Templates and the library
A template is a signature design: HTML plus placeholders that are filled in per person when the signature is rendered.
Templates live in a named library. You can keep as many as you like, and each one carries its own independent version history.
Roles: which template is served
Section titled “Roles: which template is served”Two roles decide what people actually receive.
| Role | Served for |
|---|---|
new |
New messages |
reply |
Replies and forwards |
The template assigned to the new role is what most people mean by “the active
signature”. Assigning a reply template is optional; without one, replies get the
new-message template.
Reply templates are usually shorter. A full brand block on every message in a long thread gets tiresome quickly, so a name, title and phone number is a common choice.
The add-in works out which is needed. It calls getComposeTypeAsync and requests
type=reply for a reply or a forward. The method is probed rather than assumed,
so an older Outlook client that does not support it simply gets the new-message
signature.
Whichever template is served, it is still personalised per person from the directory.
Refining assignment
Section titled “Refining assignment”Roles set the organisation-wide default. To give different groups different signatures, add assignment rules: an ordered list of predicates that match on a directory attribute or an Entra group and name a template per role. First match wins, and anyone no rule matches falls back to the role assignment.
The Templates view
Section titled “The Templates view”The Templates view lists the library, shows which template is active for new messages and which covers replies, and is where you create, assign, duplicate, rename, download or delete a template.
Selecting a template opens the Editor for it.
Creating a template
Section titled “Creating a template”New templates start empty and can be authored in either editor:
The drag-and-drop designer edits a block tree and compiles to email-safe HTML when you publish. It suits people who do not want to write markup.
The HTML editor edits that markup directly, with placeholder autocomplete. It suits hand-authored templates and exact control, which is what you usually want when recreating an existing signature from another product.
A designer template can be ejected to HTML, which is a one-way move. HTML cannot be pulled back into the designer, because visual authoring is the designer’s job and reverse-engineering arbitrary markup into blocks would produce something neither faithful nor editable.
Duplicating, renaming and deleting
Section titled “Duplicating, renaming and deleting”Duplicating copies a template into a new library entry, which is the usual way to create a variant for one department without risking the original.
Renaming affects the library entry only. Nothing that references the template breaks.
Deleting is blocked while a template is assigned to a role or referenced by an assignment rule. Reassign first.
A deleted template goes to Recently deleted rather than disappearing. It keeps its full version history and can be restored for 30 days. See versions and rollback.
Previewing
Section titled “Previewing”Preview renders the template with sample data so you can see the shape of it without publishing. It is the fastest way to check that a conditional section collapses the way you expect.
To see a real person’s real signature, use the download option on the Templates view, which produces the live signature for a chosen mailbox as a standalone HTML file. To see it in a real mail client, send a test email.
The starter template
Section titled “The starter template”New tenants are seeded with a ready-made design rather than a blank page. It is editable like any other template, and replacing it is expected.
The Getting started checklist treats “publish a signature” as complete when the active template is no longer the seed, so swapping it out is what marks that step done.
Publishing
Section titled “Publishing”Editing does not affect anyone until you publish. Each template can hold one unpublished draft, and the editor shows a line diff against the live version before you commit.
Publishing increments the template’s version, which strands every cached signature for it. Changes reach users within seconds, with no redeploy and nothing to purge.