Keeping or turning off people's own Outlook signatures
Whether your people keep the signatures they made for themselves in Outlook, what turning them off does, and who can turn them back on.
Outlook has its own signature feature, and many people have already written a signature there. Footer365 adds its own signature whichever answer you give. This page helps you decide what happens to the signatures people made for themselves.
If your organisation uses the Outlook add-in only, Footer365 cannot turn them off for you, but you can do it yourself: see "With the Outlook add-in only" below.
The two choices
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Let my people keep their own signatures | Nothing changes in Outlook. Emails carry the person's own signature and the Footer365 signature, so many messages will have two. |
| Turn their own signatures off | The signature feature built into Outlook is turned off for everyone, so the Footer365 signature is the only one anybody sends. |
Most organisations that want one consistent signature turn them off. Leaving people their own is a valid decision too, not a step left undone.
Turning people's own signatures off clears the signatures they have already saved in Outlook. The feature can be switched back on later, but the wording people had written does not come back. Choose this only if you want the Footer365 signature to be the only one anybody sends.
Where to choose
With mail flow, you are asked once in the setup wizard, at the stage Everyone's own Outlook signatures, after mail flow is set up. You can also answer or revisit it later in the portal.
In the setup wizard: select Let my people keep their own signatures or Turn their own signatures off.
In the portal:
- Go to Getting started.
- Find step 5, Everyone's own Outlook signatures.
- Select Let my people keep their own signatures, or select Turn their own signatures off.
- If you chose to turn them off, a confirmation box titled Turn off your people's own signatures explains what will happen. Select Turn their signatures off to confirm, or Cancel.
Once answered, the step shows Their own signatures are off or They keep their own. If you chose to keep them, you can still turn them off later from the same step.
You need a portal role that can manage settings to make this choice. Anyone else sees "Someone who can manage settings decides this."
What turning them off changes
Footer365 changes two settings in your Exchange Online organisation:
- It turns off roaming signatures for the organisation, so signatures saved in Outlook are no longer stored and synced with the mailbox.
- It turns off the signature option in the default Outlook on the web mailbox policy, which is also what the new Outlook for Windows uses.
The change is made straight away. If Exchange does not confirm it at that moment, your choice is still saved and Footer365 puts Exchange in line with it overnight.
Classic Outlook for Windows keeps its own signatures either way. That is a device policy your organisation sets, not something Footer365 can change. If you want classic Outlook to stop adding its own signature, set that through your usual device management.
Turning them back on
You cannot turn people's own signatures back on yourself, from the portal or the wizard. Once they are off, both show who to ask instead. On the Getting started page, hover over or tab to the "i" beside Their own signatures are off in step 6 to see who they are and how to reach them:
- If you pay Footer365 directly, ask Footer365.
- If a reseller bills you for Footer365, ask your reseller.
They will arrange it. Switching the feature back on returns it to everyone, but not the signatures that were cleared.
With the Outlook add-in only
Footer365 changes the two Exchange settings described above using the Exchange Administrator role, which an organisation using the Outlook add-in only never grants. So Footer365 cannot turn people's own signatures off, and the choice above is not offered:
- In the setup wizard, Everyone's own Outlook signatures is marked Optional. Turn them off with Exchange PowerShell shows the commands to run yourself, and a check to run afterwards.
- On Getting started, step 6 is marked Optional, with a Show the PowerShell steps button that opens the wizard at that stage.
- On the dashboard, the Their own Outlook signatures line shows Optional, with a Steps link to the same place.
If you leave them on, people's own signatures are added as well as the Footer365 one. The commands, and how to undo them, are also in Using the Outlook add-in only. Turning them off this way clears the signatures people have already saved, just as it does when Footer365 does it.
If your organisation moves from mail flow to the Outlook add-in only, removing mail flow turns people's own signatures back on, whatever you had chosen before.
Good to know
- Your choice only affects the signature feature in Outlook. It does not change which Footer365 signature anyone gets: that is decided by your signature rules.
- If you remove Footer365 later, people's own Outlook signatures are switched back on as part of the removal, when your organisation uses mail flow. If you turned them off yourself with the Outlook add-in only, Footer365 does not change them: run the commands again the other way round. Removing Footer365
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