Due to a recent migration from a Novell to Microsoft, our company has also migrated from Novell Groupwise to Outlook 2007. This article is one of a series of short "How To" articles that I have been publishing internally to make the transition easier. Please keep in mind that this was written with Outlook 2007 in mind, so you may have to follow slightly different steps to make this work in earlier Outlook version.
Creating a signature file
In most email programs, you can set up a signature to be automatically added to all of your emails, and Outlook 2007 is no different. This saves you the hassle of typing your name and contact information every time you send an email, so is quite a useful feature.
Part 1 – Creating Signatures
To create a signature, select New (email) from the file menu (or press Ctrl+Shift+M):
From the Include group on the Ribbon, select the Signature dropdown and choose Signatures...
Click New and give your signature a name:
Enter the details of your signature in the Edit Signature box at the bottom.
Now simply pres OK to save the signature and return to your email.
NOTE:
- When you initially create your email signature, it will not automatically be inserted into the current email. Follow the steps below to manually add your signature to the current email or automatically add the signature to future emails.
- You can make pretty email signatures by adding colours and pictures to them. This can cause problems when received by the recipient, however, as this writes in HTML, and many email client are set to read text only by default.
Part 2 - Applying Signatures to your Email
To add a signature to your email, select the signature name from the Signature drop down when you are in your email message. It will automatically add the signature to your email.
WARNING:
When you insert a signature, it will insert it right where your cursor is. So if you have your cursor in the middle of a word, that is where the signature will go!
Part 3 - Automagically Applying Signatures
To me, this is where the time savings really comes in. I automatically attach my signature to every email I send, as I never want to have to click to insert it. To do this, open the Signatures editor from a new email message. (Signature then Signatures..., as shown in Part 1, above)
Select your signature in the list, and choose the appropriate emails to add your signature to. As shown below, I automatically attach my signature to all new messages, as well as all of those I reply to or forward.
NOTES:
- You can create more than one signature in this screen, (press New again to do so.)
- If you have multiple signatures, you can pick a different one for new messages and replies/forwards by choosing the appropriate one from the drop down shown in the upper right of the image above
- If you leave the setting for New messages or Replies/forwards to (none), then you'll need to add the signature to your email manually, as was described in the section above.
