Creating and Using Signatures

Using signatures in e-mail messages is commonplace and some companies require employees to do so. When most of us think of signatures in relationship to e-mail, we think of the sender's name, company, address, and contact information at the bottom of the message. But, signatures are not limited to this use and can be a valuable, time-saving tool. Signatures might be one of the most underused productivity tools in Outlook.

Signatures - Other Uses
In addition to being able to store your name and contact information and inserting this information into an e-mail message, you can store all sorts of commonly used information; you can create a signature that contains a paragraph or multiple paragraphs of information.

Do you have common e-mail messages or responses that you send out to customers, co-workers, or team members? If so, why not create a signature containing this information? You can then insert this information as needed and customize any specific information such as the recipient's name, a due date, or location. By doing this, you save yourself the time of creating the message and proofreading it to ensure accuracy, content, and tone.

I'll bet you can think of a half dozen or more common messages/responses you regularly use that could be saved as signatures.

Creating Signatures

1. Click the File tab to open the Backstage view.
2. Click on the Options button. The Outlook Options dialog box opens.
3. Select Mail.
4. Choose the Signatures button at the right. The Signatures and Stationery dialog box opens.
5. Click the New button, type in the name of the new signature, and click OK.
6. Type in the content of the signature in the Edit signature area. (Note: I highlighted information that will be customized in each e-mail message.)
7. You can customize the font, size, color, and styles of the text in the signature.
8. Click Save to save the signature.

Setting Default Signatures
You can set Outlook to automatically add a signature to each new message and/or to all replies/forwards. You can use the same signature for both of these default settings or use different ones. You can also set no default signatures and manually insert a signature into an e-mail message.

1. To select a default signature, click on the New messages or Replies/forwards drop-down list and select a signature. Select (none) if you don't want a default signature on one or both of these options.
2. Click OK to close the Signatures and Stationery dialog box.
3. Click OK to close the Outlook Options dialog box.

Manually Inserting a Signature
You can manually insert a signature into a new e-mail message or on any message you reply to or forward.

1. On a new message or one to which your are replying or forwarding, click on the Signatures button [Home tab, Include group].
2. Select the signature to insert.

Only one signature can be inserted into an e-mail message. If you insert a second signature, the first signature will be replaced. I have no idea why Microsoft has chosen to limit us to inserting only one signature.

Signatures and Multiple E-Mail Accounts
If you are using multiple e-mail accounts in Outlook, you can choose to have different default signatures for different e-mail accounts, which is a handy feature.

In the Signature and Stationery dialog box, you can select the e-mail account and then select the default signatures for that account.

If you are manually inserting a signature, you can use any of your signatures on any e-mail accounts you have set up in Outlook.

Now go and create and use some signatures...and work smarter not harder!!

Randy