Signature Manager for Gmail

What is Signature Manager for Gmail™?

Signature Manager for Gmail™ is an email signature management tool developed by HiView Solutions, a Google-certified Partner. It is designed to create and manage email signatures across an entire organization. Workspace administrators can centrally create, update, and deploy brand-perfect email signatures. With Signature Manager, Workspace admins can ensure every email from your organization stays on-brand.

How do I get started with Signature Manager?

Install the app in the Google Workspace Marketplace https://workspace.google.com/marketplace/app/signature_manager_for_gmail/1026084253840 NOTE: Only Workspace Super Admins can install Signature Manager for Gmail.
Sign into the app at https://signature.hiviewsolutions.com/login.
Create and Manage your users’ Gmail signatures! Here’s a video to help you get started.

How do I subscribe to the Premium plan or upgrade my current subscription?

You can upgrade to the Premium plan by accessing the “Settings” within the Signature Manager application: https://signature.hiviewsolutions.com/settings/subscription For pricing information, please visit: https://hiviewsolutions.com/signature-manager-for-gmail/

What are the key differences between the Free and Premium plans of Signature Manager?

The main differences between the Free and Premium plans of Signature Manager come down to flexibility, scale, branding, and administrative control.

Template Deployment
- Free: Signatures must be applied manually to each user, one at a time, which can be time consuming for larger teams.
- Premium: Enables bulk deployment by Google Group or Organizational Unit, allowing admins to push a template out to all users at once.
Branding
- Free: Includes a “Powered by HiView Solutions” watermark at the bottom of each signature.
- Premium: Removes the watermark for a fully professional, company branded look.
Template Management
- Free: Limited to one active signature template for the whole company.
- Premium: Supports up to 10 active templates, making it easy to create small variations for different departments or teams without losing consistency.
Admin Access
- Free: Only one admin account can manage signatures for the entire company, creating a bottleneck and dependency on a single person.
- Premium: Allows multiple admin accounts, so responsibility can be shared across IT or department leads.
Support
- Free: No direct support channel included.
- Premium: Offers dedicated phone and email support for faster issue resolution.

What fonts are supported?

In the editor, go to “Format” then “Fonts” to find the fonts available in Gmail. If you want to use a font that is not available in Gmail, you can edit the source code of the template and edit the font-family value of the text directly (expert option only). We strongly recommend using Gmail supported fonts to avoid any issues with compatibility. Short list of web-safe fonts include:

Arial
Century Gothic
Courier New
Garamond

Georgia
Helvetica
Impact
Lucida

Times New Roman
Tahoma
Trebuchet
Verdana

How are signatures applied?

We use the Gmail API provided by Google, this updates the primary email’s signature in the Gmail web UI (not the mobile version). This signature is added to new emails only and not replies/forwards as described in the documentation. Also, please keep in mind that Gmail caches the signature so if you applied a new signature and the user has a Gmail tab with their old signature open they’ll need to refresh that tab.

Why are the signatures not showing when sending messages from the Gmail mobile app?

The signatures are only available for messages sent from the Gmail web UI. At this time, users need to manually update their plain text signature for mobile. Once the Gmail API is able to update the mobile signature, we’ll include this feature.

How do I upload an image?

This guide provides step by step instructions on how to properly get a public URL for an image and add it to your signature template in the Signature Manager. Following these steps ensures your image will be visible to all email recipients.

Q1: Why can’t I just upload an image file directly from my computer?

The Signature Manager for Gmail requires images to be hosted online with a public, direct URL. This means the image must be accessible on the internet via a third party image storage provider, not just on your personal computer. This process uses Google Photos to host the image and generate the correct type of link.

Q2: What are the detailed steps to get the correct image URL?

This is a two-part process. First, you will upload the image to Google Photos to generate a public link. Second, you will use that link to find the direct URL needed for the Signature Manager.

Part A: Uploading to Google Photos and Creating a Share Link

1. Open a new browser tab and navigate to photos.google.com.
2. In the top right corner, click the Upload button and select the image you want to use from your computer.
3. Once the upload is complete, click on the image to view it.
4. In the top right corner of the screen, click the Share icon.
5. A new window will appear. At the bottom, click Create link.
6. If prompted again, click Create link to confirm.
7. Once the link is generated, click Copy link.

Part B: Finding the Direct Image URL

1. Open a new browser tab. Paste the link you just copied into the address bar and press Enter.
2. Your image will appear on the screen. Right-click directly on the image itself.
3. From the menu that appears, select Open image in new tab.
4. Navigate to this newly opened tab. The URL in the address bar is the direct link you need. It will typically start with https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/….
5. Click on the address bar to select the entire URL, then right-click and select Copy.

Q3: How do I add the image to the Signature Manager?

1. Open the Signature Manager application.
2. Navigate to the signature template you are editing or create a new one.
3. In the editor toolbar, click the Insert/edit image icon.
4. In the window that appears, find the field labeled Source.
5. Paste the direct image URL you copied in Part B, Step 5.
6. Click Save.

