First, some simple tests. Things work as expected. 

Next I added a horizontal line before the signature and saved it.

Where's the line? The message signature service shows the line.

Then I noticed the message signature service in the components box at the top of the workbench had a red outline. Saving my changes would not clear it, however, when I selected a different service form the components box and then tried to save the change it was accepted.

Not all changes to the message signature service are being saved correctly.

Issues with the message signature service window.

This is how things looked when I did my second test.

This is what happened when I clicked on the horizontal line.

Suddenly, I saw a lot of unwanted white space. Fortunately, the line was inserted immediately above the signature as expected but I wanted to explore this unexpected behaviour further.

If I slowly dragged the bottom right corner of the window upwards, this would happen:

The signature would appear directly under the horizontal line where I would expect it to be and a handle appears at the bottom right so I can adjust the window size.

But wait... If I try to adjust the size of the window (larger or smaller) using that handle the text reverts to its former position. The only difference is that the window handle sort of remains.

At this point I can still adjust the window size but the only way to view the text where it should be (under the horizontal line) is to cancel the edit and begin again.

Note:

I'm using Chrome for these tests.

When I use Firefox, I never see the text in the correct position nor see the window handle.

When I tried Edge, behaviour is somewhere in between.

I thought I was ready to try an actual HTML signature but as soon I applied any formatting I experienced all kinds of weird behaviour. I'll leave it at that for now because the results I observer were anything but consistent.

So back to the basics. This is a two line signature with no special formatting.

This is how it looks when inserted into an email.

I don't like nor want want that line spacing but what can I do?

I decided to insert a single horizontal line under the signature.

Now, I get this:

Okay, I delete the horizontal line and decide to verify the result before trying something else.

Now, when I test it I get this.

Time for a fresh start.

• I delete the message signature from the profile: the workbench and the components. My test email comes through unaltered.
• I recreate my two line signature with no special formatting as I described at the beginning of this post..

Once again, I'm back to this:

No more horizontal lines. Let's try bold text.

That works.

Let's add some colour.

This works too.

How about underline?

This time it works. When I tried it previously the signature was split across multiple lines.

How about increasing the size of the font?
Well, it's bigger but no longer bold.

Hmmm. The red text looks bold.

In my previous testing, the text inserted into the email did not match the text configured in the message signature object. I had two message signature object on the workbench at the time. I'll have to do some more testing to see if that creates issues.

I have to open cases for this ...

Have you been testing the top-signature service with inbound messages?  Have you tested it with gmail-originated messages?

For me the top-signature shows up at the bottom on ALL gmail-originated messages, and a few others too.  It works correctly on most messages, but 'most' leaves out a pretty big chunk.  I'm not feeling good about deploying it company-wide until it works with gmail.

davemrm said:

Have you tested it with gmail-originated messages?

No. I've only done these tests where the sender (me) is using GroupWise.

There is much more testing needed.

davemrm said:

I'm not feeling good about deploying it company-wide until it works with gmail.

I don't believe this feature has been thoroughly tested and based upon what I have observed I would not deploy it in a production environment.

Diethmar Rimser said:

I have to open cases for this ...

I did!

No solution so far. Yes, they called me (two cases now, two different calls) ...

I've opened a case as well, for the issue with the at-top signature appearing at the bottom of all gmail-sourced messages and a few others.  The rep started by asking if I'd tried a different browser, which puzzled me as I don't see how my particular issue can be browser-related but I tested with Firefox instead of Chrome as requested - no change as expected.  Then I sent the support rep a couple of examples.

I'll let you gentlemen work on the formatting issues; I do see some of the problems you're reporting as well, but no point in muddying the case with multiple issues. 

davemrm said:

I've opened a case as well, for the issue with the at-top signature appearing at the bottom of all gmail-sourced messages and a few others. 

Thanks Dave,

Certainly these issues have to be reported but mentioning them here will alert other community members as well.

davemrm said:

I do see some of the problems you're reporting as well, but no point in muddying the case with multiple issues. 

I disagree.

As long as it doesn't cost you anything to open a case, I recommend you do so. You may be able to provide a different perspective or even identify a new issue. My testing certainly hasn't been exhaustive. Furthermore, the more users who report an issue, the higher the priority assigned to the defect so every little bit helps.