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Deploying Signatures to Users

Deploying Signatures to Users¶

Table of Contents [Hide/Show] Deploying Signatures to Users    Deploying Signatures for All    Deploying Signatures for Groups       Setting Priority Groups    Signatures for a User    Organizational rule-based deployment    Advanced Rule-Based Deployment    Global Deployment Settings    Additional Deployment Options       Silent Deployment       Delete all existing signatures before generating new ones       Make signatures read-only

Deploying signatures means assigning and controlling what signatures will be available or must be used by which users. eMailSignature allows any signature deployment combination that is necessary. The following scenarios are possible:

• Deploying the same one signature for all users.
• Deploying a common standard signature for all users outgoing emails and a custom reply/forward signature for different users or user groups.
• Deploying signatures with custom user information for different users depending on their group membership.
• In large companies with thousands of users, deploying different signatures with custom information depending on their user data such as department ID or company, but not their group membership.
• Deploying signatures based on custom-designed rules.
• Deploying signatures for organizational units within the company.
  

Of course, you can build your own deployment scenario. After you have chosen or built your own deployment scenario, this section describes basic steps on how to deploy signatures in the Cockpit.

The following list describes the general steps and order, which must be followed:

1. Deploy signatures for all. If no group settings apply, special rules or individual signatures, the 'Signatures for All' setting will always apply.
2. Import groups that will have special signatures. You can import the AD distribution lists and/or security groups. If a user is a member of one of the groups, the signatures set up for the group will be deployed for these users.
3. Special users might want to have even more special signatures. You can set this up using the 'Signatures for a Users' option.
   

Deploying Signatures for All¶

Signatures that are deployed for all are always available, if no other condition applies, such as group membership or individual signature rules.

To deploy signatures for all, proceed as follows:

1. Click 'Signatures for All'.
   
   
   
   
   An overview with all signatures in the database appears.
   
   
2. To make a signature available for all users, click in the ' Available?' check box for the signature.
   
   
   
   
3. Preview the signature to make sure it works as you want. Otherwise, you risk that it will not be visible at all.
4. To assign the signature as the default signature for all emails, click in the 'New Messages ' check box for the signature. The check mark appears for the selected signature and the changes apply next time users run the sign.exe file.
5. To assign the signature for reply and forward emails, click in the 'Reply/forward' check box for the signature. The check mark appears for the selected signature and the changes apply next time users run the sign.exe file.
   

Deploying Signatures for Groups¶

To deploy signatures for specific Active Directory user groups, proceed as follows:

1. Ensure that at least one signature is deployed for all users, as described previously. If a user is not a member of any group, this signature will apply.
2. Expand the 'Groups' button, from the list that appears, select 'Set Signatures for Groups'.
   
   
   
   
   The following empty window appears.
   
   
   
   
   The fact that the window is empty means that no groups have been selected yet for signature deployment.
   
   
3. To select a group, expand the 'Groups' button once again, from the list that appears, select 'Add Group (from AD)'.
   
   
   
   
   A list with available groups in the AD appears describing group name, group type and ID.
   
   
   
   
4. In the list, double-click each group that you want to be selected.
   
   
   

   Tip: If you need to select many groups, you can filter them by typing in a search criterion in the search box. Use * for a wild card search.
   

   
   
   
5. When all necessary groups are selected, click 'Close'. Groups from the AD are now available for deploying individual signatures for each of them, which is described in the following steps.
   
   
   For each group assigned signatures are listed in the following respective columns:
   • New Messages - default signature for the group
   • Reply/forward signature for this group
   • Available signatures for this group
     
     
6. To set a default signature for the group, in the 'New Messages' column, click the group. From the signatures list that appears, select the signature. Select 'None', if you do not want any default signatures.
7. To set a reply/forward signature for the group, in the 'Replies/forwards' column, click the group. From the signatures list that appears, select the signature. Select 'None', if you do not want any reply/forward signatures.
8. To set signatures that will be available for the group, click the 'Available Signatures' column of the group. In the signatures list that appears, select one or several signatures. To save the changes made, click 'Save'.
   