The image should now appear in your signature editor and will be visible in all new emails. You can resize and adjust the image within the editor as needed.

Q4: My image is not showing up in my emails. What could be wrong?

This usually happens for one of two reasons:

You used the wrong link: You might have pasted the initial sharing link (e.g., a photos.app.goo.gl link) into the Signature Manager instead of the final direct URL. The correct URL is the one you get after selecting “Open image in new tab” and will not be a shortened link.
Pasting Error: Ensure you copied the entire URL from the address bar without missing any characters. Repeat Part B and Part C of the steps to be certain.

How do I insert images?

Follow these steps:

1. Go to the Menu tab
2. Click ‘Insert’
3. Click ‘Image’
4. Enter a public URL of the image in PNG or JPG formats ie. https://signature.hiviewsolutions.com/assets/hs_logo.png
5. Click ‘Save’

Once you have inserted the public URL of the image, the editor should auto fill the width and height values but these can be changed if needed.

In order to get a public URL for your picture, follow the steps found on the video above.

Using Placeholders (Merge tags)

This guide explains what placeholders (or merge tags) are, how they work with your Google Workspace directory, and how to use them to create dynamic and personalized email signatures.

Q1: What are placeholders?

Placeholders are special tags, also known as merge tags, that you insert into your signature template. These tags act as stand-ins for employee information. When a signature is applied to a user, the Signature Manager automatically replaces the placeholder with that specific user’s information.

For example, a placeholder like employee_name in a template will be replaced by “John Smith” in John’s signature and “Jane Doe” in Jane’s signature. This allows you to create one universal template that is automatically personalized for every employee.

Q2: Where does the placeholder information come from?

The information is pulled directly from your organization’s Google Workspace directory. Fields like:

Name
Title
Department
Employee ID
Phone Numbers

…and more are all sourced from each user’s profile in the Google Workspace Admin console.

Important: If a field is not filled out in a user’s Google Workspace profile, the corresponding placeholder will be empty in their signature. The Signature Manager can only display the data that is available. For steps on how to Add information to a user’s Directory profile visit the this Google Workspace Admin Help article.

Q3: How do I add placeholders to my signature template?

There are two easy methods to add placeholders in the signature editor:

1. Drag and Drop:

On the side of the editor, you will see a list of available user details (e.g., “Name”, “Title”, “Employee ID”).
Simply click and drag the desired placeholder from the list and drop it into the desired position in your signature template.
2. Using the ‘Insert Merge Tag’ Button:

Click on the Insert Merge Tag icon in the editor’s toolbar.
A dropdown menu will appear with a complete list of available placeholders.
Click on the placeholder you wish to insert, and it will be added to the template where your cursor is positioned.

Q4: How can I preview what the signature will look like with a real employee’s data?

The standard editor view shows the placeholder tags themselves (e.g., $${Title}$$). To see a live preview with actual data:

1. On the right-hand side of the editor, find and click the View employee details button.
2. A search box will appear. Type in the name of an employee you want to preview.
3. Select the user from the results.
4. The signature preview will now update to show that specific employee’s information as it exists in Google Workspace.

Q5: An employee’s information is missing in the preview. How do I fix this?

If you preview a signature and notice that a field (like “Employee ID” or “Title”) is blank, it means this information has not been entered for that user in Google Workspace.

Solution: A Google Workspace administrator must go to the Google Workspace Admin console, find the specific user, and update their profile by filling in the missing information under User information. Once the directory is updated, the Signature Manager will be able to pull the new data and correctly populate the signature.

Why is the signature template not applying to all my users?

Make sure the add-on is installed for everyone at your organization:

1. Log into admin.google.com
2. From the menu on the left click on ‘Apps’
3. Click on ‘Google Workspace Marketplace apps’
4. Click on ‘Apps list’
5. Click on ‘Signature Manager for Gmail’
6. Click on ‘Uninstall app’
7. Re-install the app for everyone in the organization

This is necessary so the web application can manage the users’ signatures. Your users may see the add-on installed in their accounts but they won’t have access to the web application, only the super admins and invited non-admin users will have access to the Signature Manager for Gmail.

After doing this please make sure the Directory sharing settings are ON for everyone in the organization. You can find the steps here.

Why are the signatures not showing on the replies I sent if it is showing on new emails?

In order to use the web signature in replies/forwards go to the Gmail settings, under the General tab, look for the Signature setting. Make sure the signature for On reply/forward is the correct one.

Why is the text and image not being displayed correctly?

By default, the width of the element is 100% so it will expand the 2 columns (image and signature) in bigger screens.

To solve this, before applying the signature you need to right click the table and select Table Properties. Under the General tab, delete the width value (leave empty) or enter a specific size in pixels and save the changes. If we use a percentage value it’ll always adapt to the size of the screen.

How to use the Social Media Placeholders

The Social Media Placeholders will work in the same way as the user placeholders, you can drag and drop them in the editor. Please remember the Social Media Placeholders will add the first part (sitename) of the URL so you will need to type in the rest of the information after the site name like this:

You can find these fields in the ‘Company Information’ section in the Signature Manager App: