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How to add an HTML signature file to Outlook 2007

One way to customise your email footer for Outlook is to produce an HTML file with an external editor which gives you a lot more flexibility and allows you to do more with the code, graphics and permits formatting with CSS.

Once you have your HTML file, you then need to include it into Outlook. This is not quite so straightforward but once you know how to do it, it not so difficult.

Once you have created your footer file e.g. email-footer.htm, you need to do the following in Outlook. Note that you need to upload any images you are using in the template to your server and call them in the template using a full URL.

 

1. Open Outlook

2. Go to Tools > Options and click on the Mail Format tab.

 

mail format tab

 

3. Click the Signatures button.

4. Click the New button.

5. Give your signature a meaningful name (this demo example uses “test-sig” in the diagram below). Don’t add any content in the editor window.

 

signatures window

 

6. Click on OK.

Outlook, will create 3 new files using your file name with 3 different extensions (.htm, .txt and .rtf). In this case they will be empty (which is what we want).

7. Locate your signatures directory in your Outlook installation directory

e.g. in your Windows Explorer window, enter one of the following and press return:

  • in Win7: %userprofile%Application DataMicrosoftSignatures
  • in Vista: %userprofile%AppDataRoamingMicrosoftSignatures

( %userprofile% is a windows system variable and equates to something like C:Users<name> depending on your system. Just enter it in Windows Explorer and it will work out the actual value it needs)

 

Windows Exploer window

 

Look for the file name you just created and you should find 3 files with your file name with different extensions ( .htm, .txt and .rtf).

(If you can’t see the file extensions in Windows Explorer, you will need to enable this by going to Tools > Folder Options > View and untick “Hide extensions for known file types”, or alternatively right-click the file and select ‘Properties’ to determine the file type).

8. Replace the empty HTML file created by Outlook with your one (e.g. test-sig.htm)

9. In Outlook, go to Tools > Options and click on the Mail Format tab again.

 

mail format tab

 

10. Click the Signatures button.

11. Select your new template from the “Choose default signature” drop down menu “New Messages”

 

select signature template

 

12. Click on OK.

13. Go to Outlook and open a new email. You should see your new signature included.

 

 

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