¶User guide

How to do the things people actually come here to do. For administrator setup (templates, banners, users, share links, settings) see the "Administering your organisation" section near the end - this guide leads with what every visitor needs first.

¶Building a signature without an account

You don't need to sign in to make one.

1. Go to the homepage and pick a template under Template.
2. Fill in your details under Your details - name, job title, email, phone. Anything a template doesn't use won't be shown.
3. If the template allows it, adjust colours or layout under Style.
4. Check the Live preview on the right - it updates as you type.
5. Choose Copy signature to copy it, or Download .htm to save a file you can import instead.

What you should see when it worked: the live preview matches what you typed, and your mail client's own signature setting shows the same layout once pasted or imported.

Nothing you type here is stored. Close the tab and it's gone - see the privacy notice for what that actually means.

¶What if pasting loses the formatting?

Some mail clients strip formatting from a plain paste. Use Download .htm instead and import that file through your mail client's signature settings rather than pasting:

• Outlook (desktop): File → Options → Mail → Signatures → import the downloaded file.
• Gmail: Settings → See all settings → Signature → paste, or open the downloaded file in a browser first, then copy from there.
• Apple Mail: Settings → Signatures → drag the downloaded file into the signature list.

If it still looks wrong once it's in your mail client, that's very likely Outlook's rendering engine (it uses Microsoft Word to display HTML email, not a browser) rather than something you did - report it to whoever administers your organisation's templates rather than trying to fix the pasted copy by hand, since a fix in the template fixes it for everyone.

¶Saving a signature, if you have an account

If you're signed in, Save appears next to the copy/download buttons.

1. Build your signature as above.
2. Choose Save, and give it a name.
3. Find it later under Saved signatures in the navigation.
4. Choose Open to load it back into the builder and change anything, or Delete to remove it
   • deleting asks you to confirm first, since it can't be undone.

You can save up to 50 signatures. Saved signatures are yours alone - nobody else at your organisation, including an administrator, can see them.

¶Registering an organisation

If you're setting this up for a team rather than just yourself:

1. From the sign-in page, choose Create one.
2. Under What is this account for?, choose My organisation, and give it a name.
3. Once registered, invite the rest of your team from Admin → Users → Invite staff (see "Adding someone to your organisation" below), rather than having each person register separately - registering separately creates unconnected personal accounts, not members of your organisation.

A personal account (registering just for yourself) can be upgraded into an organisation later if you decide you need to add other people - nothing is lost in the process.

One organisation per email domain. If your organisation is already here - somebody at your email domain has registered it - you can't register a second one. You'll be asked to get an invitation from its administrator instead, and once you have one you can join with your password or with Microsoft. Registering just for yourself isn't affected, and nor are addresses at public mail providers such as Gmail or Outlook.com, or at shared domains such as NHSmail (nhs.net), where many separate organisations share one domain. The same applies if you later turn a personal account into an organisation. If you're told your domain is taken and you think that's wrong, contact us through the Support page.

¶Trying it without registering: the demo

The sign-in page offers See the demo where one has been published. It signs you in as either a practice administrator or a staff member so you can see what each role actually sees, without creating anything. The demo is read-only: nothing you change there is saved, and it may be reset at any time.

¶Administering your organisation

Everything below needs an administrator account (Admin in the top bar or account menu).

¶The onboarding tour

The first time an admin opens Admin for a brand-new organisation with no template of its own yet, a short guided tour points out where to create a template, where the signature builder is, where to add colleagues, and the help button. Choose Skip tour at any point, or Escape - either way it won't reappear for your organisation once dismissed, and it stops appearing for everyone as soon as your organisation has created its first template, whether or not the tour was finished.

Want to see it again? Open the ? help button and choose Restart tour under "Common questions".

¶Templates

Admin → Signatures lists your organisation's templates. From here you can:

• Add a template, written as HTML with the same placeholder tokens the built-in templates use, or built visually if your organisation has the visual builder switched on. Import from HTML starts a new one from an existing signature's markup instead of writing it from scratch.
• Preview a template with sample details before publishing it.
• Enable or disable a template - a disabled one stops appearing in the public builder but isn't deleted.
• Duplicate creates a disabled copy of a template, so you can change it before anyone can pick it.
• Download backup saves every template as a single file; Restore from backup brings them back from one - useful before a risky change, or to recover if something goes wrong.

Every create or edit is recorded in the audit log with what actually changed, not just that a change happened.

