How to use a Custom Smart Table – Exclaimer Knowledge Base

Relevant Products: Signature Manager Exchange Edition | Signature Manager Outlook Edition | Signature Manager Office 365 Edition | Mail Disclaimers | Template Editor

Scenario

The signature design requires a specific layout, however you are unsure of how this can be achieved. You know it needs rows and columns, as well as spacing between the elements in the design.

Resolution

Tables are a great way to build and control the signature design, using rows, columns and padding to add space and, give the signature template a professional feel to it.

There are 3 types of tables that can be used, to build and style a signature template. Each have their different uses and reasons behind them.

The tables can be found at the top of the template editor window, under the table icon.

There are three different tables that you can use, to create your signature template, they each have their pros and cons and, ease of use.

Contact Block - A Smart Table containing contact numbers and email address, with labels and several layout options.

Smart Table - A smart table is optimised for common layout tasks, such as creating contact blocks, business cards and other groups of information. Smart Tables are used with Active Directory Fields with options to suppress a table row if the field is empty

HTML Table - Used to create simple to the more complex of layouts, allowing total control of how the signature appears. Also one of the easiest options to work with when building Email Signature Templates.

Using a Custom Smart Table

A smart table is optimised for common layout tasks, such as creating contact blocks, business cards and other groups of information. Smart Tables are used with Active Directory Fields with options to suppress a table row if the field is empty. A Custom Smart Table can be set up with as many rows and columns as you require. You can style the fields using the field properties while creating the contact bock. Also, by using the table properties you can create space and apply further formatting if this is required.

To create a custom smart table, select the second option in the table selection window

Select how many rows and columns you would like, for your Smart Table and click Ok.

It is recommended to set up the rows and columns first, this way it is easier to adapt and change if need be.

The next window will show the empty rows and or columns of the smart table, here you can add in your fields, images and other content required for the signature template.

Columns will appear as empty cells underneath each other.

Each column will appear next to each other and, numbered as Column 1, Column 2, Column 3 etc.

By clicking Edit or double clicking on the empty cell row, you can start to add in the content required, such as fields and images.

Using the Insert drop down arrow, you can select fields from the Active Directory, as well as dynamic content such as images, social media strips etc.

Here you can see that the Columns are in the same editing window, both enable you to add content for the signature template.

Once a field is selected, it will appear in the empty column box, you can continue adding more fields and static text to each column.

Using the suppress row if the field is blank, you can set the whole table row to hide based on the active directory, essentially setting up a conditional row.

Once selected and you have clicked OK, you will be able to see the which row is populated and, conditional.

Keep adding the content required, to your columns inside the smart table, once happy click OK

You will be able to see the generated table, and it's contents displayed in the design view

In the preview you will be able to see the full design, without the table borders and, see how the data looks when a user is populated.

Font Styles and Field Properties

When styling the fields in a Custom Smart Table, we recommend to use the field properties where possible, the reason is we have found that the field properties are more universally read by the mail clients. You will also be able to find the font styles in the Table Properties as well, however this can be complex to navigate through.

To edit the fields, it is easier to achieve this while setting up the fields in each column, to get back to the table editor window, double click on the smart table.

To start with click edit, or double click on the row you wish to style

Then, either click on the properties drop down arrow to bring up the various options

Or right click on the field and select properties, to achieve a similar result

Field Properties - Styles the active directory field itself (recommended)

Text Properties - Styles the text in the table cell itself

Cell Properties - Styles the table cell with optional inline styles for the html appearance

As you can see, the results may vary depending on which option you choose.

Both the field and text properties take precedence, however using the Cell properties the text size and font family are displayed but, not the colour code.

This may or may not show correctly once an email has been received, once the mail client has read the html code. It will not show in both the policy tester or template design view.

Table Properties

The Table Properties, of the Custom Smart Table can be found on the right hand side of the editor. To view the table properties, simply click on the smart table itself.

You will notice that there is a scroll bar, which means that there are more properties to view.

To view the properties fully, either expand the window to fill the screen or scroll down using the scroll bar.

There are six overall categories, in the table properties that you can edit.

Appearance - Allows you to set the field, text and table font styles to the table directly, everything will inherit the styles set. Using the arrows, you can expand the categories for the Text Font and Fields Font.

Fields - Allows you to further edit the fields and the font styles using the field properties. This shows all the fields and elements used in the Custom Smart Table, you can expand each element further.

This makes it slightly easier to change images, in the smart table, by changing the image location, url and size.

HTML - where you can edit the table, row and cell properties with custom html if needed such as padding, background colours etc. To define this further, expand the Row and Cell properties.

Misc - All the table properties combined, allows you to add custom styles to the rows and columns, as well as further edit the fields set from the field properties.

By expanding the rows, you can add custom html and edit the fields in the custom smart table, each row has a column, if there are more than one columns then they will display as Column 1, Column 2, Column 3 etc.