   
   
   
   Assigned signatures for groups appear in the respective columns for each group. The last column indicates if these signature settings for the group are enabled.
   
   
9. To make the signature settings for the group enabled, in the 'Group Signatures Enabled' column, ensure that the green check mark is set by clicking it. No check mark indicates that the group settings are ready, but have not been deployed.
   

Setting Priority Groups¶

If a users is a member of several groups, and each group has its own signatures set, signatures set for groups that are defined as Priority groups will be available for this user.

To promote a group as a priority group, click in the 'Priority' column of the group.

If a user is a member of several priority groups, random signatures from signatures assigned to these groups will be available for this user.

Signatures for a User¶

To deploy signatures for an individual user, proceed as follows:

1. Click 'Individual'.
   
   
   
   
2. Ensure that at least one signature is deployed for all users, as described previously. If a user is not a member of any group, this signature will apply.
   
   
   The following window appears. It is empty if you have not run eMailSignature for any user yet.
   
   
   
   
   
3. To deploy individual signatures for a user, the user needs to appear in this list. A user appears in this list automatically after he/she has run the sign.exe file. Ensure that for all users that need individual signatures, the sign.exe file is run.
4. To add available signatures for a user, click in the 'Available signatures for this user' column of the user, and in the signatures list that appears select the necessary signatures. To save the changes, click 'Save'.
   
   
   
   
   
5. To select the default and the reply/forward signatures for the user, click in the respective columns and select the signature from the list.
6. To make the signatures settings for the user enabled, select the 'Apply' check box for this user.
   

Organizational rule-based deployment ¶

If a company has many different departments or subsidiaries around the world or nationwide, a need may arise for having more flexibility in deploying email signatures. In such case the company will usually have its organizational structure defined in Active Directory.

There can be several Organizational Units (OUs) nested inside other OUs, but a user can only exist in one OU. Compared to group deployment, a user can reside in several groups, which can make it difficult deployment wise. Often members of one OU needs to have certain signatures, while members of another OU need to have a different set of signatures. This can be solved by using Organizational Units based deployment without any confusion about who will have what signatures.

If a user is not a member of any of the OUs indicated, no signatures will be deployed. This is also good when testing the product because one might only deploy it to one group for testing and not other groups.

Here is an example of OUs defined in Active Directory. The top-level OU is Corporate, which is then divided into Europe, USA and then further down again. You may want to have a special set of signatures for Germany and Chicago, respectively. OUs can be divided as necessary vertically and horizontally.

To set a special set of signatures for a single OU, proceed as follows:

1. Click on 'OU' in the Signatures tab of the Cockpit.
   
   
   
   
   
2. In the 'Organizational Rule-Based Deployment' dialog that appears, click 'New Rule'.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Enter the name and the description of the rule in the corresponding fields. Then click 'OK'.
4. Select the rule in the Rule Name list of the 'Organizational Rule-Based Deployment' dialog. Detailed information about the rule is shown on the right side of the dialog.
   
   
   
   
   
5. In the Rule Definition section in the 'If OU =' field enter the name of the Organizational Unit.
   

   
   Note: It is important to type the name of the OU exactly as it is written in the AD Users and Computers. It is also important that you choose the OU as further down the hierarchy as possible, because all users below that point of the OU hierarchy will have these signatures.
   

6. Now select the signatures to be deployed for all users of this Organizational Unit: the default Signature for New Messages, the Signature for Reply/Forward emails, and all other Available signatures.
7. To enable the rule, select the 'Always use these rules…' check box. Then click 'Save Rule' to keep these settings. The rule is ready to be deployed.
   

   
   Note: If you have made specific signatures available for certain users as described in Signatures for a User section, those settings will overrule the OU deployment settings.
   

