Set-OutlookSignatures/Set-OutlookSignatures v4.0.0

Release v4.0.0

on GitHub

v4.0.0 - 2023-07-12

Some features are exclusive to the commercial Benefactor Circle add-on. See .\docs\Benefactor Circle for details about these features and how you can benefit from them with a Benefactor Circle licence.

Attention, cloud mailbox users:

• Set-OutlookSignatures can now experimentally handle roaming signatures! See MirrorLocalSignaturesToCloud in .\docs\README for details.
• Microsoft actively enables roaming signatures in Exchange Online. See What about the roaming signatures feature in Exchange Online? in .\docs\README for details, known problems and workarounds.

Changed

• Breaking: Benefactor Circle members have exclusive access to the following features:
  • Prioritized support and feature requests
    • Issues are handled with priority via a Benefactor Circle exclusive email address and a callback option.
    • Requests for new features are checked for feasability with priority.
    • All release upgrades during the licence period are for free, no matter if it is a patch, feature or major release.
  • Script features
    • Time-based campaigns by assigning time range constraints to templates
    • Signatures for automapped and additional mailboxes
    • Set current user Outlook Web signature (classic Outlook Web signature and roaming signature)
    • Download and upload roaming signatures
    • Set current user Out of Office messages
    • Delete signatures created by the script, where the template no longer exists or is no longer assigned
    • Delete user created signatures
    • Additional signature path (when used outside of simulation mode)
    • High resolution images from DOCX templates
  • Additional documentation: Implementation approach
    • The content is based on real-life experiences implementing the script in multi-client environments with a five-digit number of mailboxes.
    • Proven procedures and recommendations for product managers, architects, operations managers, account managers, mail and client administrators. Suited for service providers as well as for clients.
    • It covers several general overview topics, administration, support, training across the whole lifecycle from counselling to tests, pilot operation and rollout up to daily business.
    • Available in English and German.
  • Sample code
    • SimulateAndDeploy.ps1: Deploy signatures without end user interaction, running Set-OutlookSignatures on a server
    • Test-ADTrust.ps1: Detect why a client cannot query Active Directory information
• Breaking: The CreateRTFSignatures parameter now defaults to false, because the RTF format for e-mails is hardly used nowadays.
• Breaking: The EmbedImagesInHtml parameter now defaults to false because certain recent versions of Word (which Outlook uses as HTML renderer) incorrectly hande embedded images. See Images in signatures have a different size than in templates, or a black background in README for details.
  When EmbedimagesInHtml is enabled, it now automatically enables the "Send pictures with document" Outlook registry key.
• Breaking: New parameter DisableRoamingSignatures defaults to true. See README for details.
• Updated FAQ Images in signatures have a different size than in templates. See README for details.

Added

• Quick Start Guide. See README for details.
• New parameter MirrorLocalSignaturesToCloud for experimentally handling roaming signatures. Disabled by default. See README for details.
• Thanks to our partnership with ExplicIT Consulting, Set-OutlookSignatures and its components are digitally signed with an Extended Validation (EV) Code Signing Certificate (which is the highest code signing standard available).
  This is not only available for Benefactor Circle members, but also the Free and Open Source core version is code signed. Code signing makes it much easier to implement Set-OutlookSignatures in environments being locked down with AppLocker or comparable tools.
• All replacement variables now have the 'DELETEEMPTY' option, which allows for images to be kept only when an attribute has a value. See Delete images when attribute is empty, variable content based on group membership in README for details and examples.
• The attribute 'GroupsSIDs' is now available in the $CURRENTMAILBOX[...] variable for use with replacement variables. It contains all the SIDs of the groups the current mailbox is a member of, which allows for replacement variable content based on group membership. See Delete images when attribute is empty, variable content based on group membership in README for details and examples.
• New sample script SimulationModeHelper.ps1 make simulation mode usage easier. An admin sets the parameters in the script, the content creators execute it and just have to enter the values required for simulation:
  • The user to simulate (mandatory)
  • The mailbox(es) to simulate (optional)
  • The time to simulate (optional)
  • The output path (optional)
• A basic configuration user interface with grouped parameter sets, just run Show-Command .\Set-OutlookSignatures.ps1 in PowerShell.
• The new template tag WriteProtect write protects individual signature files. See README for details and restrictions.
• The new script parameter SimulateTime allows to use a specific time when running simulation mode, which is handy for testing time-based templates.
• New parameter DisableRoamingSignatures. See README for details.
• New FAQ Start Set-OutlookSignatures in hidden/invisible mode. See README for details.
• Show a warning message when setting the Outlook Web signature is not possible because Outlook Web has not been initialized yet, making it impossible to set signature options in Outlook Web without breaking the first log in experience for this mailbox (getting asked for language, timezone, etc.)
• Copy HTM image width and height attributes to style attribute
• Show a warning when a template contains images formatted as non-inline shapes, as these image formatting options may not be supported by Outlook (e.g., behind the text)
• Support for mailboxes in the user's Azure AD tenant with different UPN/user ID and primary SMTP address
• The Word registry key DontUseScreenDpiOnOpen is set to 1 automatically, according to Microsoft documentation (see README for details). This helps avoid image sizing problems on devices with non-standard DPI settings.

Fixed

• Simulation mode
  • Simulation mode partly returned data of the currently logged on user instead of data of the simulated user
  • Simulation mode did not prioritize mailbox list correctly
  • When SimulateUser is not defined, but other simulation parameters, the script exits
  • When multiple mailboxes to simulate were passed, only the first one was considered
• Graph queries did not correctly handle paged results
• Restoring the Word setting 'ShowFieldCodes' now works correctly in more error scenarios
• Benefactor Circle members only: Additional and automapped mailboxes have not been detected reliably
• Categorizing template files is now much faster than before (two seconds instead of two minutes for 250 templates)
• Replacing variables in DOCX templates is now faster than before, as only variables actually being used in the document are replaced
• Realiably remove '$CURRENT[...]PHOTO$' string from image alt text
• SimulateAndDeploy.ps1: Correctly convert HTML image tags with embedded images and additional options
• Display sort order for was not handled correctly when primary smtp address of a mailboxes has been changed after it was already added to Outlook