Add-in options
Control what the Outlook add-in shows, and give card holders a personal space to manage their signature, details, contacts and files.
Once the add-in is deployed, two settings control what it shows your users. They live in Integrations → Outlook add-in and apply to the whole organization.
These settings used to sit in the Settings drawer of the Email signatures page. They moved here: they configure the add-in, not the signatures themselves.
Show template names
When a user has several signatures assigned, the add-in offers them a choice. Turn this on to display each template's name under its preview — useful when two signatures look alike.
Without it, users only see the previews.
Personalisation link
This option adds a link in the add-in panel to a personal space. Card holders manage there whatever you allow them to — with no ECARD account to create, and without going through you.
Tick the tabs you want to open:
| Tab | What the user can do |
|---|---|
| Choose their default signature | Pick the signature inserted automatically, internally and externally, regardless of the priority order you set |
| Edit their profile data | Update their card: contact details, job title, photo, social networks |
| Access their profile page | View their public page and copy its link |
| Access generated contacts | Review the contacts collected through their card and profile page, and export them as CSV if you allow it |
| Access their files | Download their QR codes, digital business card (vCard) and digital cards |
At least one tab must be ticked: otherwise the link would open an empty space, and saving is refused.
A screenshot of the Integrations → Outlook add-in page with its two setting blocks would help here.
A tab may not appear
Two tabs hide themselves when they have nothing to show:
- Contacts — until at least one contact has been collected.
- Profile page — until a page template targets the card.
They appear on their own once the condition is met. Nothing to do on your side.
How users reach their space
The link appears in the add-in panel while composing a message. It is valid for 30 minutes and regenerated every time the panel opens: reopening Outlook is always enough to get a fresh one.
What happens next depends on what you opened:
- Signature choice only — the space opens straight away. No personal data is exposed there: only the names and previews of templates already assigned to that card.
- As soon as another tab is active — a verification code is emailed to the card's address. The user enters it, then reaches their space for 45 minutes.
The session extends itself while the page is in use, and closes after 15 minutes of inactivity, with a warning two minutes beforehand.
The code is valid for 10 minutes. After five wrong codes it is destroyed and a new one must be requested.
Editing data: choosing fields and mode
When you open the Edit their profile data tab, two extra settings appear. They are exactly those of the edit link, and they work the same way.
The mode decides what happens to the changes:
| Mode | What happens |
|---|---|
| Apply immediately | The card is updated as soon as the user saves |
| Review before applying | The request lands in Users → Pending updates, where you review it field by field before accepting or rejecting it |
In review mode the request appears in the same list as those from emailed links, labelled Outlook add-in instead of a recipient — there is no link to resend or revoke, since the user comes back through the add-in.
A user can only have one pending request at a time. Until you decide on the previous one, a new attempt is refused.
The fields: tick those the user may edit. Fields marked with a padlock are synced from Microsoft Entra ID in Always overwrite mode — on the cards concerned, an edit made from the space will be rewritten at the next sync. Cards that are not synced are unaffected, which is why those fields stay tickable. See Import mode, field by field.
Good to know
- The settings apply to the whole organization: there is no per-user or per-group setting.
- Unticking an option removes it immediately, including for a user whose space is already open: the tab disappears on their next refresh.
- Only owners and administrators see and change these settings.
- Contact export is a separate checkbox: you can let a user review their contacts without allowing them to take them away.
Troubleshooting
- The link does not appear in the add-in → the option is off, no tab is ticked, or the installed add-in predates the link. See Update the add-in.
- "Link expired" after a refresh → the link lasts 30 minutes. If the session is still open the page keeps working; otherwise reopen the panel in Outlook for a fresh link.
- The user does not receive their code → check the email address on their card, that is where the code goes. Beyond five requests per hour for one address, sending is temporarily blocked.
- A change was saved then vanished → the field is managed by Microsoft Entra ID in Always overwrite, and the sync rewrote it.
- The Contacts tab is missing → no contact has been collected for that card yet.
Further reading
- Install the add-in — deploying from the Microsoft 365 admin center
- Edit link — the same card editing, sent by email
- Microsoft Entra ID — which fields the sync locks, and why
- Create a signature