Adding RSS feeds to email signatures with Signature Manager

Here we’ll describe how to insert RSS feeds, which can be used to pull across your most recent Tweets, blog posts, updates and more.

We’ll cover the software’s user interface for inserting RSS feeds, some of the customization it allows, adding the RSS feed URL and making sure it functions correctly.

RSS feeds

1. Find your chosen social network’s RSS feed URL - we’re using one from the popular Exchange Server resource site, MSExchange.org.
   
   
   
2. In this example, it’s ‘http://www.msexchange.org/articles-tutorials/feed.rss’, replace the URL with your own chosen RSS feed URL to make your own RSS feed.
   
   
   
3. Open the Exclaimer Template Editor – make sure you select the right policy.
   
   
   
4. Select the area you’d like your feed to appear.
   
   
   
5. Click Fields in the top-right corner, then click Dynamic Content then click RSS Feed; or right-click and select Insert Field, then click Dynamic Content then click RSS Feed.
   
   
   
6. This opens a dedicated RSS feed editor. Here, decide what content from the feed will be displayed.
   
   
   
7. Click Fields on the left to open a menu of the available content categories. Different social networks provide different content under these categories – in some social media providers, the RSS Title field might have identical content to the RSS Description field. You can use the Preview function to ensure you’re happy with the appearance.
   
   
   
8. In this example, we’re going to use the {RSS Title (as hyperlink)} field and the {RSS Description} field.
   
   
   
9. Click OK to accept the changes.
   
   
   
10. Paste the RSS feed URL you found earlier in the RSS URL field under Properties.
    
    
    
11. Click the RSS Title (as hyperlink) box, then click the field beside RSS Item which should contain Random Number by default.
    
    
    
12. Click the arrow that appears beside Random Number.
    
    
    Here, set what logic is used to display the Tweets (or whatever the social media content is).
13. Select Random Number to leave it random, or User Sequential Number to show a series of different tweets.
    
    
    
14. Or replace Random Number with ‘0’ to get the most recent Tweet every time. Simply select the text Random Number, delete it and press ‘0’ on your keyboard.
    
    
    
15. Click elsewhere in the signature to confirm the change.
    
    
    
16. Click Preview on the top-left.
    
    
    
17. Click Design to edit the signature again or click Save & Close if you’re happy with it.
    
    
    
18. Click the X icon on the top-right corner to close the console.
    
    
    A window is displayed prompting you to save before you exit, click Yes to save your configuration and set the software deploying and generating new signatures for all your users.
    
    
    
19. If you use Signature Manager, restart Outlook and click New E-mail then send an email that you are sure will trigger the policy that uses your new template.