Let people choose their default signature

When your rules give a person more than one signature, for example a full one and a short one, they can choose which one they want by default: one for new mail and one for replies. Forwards follow the reply default. Footer365 remembers the choice, so it is used wherever the person writes in Outlook with the Footer365 add-in, and, when your organisation uses mail flow, on mail Footer365 signs as it leaves Microsoft 365, such as mail sent from a phone's own mail app.

Footer365 makes people's own My signature page and the Add-in settings page available to organisations gradually, so they may not be in your portal yet. See Early access pages and features.

It is off until an administrator allows it, for everyone or for the people you choose. A person can only choose among the signatures their rules already give them, never a template no rule gives them, and you can mark a rule so that nobody's choice ever replaces it.

Allow it

1. Open Add-in settings, under Account in the left-hand menu.
2. Beside Let people choose their default signature, choose Everyone, or Only the people chosen and add the people, groups or departments it is for.
3. To leave some people out, such as a legal team, add them under Except these people.
4. Select Save changes.

Turning it off for someone, by choosing Nobody or by leaving them out, keeps their choice but stops using it, so allowing it again brings it back. Changing it needs permission to manage settings, and each change is recorded in the audit log. Choose how the Outlook add-in behaves for your people

The setting used to be a switch in the Preferred signatures window on Signature rules. That window, under More at the top of the page, now says who it is for and how many people have chosen a default, and Open Add-in settings takes you to the page.

Fix a rule so it always wins

For a signature your organisation must send, such as a legal one for outside recipients, open the rule and tick Always use this rule. Its row in the rules list then shows Always used.

When a message matches a rule marked this way, a person's default is not used if it would come from a rule below it. The person's choice is kept and used for every other message.

How a default is chosen and used

Footer365 makes the same decision everywhere it signs a message: in the Outlook add-in, on mail it signs as it leaves Microsoft 365, in Test a rule, in a test message sent from it, and on the person's My signature page.

1. It finds the rules that match the message, in priority order, as it always does.
2. If one of them gives the person's default for this kind of message, that rule is used, unless a matching rule above it is marked Always use this rule.
3. Otherwise the first matching rule is used, exactly as if the person had no default.

A rule that chooses between several templates at random gives each of them, so a person can choose any of them as a default. When they have, the rule always gives them that one rather than one at random. See "Choose between several templates at random" in How signature rules work.

So a default is used only for messages its rule covers. If the person chose a signature that their rules give only to internal mail, mail to outside recipients still gets the external signature. If a rule or template is removed, or a person moves to a group whose rules no longer give them their default, it is simply not used any more: their organisation's rules apply until they choose another.

Campaign banners follow the rule that was used, as they always do. See Schedule and target a campaign.

Where people choose

• In Outlook. In the Footer365 pane, each signature has Make my default for new mail and Make my default for replies under it. A star marks My default for new mail and My default for replies. Selecting a signature itself still changes only the message being written, as before. Clear my defaults at the foot of the pane removes both after a confirmation. See Deploy the Outlook add-in.
• On the web. People open their own page at https://app.footer365.net/Me. While defaults are allowed and their rules give them more than one signature, a My default signature card has a list for New mail and one for Replies and forwards, each starting with Follow my organisation's rules. This suits people who never open the pane or use Outlook on a phone.

When a person's default is not used for the message they are writing, the pane says why: because your organisation always applies another signature to it, because the rules give it only to other messages, or because it is no longer one of their signatures.

See and clear someone's choice

Under Directory, Users and groups shows a with a preferred signature figure at the top of the list. Select it to list only those people. A person's panel has a Preferred signature section with their choice for new mail and for replies, and when and where they chose it. A choice that is no longer used is marked Not used.

An administrator who can manage the directory can select Clear to remove a person's choice, after a confirmation. An administrator cannot choose a default for someone: choosing a person's signature is what rules are for.

Check it with Test a rule

Test a rule takes the tested person's default into account. The result has a Preferred signature line saying whether their default for that kind of message was used and, if not, why: a rule above it marked Always use this rule, no rule matching that message giving it, or no rule giving it to them any more. A rule above the one used that also matched is shown as passed over. See Test a rule.

Good to know

• Every choice, change and clear is recorded in the audit log, naming the person and the template, and so is every change to who may choose one.
• When Footer365 signs a message with a person's default as it leaves Microsoft 365, the message's audit entry says so.
• A message keyword that chooses a template wins over a default. See Message keywords.
• A campaign rotation can also let people choose their own banner, which is kept beside their defaults. Clear my defaults leaves a chosen banner alone, and a banner can be chosen whether or not defaults are allowed. See "Let people choose their own banner" in Rotate several banners.
• Defaults are part of your organisation's data: they are in a data export and deleted with your account, and a person's choice is deleted when they leave your directory.

Related

• Use a different signature for replies
• How signature rules work
• Let staff edit their own details