E-mail Signatures

An e-mail signature is a block of text automatically added to the end of your e-mail message. It generally contains your name, title, contact information and so forth. This article explains how to manage your e-mail signatures in Microsoft Outlook.

• From the main Microsoft Outlook window, click on the Tools menu
• Click Options (this opens the options dialog shown below)
• Click the Mail Format tab
• Under Signature, click the Signatures... button
• Note: While you're here, setting your Message format to "Plain Text" is recommended as it is most compatible with e-mail recipient software. However, doing so will keep you from using text formatting (such as bold, italic, colors, etc.).

• The Signatures and Stationary or Create Signature dialog should now be open. The dialog varies with the version of Outlook, but work essentially the same way. The dialogs for Outlook 2007 is shown here:

• Select the signature you want to modify or click New to create a new signature
• When creating a new signature, name the signature when prompted and click OK, or Next
• In the large signature text box, type in your signature as you'd like it to appear in your e-mails
• Use the provided tools to format text to your liking. Note: These options are not available if you use plain text as your message format.
• To add an electronic business card - vCard - to the signature, under vCard options, select a vCard from the list, or click New vCard from Contact.
• Click Finish when you are done editing the new signature.
• Click Apply for the changes to take effect
• Click OK to close the Options window

More resources

Microsoft online training courses:

• Signatures for Outlook 2007
• Signatures for Outlook 2003