If you're like many people, e-mail is a regular part of your workday. You send mail to business associates, customers, friends, and family — and you most likely end your message with a different closing depending on the recipient. For example, you can end a message to a friend with a simple "Cheers!" But for clients, you want a more formal tone and a signature that includes your full name and contact details. Over the course of a day, that can add up to a lot of repetitive typing. Why not use automatic e-mail signatures instead?

In Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, you can create and store different signatures for different circumstances. It's easy to create a signature that includes the information you want — whether it's a plain signature with just your name or an elaborate one with a photo, hyperlink, contact details, and several lines of text formatted for clarity and emphasis. Set a signature to appear by default, or add one with a quick right-click. Creating, managing, and using e-mail signatures is easy.

Create a signature

1. In a new message, on the Message tab, in the Include group, click Signature, and then click Signatures.
   
2. On the E-mail Signature tab, click New.
3. Type a name for the signature, and then click OK.
4. In the Edit signature box, type the text that you want to include in the signature.
   
5. To format the text, select the text, and then use the style and formatting buttons to select the options that you want.

     Notes  

   • You can no longer create HTML-based signatures. For more information, see Using Outlook 2007 with and without Word 2007 installed.
   • These options are not available if you use plain text as your default message format.

   More on different message formats

   Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 supports three message formats:

   • Plain text   This is a format that all e-mail applications support. You can set Outlook to open messages that you receive in plain text format only. Plain text doesn't support bold, italic, colored fonts, or other text formatting. It also doesn't support pictures that are displayed directly in the message body, although you can include the pictures as attachments.
   • Rich Text Format (RTF)   You can use RTF when sending messages within an organization that uses Microsoft Exchange. However, Microsoft recommends that you use the HTML format. Rich Text Format supports text formatting, including bullets, alignment, and linked objects. Outlook automatically converts RTF-formatted messages to HTML by default when you send them to an Internet recipient, so that the message formatting is maintained and attachments are received. Outlook also automatically formats meeting and task requests and messages with voting buttons so that these items can be sent intact across the Internet to other Outlook users, regardless of the default format of the message.
   • HTML   This is the default message format in Outlook. It is also the best format to use when you want to create messages that are similar to traditional documents, with various fonts, colors, and bullet lists. By default, when you select either of the options that allow formatting (HTML or Rich Text), the message is sent in HTML format. So when you use HTML, you know that what you send is what the recipient will see.

    Note   When you reply to a message, Outlook preserves the format of the original message. However, if you select the Read all standard mail in plain text option, Outlook formats your reply in plain text. Or you can click the InfoBar, change the format of the message to HTML or Rich Text, and then reply. If you change the format of the message, the reply is formatted with the new display format.

   For information on changing message formats, see Change the message format to HTML, Rich Text, or plain text.

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6. To add elements besides text, place your cursor where you want the element to appear, and do any of the following:

   Options	How to	Notes
   To add an electronic business card	Click Business Card, and then click a contact in the Filed As list. Then click OK.	By simply adding your business card to a signature, you can include the specific contact information you want quickly and distinctively.
   To add a hyperlink	Click the Insert Hyperlink button, browse to a hyperlink, click to select it, and then click OK.
   To add a picture	Click the Picture button, browse to a picture, click to select it, and then click OK. Common image file formats for pictures include: .bmp, .gif, .jpg, and .png.	For information on adding an image of your handwritten signature, see: Add your handwritten signature to an e-mail message Create a handwritten signature for your messages on the Tablet PC

7. After you finish creating the signature, click OK.

    Note   The signature that you just created or modified won't appear in the currently open message; it must be inserted into the message. For more information, see "Step 2: Insert a signature in a message."

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Step 2: Insert a signature in a message

You can set a signature to be added automatically to outgoing messages, or you can manually insert a signature when needed.

 Note   You can insert only one signature per e-mail message; you cannot include multiple signatures. If you want to include more information, create one signature with all the information, and then save it with a new name.

• Insert a signature automatically

  1. In a new message, on the Message tab, in the Include group, click Signature, and then click Signatures.
     
  2. Under Choose default signature, in the E-mail account list, click an e-mail account with which you want to associate the signature.
  3. In the New messages list, select the signature that you want.
     
  4. If you want a signature to be included in message replies and in forwarded messages, in the Replies/forwards list, select the signature. If not, select none.
  5. Click OK.

• Insert a signature manually

  1. In a new message, on the Message tab, in the Include group, click Signature, and then select the signature that you want.