¶Banners

A banner is the small promotional image some templates show below the contact details - a conference notice, a seasonal message. From Admin → Signatures, open a template and choose Design default banner to upload one, set a link and title, and schedule when it appears.

The banner editor has ready-made layouts under Start from a layout:

• Property - an example house picture with an address, price and key details over it.
• Top tips - an example picture with a home tip written over it.
• Course - a classroom picture with a course name, dates and how to book.
• Physio tip - a stretching picture with an exercise or posture tip.
• Wellbeing - a health picture with a wellbeing message.
• Event - a webinar picture with a title, date and time, and how to register.

Applying a layout replaces whatever is on the canvas; Undo puts it back.

Double-click any text to change it. Select the picture to choose a different example from the Example image list (grouped into Property, Learning, Physio, Health and Events - any picture works with any layout), or Replace with your own image - the new picture takes the same place and is cropped to fit. The words are part of the image, so put them in the banner name too: that name is the text read out to anyone who can't see the picture.

¶Adding someone to your organisation

1. Go to Admin → Users and choose Invite staff.
2. Enter their email addresses - one per line, or separated by commas, up to 50 at a time. You can paste a list of recipients straight from Outlook.
3. Choose Staff or Administrator, then Send invitations.

Each person gets their own email with an invitation that lasts 7 days. When they accept, they enter their name and the address it was sent to, and we email that address a link to choose their password - their account is only created once they've used it, so a forwarded invitation can't be used by anyone else. An administrator is also asked to set up two-factor authentication the first time they sign in.

If someone's address already has a Signature Tool account, they're emailed to say so instead, and their invitation stays under Pending invitations - an account can only belong to one organisation at the moment.

You need to have confirmed your own email address before you can send invitations. If the confirmation email has gone missing, send it again from your Account page.

Anyone already in your organisation, or already invited, is skipped and listed so you know. If one of the addresses has a typo, nothing is sent until you correct it.

Invitations that haven't been accepted yet appear under Pending invitations on the same page:

• Resend emails a fresh link and a fresh 7 days. The link in any earlier email stops working.
• Cancel withdraws the invitation straight away.

Admin → Users is also where you manage people once they've joined: change a role between staff and administrator, disable an account without deleting it, or restore someone removed by mistake (see "See deleted users" on that page). You can untick Email verified for someone, but not tick it - only the person can confirm their own address, using the link in their confirmation email.

On someone's page there you can also Require it after Microsoft sign-in: they'll then be asked for Signature Tool's own second factor (and to set one up, if they haven't) even when Microsoft has already confirmed multi-factor authentication. Only an administrator can switch it off again, and each change is recorded in the audit log.

¶Signing in with Microsoft

The sign-in page starts with Continue with Microsoft, then "or", then your email and password. While no organisation here has set up its own Microsoft sign-in, that button is one click - there's nothing to type. Once one has, you type your work email first and continue:

• If your organisation's administrator has set up its own Microsoft sign-in for your email domain, you're sent to that.
• Otherwise you use Microsoft's general sign-in, which works for any work or school Microsoft account. If your address already has an account here, the first time links the two - as long as Microsoft confirms your organisation owns the address. If you're new, it offers to register a new organisation with you as its administrator. A personal Microsoft account such as outlook.com gets a personal account of its own here, with no organisation to set up; an outlook.com address that already has an account here is never linked - sign in the usual way.

Microsoft's page opens with your address already filled in.

The Create an account page offers Register with Microsoft the same way, above the form.

An administrator can set up your organisation's own Microsoft sign-in under Admin → Microsoft sign-in, including requiring it instead of passwords, letting colleagues join automatically on their first sign-in (off unless you switch it on), and keeping accounts in step with a Microsoft group. How to set this up on that page is a step-by-step guide for your IT team, with this site's exact addresses in it. People who join this way are always members; making someone an administrator stays a choice you make on Admin → Users.

When you sign in with Microsoft - either way - and Microsoft has already asked for your second factor, you won't be asked for a code here as well, unless your administrator has asked for it. If Microsoft didn't ask, you'll be asked here as usual.

¶Share links

Admin → Share links creates a link you can send someone directly, without them needing an account first. Choose which kind when you create one:

• "Anyone can build a signature" opens the builder pre-set to your organisation's templates, with no sign-in step and no account created - the person builds their signature and leaves, and nothing they type is stored. Good for a contractor or anyone outside your usual staff list who just needs a signature once.
• "Invite people to join as staff" is one link anyone can use to create a staff account in your organisation. For named colleagues, Invite staff (above) is safer - each invitation only works for the person it was sent to. Use this link only where that isn't practical, share it carefully, and revoke it once you're done with it.

