchange. Our team can assist you in quickly setting up company-wide signatures. Request a free on-demand demo to see how Sigsync can simplify your email signature management process.