   
   
   

Advanced Rule-Based Deployment¶

eMailSignature includes a possibility for deploying different signatures based on Active Directory group membership as well as organizational units, but sometimes this is not enough. Users may belong to several groups and hence the group deployment might not seem logical. Also the condition for deployment might not be based on organizational units.

With Advanced Rule-Based Deployment it is possible to scale deployment of signatures beyond normal limit. Based on employee information in the employee database (which can be a replica of AD, Navision or any other SQL Server based solution) signatures can be deployed based on conditional data. For example, if the Department ID is '998' then a special set of signatures should be deployed, a supplementary set of signatures in English or signatures with certain campaigns included. Another example: if a user's Job Title is 'Sales Manager' then a certain set of signatures should be deployed, e.g. if there is a special promotion from a certain vendor, then by applying a title reference or certain competence or sales area we can ensure that only this group of people will have a special promotional signature.

More technically speaking, an IF >> THEN systematic can be used for advanced deployment. Currently rule-based deployment can only be used with SQL Server as the data source for employee information.

To configure rule-based deployment, proceed as follows:

1. Click 'Rules' in the 'Signatures' tab.
   
   
   
   
   
2. In the 'Advanced Rule-Based Deployment' dialog that appears, click 'New Rule'.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Enter the name and the description of the rule in the corresponding fields. Then click 'OK'.
4. Select the rule in the Custom Rules list of the 'Advanced Rule-Based Deployment' dialog. Detailed information about the rule is shown on the right side of the dialog.
   
   
   
   
   
5. In the Rule Settings section, select the data source that contains fields that will be evaluated by the rule. The source must contain data in table/view format.
6. In the Rule Definition section configure the IF part of the condition. In the 'If' list select the field to be evaluated and in the '=' (equals) field click '…' button to see a list of possible values and select one of them. To check which users will be selected based on this condition, click 'See which Users this Rule Applies for' button.
7. Now configure the THEN part of the condition. Select the signatures to be deployed for all users matching the IF criteria: the default Signature for New Messages, the Signature for Reply/Forward emails, and all other Available signatures.
8. To enable the rule, select the 'Always use these rules…' check box. Then click 'Save Rule' to keep these settings. The rule is ready to be deployed.
   

Global Deployment Settings¶

Global deployment settings must be set depending on which deployment method you have chosen from those described earlier in this chapter. To change the settings proceed as follows:

1. Click 'Settings' the 'Signatures' tab of the Cockpit.
   
   
   
   
   
   The Global Deployment Settings window appears.
   
   
   
   
2. Select, which deployment method you will be using:
   • Signatures based on Membership of Organizational Units (OUs)
   • Signatures based on rule-based Deployment
   • Signatures for all
     

     
     Note: If none of the options are selected, default signatures will be used for all users.
     

3. Close the window, when done.
   

Additional Deployment Options¶

The following additional deployment options are available in the 'Setup' tab of the Cockpit:

Silent Deployment¶

You can select the SILENT DEPLOYMENT ^TM if you want to deploy signatures silently. This means no changes in MS Outlook, and the signatures just become available for insertion on the right-click when composing an email, or from the Insert Signature tab in MS Outlook. This is often used for initial deployment while consolidating employee information and the layout of signatures. The following settings will not be enforced:

• Changing the default signature
• Changing the reply/forward signature
• Changing font settings
• Changing Editor type (Only related to MS Outlook 2003 or any previous version)
  

When the Silent deployment is unchecked, it will enforce the signature settings set previously, and the users will experience the signature changes in MS Outlook. The above-mentioned settings will be set when this option is unchecked.

Delete all existing signatures before generating new ones¶

This option allows you to delete all existing signatures for users before generating new signatures. This is an extremely effective way of getting rid of old ugly signatures, which users might have created themselves.

Make signatures read-only¶

Due to the MS Outlook design, there is no way to prevent users from editing a signature while composing an email, but there is a good way to prevent them from editing the signatures generated automatically by eMailSignature.

When you check this option, the signatures become read-only, and cannot be amended by the users by using the default MS Outlook signature editor.

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