¶Connecting Microsoft 365

Admin → Microsoft 365 connects your organisation's Microsoft 365, so that signatures can later be kept up to date from your directory instead of each person typing their details in. Connecting lets this service read names, job titles, departments, company names, office locations, email addresses and phone numbers. It never changes anything in Microsoft 365.

You'll need to be a Global Administrator or Privileged Role Administrator in Microsoft 365.

1. Choose Connect Microsoft 365.
2. Sign in with your Microsoft work account. This proves which Microsoft 365 organisation you're connecting.
3. Microsoft lists the permissions an app called Signature Tool is asking for - reading every user's full profile. Choose Accept. (Microsoft may show the app as unverified; it is this service's own app, and the permission is read-only.)
4. You're brought back here. The page shows Connected once Microsoft has applied your approval. If it shows Needs attention instead, wait a few minutes and choose Check again - Microsoft doesn't always apply it straight away.

A Microsoft 365 organisation can only be connected to one organisation here. If you're told yours is already connected elsewhere and that's unexpected, contact support.

This is separate from Admin → Microsoft sign-in, which is how your staff sign in. They're separate approvals in Microsoft - signing in needs no access to your directory, so it doesn't ask for any - but they must be the same Microsoft 365 organisation: once your Microsoft sign-in is set up and verified, only that organisation can be connected here.

¶Your staff list

Once connected, Admin → Microsoft 365 shows a Staff directory section. The service copies everyone in your Microsoft 365 with an enabled work account and an email address - not guests or disabled accounts (usually how shared and room mailboxes are held) - with their name, email, job title, department, company name, office location and phone numbers.

• It syncs automatically every hour. The first sync of a large directory may take a few runs; the page says when it's still carrying on.
• Sync now fetches changes straight away - handy just after you've changed someone in Microsoft 365. It can be used a few times an hour.
• View staff lists everyone, with a search. The list is read-only: to change someone's details, change them in Microsoft 365 and they update at the next sync.
• Someone who leaves, is disabled or is removed in Microsoft 365 drops off the list at the next sync. Their copy is kept for 30 days (so a mistaken change can be put right without losing anything) and then deleted.
• If a sync fails, the page says why. If Microsoft refused access - usually because the approval was withdrawn in Microsoft - choose Reconnect.

Only your organisation's administrators can see the staff list. For this data your organisation is the controller and this service processes it on your behalf - see the privacy notice.

Disconnect stops this service using your directory straight away, and deletes the synced staff list. It doesn't withdraw the approval you gave in Microsoft - to do that, remove the app under Enterprise applications in your Microsoft Entra admin centre. Reconnect runs the approval again, which is the fix if the approval was withdrawn in Microsoft by mistake.

This option only appears for organisation accounts, and only if the service you're using has Microsoft 365 connection switched on.

¶The audit log

Admin → Audit log shows every privileged action taken in your organisation: who did what, and when, including what changed on template edits. It's scoped to your own organisation only.

¶Two-factor and passkeys

Your Account page has a Signing in section. Set up an authenticator app there (an administrator is asked to the first time they sign in), and you're asked for a code from it each time you sign in with your password.

Once the app is set up you can also add a passkey: your fingerprint, face, device PIN or a security key confirms it's you instead of typing a code. Before adding or removing one you're asked to confirm it's you with a code from the app, unless you signed in within the last 10 minutes. A passkey is always added beside the authenticator app, never instead of it, so if your device is lost the app still gets you in. At sign-in you're asked for the passkey first, with a link to use the app instead. We email you whenever a passkey is added or removed, so a change you didn't make doesn't go unnoticed.

¶If you can't sign in

After five wrong passwords, or five wrong codes from your authenticator app, your account is locked for 30 minutes and we email you. To get back in straight away, use Forgotten your password? on the sign-in page and choose a new password; that unlocks the account. Otherwise wait 30 minutes and try again.

The sign-in page shows the same message whether the password was wrong, the account is locked, or there is no account with that address, so check your inbox for the email about the lock. If you are an administrator and someone says they can't get in, check Admin → Users to see that their account is still switched on.

¶Something not covered here

Use the ? button in the bottom-right corner of any page for that page's own guidance, or visit Support - reachable from every page, and without needing to sign in.