Merge fields and empty fields

A signature template is designed once and filled in for each person when they send an email. The parts that change from person to person are merge fields: their name, job title, phone number and so on. This article explains where each value comes from and what happens when a person does not have one.

Where the values come from

Footer365 reads your people's details from Microsoft 365 during directory sync. See How directory sync works.

Microsoft 365 holds no standard website field for a person. The Website element either uses a value set for that person in Footer365, or an address you type on the element for everyone (see below).

Microsoft 365 also holds only one business phone number for each person: Microsoft documents that only one number can be set in it. So a person's Second phone number ({{PhoneNumber2}}) and Third phone number ({{PhoneNumber3}}) are never read from Microsoft 365, and never written to it. They are entered in Footer365, in any of the ways you fill in other details: with Edit details on Users and groups (as Phone 2 and Phone 3), in the spreadsheet on User details, from a directory source, or by the person themselves on staff self-service, where they are Second office phone and Third office phone. A value entered for them is always used, because there is no Microsoft 365 value to compete with.

If a value is wrong in a signature, the best fix is in Microsoft 365. Where you cannot change it there, you can correct it for signatures with Edit details on Users and groups, for a field you have set to replace the directory value on User details. For a field that is empty there and cannot be set, such as a distribution group's phone number, you can fill it in under User details. See Fix wrong or missing details and Fill in details Microsoft 365 does not hold.

Adding fields to a signature

Most fields are elements in the Contact fields group of the editor's Insert panel. Drag one onto the canvas. Some have their own options under What it shows:

• Name can show Full name, First name only or Last name only.
• Phone has a Number choice: Phone, Second or Third. It says which of the person's business numbers the line shows, so for a second line, such as a direct dial, place another Phone element and choose Second. Each line is hidden for anyone who has no number of that kind, with its prefix. The prefix, the Fallback phone number and Show as all apply to the number chosen.
• Phone also has a Fallback phone number. Left empty, the phone line is hidden for anyone with no phone number. Type a number, such as your switchboard, and people without their own number get that instead, while everyone else keeps theirs.
• Website has a Website address. Type your company website here and everyone gets that address. A bare domain such as www.example.com is fine and is still made into a link.
• Address has an Address layout: one line with the parts separated by commas, or multiple lines. Empty parts drop out without leaving stray commas.
• Custom Attribute shows one Exchange extension attribute. Choose which one under What it shows. Attributes are named on the Attribute mapping page, and an attribute already used there for a social icon is not offered here. See Attribute mapping.

Your own fields from Directory > Custom fields have a Custom fields group of their own in the Insert panel, one element per field, labelled with its type. Select a placed one to change which field it shows under Custom field. A Link field can be shown as A link to the address, which is only ever sent as an https address. A field element whose field has since been deleted shows Unknown field on the canvas and is left empty in signatures. See Add your own signature fields.

You can also put fields inside your own sentence with a Text element. Type straight onto the canvas, and type {{ to pick a field from a list grouped into Person, Contact, Company, Date, Message, Manager, Sent by, Custom fields and Custom attributes. The Contact group includes Second phone number and Third phone number, which are also offered in the field lists of a condition and of Join with. The same list opens when you type {{ in the box under Advanced: edit HTML, where the field is written out in full. See Edit the HTML.

Fields from the manager, or from who sent it

Two groups of fields show someone other than the person the signature belongs to. Both are in the {{ list of a Text element.

• Manager shows the sender's manager, as set in Microsoft 365: their full name, job title, email address, phone, mobile and department. An assistant's signature can then name the person they support, such as "Assistant to" followed by {{Manager.FullName}}. Footer365 reads every person's manager with the directory sync, at least twice a day.
• Sent by shows the person who sent a message from a mailbox on its behalf, such as a colleague replying from info@. It is filled in only when your Sending for others setting, or the mailbox's rule, uses the mailbox's signature naming who sent it. When the mailbox sends for itself, or nobody is named, the fields are empty. Delegates, Send As and Send on Behalf

These fields are hidden when empty in the same way as any other field, so a line such as "Sent by" followed by {{Sender.FullName}} and {{Sender.JobTitle}} is left out of messages the mailbox sends itself, and someone with no manager in Microsoft 365 gets no manager line. The editor's preview shows a sample manager and a sample colleague. With My details turned on, it shows your own manager and no Sent by line.

