The “Assign template to user” management action enables you to:
- Assign one or more User Templates to a single user (regardless of whether they have already been assigned a template); or
- Assign a single User Template to multiple users (only if no template has been assigned to those users yet).
- Remove one or more User Templates from a single user, provided that at least one template remains assigned to that user.
You can review user template assignments within the “Active Users” report by selecting the “Assigned User Templates” and “Assigned User Template ID” columns.
During the template assignment process, you can customize all relevant user properties—user details, licenses, groups, mailbox, and other properties. Follow the steps in the guide below to learn more.
How to assign a template to a user
Step 1: select users
Begin by going to either the Management action list page or the “Active Users” report:
- From the Management action list page: search for the “Assign template to user” action and select it. A wizard will open, prompting you to select the users you want to assign the template to.
If you intend to select multiple users, ensure no template is already assigned to them by adding and reviewing the “Assigned User Templates” and “Assigned User Template ID” columns. If any users already have a template assigned, you will receive an error message.
- From the “Active Users” report: select the users from the list, then select the “Assign template to user” management action from the Manage panel.
Step 2: select templates
Once you've selected your user or users, click the “Select template” section of the wizard. All existing User Templates will be listed in this section.
- If you selected multiple users: you will be able to select one template from the list.
- If you selected a single user: you will be able to select multiple templates from the list.
Step 3: review properties
In the “Review properties” section, you can compare the values of your selected users with the values in your selected template, or—if you have a single user—compare their values with one or more templates.
Properties are divided into the following sections:
- User details: review and modify user-specific properties. Only one value can be selected for each property.
- Licenses: review and modify the Microsoft 365 licenses assigned to your user. Multiple licenses can be selected.
- Groups: review and assign or remove Security, Distribution, Microsoft 365, and Teams groups. Multiple groups can be selected.
- Mailbox: review and grant or revoke access to the user's mailbox or other users' mailboxes. Multiple mailboxes can be selected.
- Other properties: review and modify portal attributes 1-3 and extension attributes 1-30. Only one value can be selected for each property.
- Custom attributes: review and modify up to 15 custom values. Only one value can be selected for each property.
Depending on the selections you made in steps 1 and 2, the process of reviewing properties in each of these sections may vary.
Sections allowing single-value selection
The sections “User details”, “Other properties”, and "Custom attributes" allow a single value for each property. The comparison process may vary slightly depending on whether you are comparing a user with one template or with multiple templates.
Comparing user with one template
When comparing one or more users to a single template, if the template is configured to accept a single value, each property table will show both the value in the template and the value currently applied to the user. The “Status” column displays a green check if the values match and a warning sign if they differ. If the values don't match, you can toggle the option under the “Apply template” column to override the user value with the template value. You can also do this for all values at once by selecting the “Align all” button.
If you've selected multiple users, repeat the action for all users by selecting them under the “Users” column on the left.
Comparing user with multiple templates
When comparing a single user to multiple templates, or if the template is configured with multiple values for a specific field, the “Template value” column displays a “Multiple values” button next to each category where the templates contain different values.
Clicking the “Multiple values” button next to a category opens a property modal. This lets you compare each template's values with the user's value. Select the value you want to apply and click “Confirm” to return to the main section.
Clicking “Confirm” will save the configuration as a draft. At this stage, edits are saved but not yet applied.
Sections allowing multiple-value selection
The “License”, “Groups”, and "Mailbox" sections allow multiple values for each property. In these cases, click the “Multiple values” button to review them in the modal. If only one value is present, clicking it still opens the modal, displaying all tabs.
In the modal, you will see a section for each template, each labeled with the corresponding template name, listing their values and whether they match or conflict with the user values. If applicable, a section named “Values only in users” appears below, listing values found only in the user configuration.
At the very top of the modal, you can select one of the following tabs:
- Customize values: in this tab, manually select the values you want to align by toggling “Align to template”. Untouched values will preserve the current status.
- Align to template: this tab provides a shortcut to automatically align all values with the template, removing values only present in the user configuration.
- Merge values: this tab provides a shortcut to merge user and template values, keeping all values the user currently has while adding any additional elements from the template.
After applying the desired changes, click “Confirm” to save them as a draft and continue. When you've completed your review, the “Draft” badge will appear next to the edited sections, indicating that changes have been saved and are ready to be applied.
Step 4: review and complete
Finally, review the changes for your selected users. Only values about to be added are shown in the summary. Click “Submit” to apply the edits.