Fields from the message

The Message group in the {{ list of a Text element holds three fields worked out from the email itself as it is sent, each marked At send:

• Time sent, {{SentTime}}: when Footer365 signed the email, such as 21 October 2026, 14:32 (UTC+1). It is written in your organisation's Signature time zone, chosen on Account > Settings, with the clocks changing allowed for. Until you choose one, it is written in UTC. It is the time Footer365 signed the email, not the time the sender's mail app says it was written, so an email that Outlook or Exchange held back shows the later time. See Company settings.
• Recipient's name, {{RecipientName}}: the name of the one person on To, as their email shows it, such as Alex Morgan. It is given only when exactly one person is on To.
• Recipient's domain, {{RecipientDomain}}: the domain everyone on To is at, such as fabrikam.example. It is given only when everyone on To is at one domain.

Only the To line counts. People on Cc are copied in rather than addressed, and people on Bcc are never named. Every copy of an email gets the same text, a Bcc copy included. A name that is an email address, is longer than 80 characters or has a control character in it is treated as no name, and a name is never reordered or shortened to a first name. An email to a distribution list gets the list's own name and domain, not its members'.

When there is nothing to say, the field is empty and is hidden like any other, so a line such as "Prepared for" followed by Recipient's name is left out of an email to several people, while Time sent always has a value. These fields are not offered in conditions, so the rest of a signature never changes with who the email is to.

Footer365 does not keep these values. They are written into the one signature that goes out, and nothing about the recipient is stored. So a link whose address uses one of them is never counted, even in a template that counts its links: it goes straight to its address.

Where they are filled in:

• The editor and previews show sample values: Alex Morgan, fabrikam.example and the time now in your time zone. In the wording being edited, their placeholders are drawn with a dashed edge.
• Send a test fills them in for a message to you: your own name, your own domain and the time of the test.
• The Outlook add-in cannot read them while an email is being written. With mail flow it leaves the email to Footer365's mail relay, which adds the signature with the real values as it is sent. With the Outlook add-in only, the lines that use them are left out. See I cannot see my signature while writing an email.
• A campaign banner cannot use them, because one banner image is sent with every email.
• A disclaimer on the Disclaimers page can use Time sent only, from Insert field, because a disclaimer is left out whole when any field in it is empty. See Disclaimers.

Change how a field is written

The Name, Job Title, Department, Company, Phone, Mobile, Custom Attribute and custom field elements can write their value differently from how Microsoft 365 holds it. Select the element and use the controls under What it shows:

• Capitals. As held writes the value unchanged. UPPER, lower and Title Case change its capitals, so a department held as "SALES & MARKETING" can be written "Sales & Marketing".
• Replace. Type text to find and what to put in its place, for example "&" and "and". Every copy is replaced, whatever its capitals. Leave the second box empty to remove the text. Replacing happens after the capitals are changed.
• When empty, show. Text shown to anyone with no value, such as "Head office" for someone with no department. With text here the line is never left out for an empty value; leave it empty to have the line removed as usual.
• Join with (every one of these elements except Name). Adds further fields after this one on the same line, up to five, such as a job title, department and office. Choose the mark Between them, or Own... to type your own. An empty field is left out together with its mark, so nobody gets "Account manager | | Leeds", and the line is left out only when every field in it is empty.
• Show as (Phone and Mobile only). International writes a number as +44 20 7946 0000 and National as 020 7946 0000. Set the Country code the number belongs to, for example 44. A number that cannot be converted, such as one from another country, is shown as Microsoft 365 holds it.

The line under these controls shows the sample person's value and how it will be written.

To show different content to different people, rather than the same field written another way, see Show different content to different people.

What happens to an empty field

You never need to write rules for missing details. When a person has no value for a field, Footer365 removes that field from their signature, together with anything that only makes sense beside it. When you select one of these elements, a shield icon beside its name says: Placeholders are guarded automatically - empty fields are removed from the sent signature.

In practice:

• The label goes too. A phone line with a "T" prefix or a phone icon disappears completely, so nobody receives a lonely "T".
• Whole rows close up. When everything in a row depends on the same missing field, the whole row is removed, with its spacing and background, so there is no gap.
• Separators follow their neighbours. A Separator (for example the bar in "Job title | Department") only shows when there is a value on both sides.
• Punctuation in your own wording. In a Text element, a mark between two fields, such as a bar or a comma, is dropped when either field is empty. Real words you typed always stay.
• Pictures too. The photo is left out for anyone without a profile photo, and a social icon is left out when the person has no link for that network.

A few things are never hidden, because they are always there or are your own wording: the person's name and email address, text you typed, images, dividers, spacers and buttons.

In a plain-text version you write yourself

A template's plain-text version, when you write it by hand, follows a simpler rule, because plain text has no elements to hide: a line that has fields and no value for any of them is left out. A line with several fields stays while any one of them has a value, and a line with no field is always kept. So put a field that should vanish on its own line, such as M: {{MobilePhone}}. Edit the plain-text version of a template

Related articles

• Using the signature editor
• Show different content to different people
• Social icons, WhatsApp, Teams, booking and QR codes
• Details missing or wrong in a signature