If you frequently connect with friends and family, and especially if you conduct business via e-mail, one of the most important points of communication is your signature. They say that first impressions are essential, but so are final impressions, since a good last impression is a lasting impression!
Despite the fact that it appears at the bottom of an email, your Outlook signature is one of the first methods to create an impression on your reader. It should be given the same amount of attention and consideration as the rest of your email message.
It is simple to create a basic signature in Outlook. If you have many e-mail accounts, you may customize your signature for each one. You may also add a signature to all outgoing messages automatically, or you can specify which message types should include a signature.
Follow the instructions below to add a signature to Outlook:
1). Click the New Email button on the Home tab. Select Signature and then click Signatures in the Message section. The window Signatures and Stationery will display.
In Outlook 2010 and later, you may also access the Signature function by going to File > Options > Mail section > Signatures… It’s Tools > Options > Mail Format tab > Signatures in Outlook 2007 and earlier versions….
2). In any case, the Signatures and Stationery dialogue box will appear, displaying a list of previously made signatures, if any.
Click the New button under Select signature to add a new signature, then create a name for it in the New Signature dialogue box.
3). Do the following in the Choose Default Signature section:
- Select an email account from the E-mail account dropdown list to associate with the newly generated signature.
- Select the signature to be automatically added to all new messages from the New messages dropdown list. If you don’t want Outlook to automatically add an email signature to new messages, keep the default (none) option selected.
- Choose the signature for responses and forwarded messages from the Replies/forwards list, or keep the default choice of (none).
Similarly, you may design a separate signature for each account, such as one for personal emails and another for business emails.
You may even have two distinct email signatures for the same account, such as a lengthier signature for new messages and a shorter, simpler signature for responses and forwards. When you’ve finished configuring your email signatures, they’ll all show in the New messages and Replies/forwards dropdown lists:
In the New messages and Replies/forwards dropdown menus, all existing Outlook signatures are displayed.
This sample is only for demonstration purposes and exhibits a very rudimentary text signature. If you’re making a formal email signature, you should design it professionally and include a clickable brand logo and social media icons. In the section below, you will discover necessary information as well as comprehensive steps to learn how to make a professional email signature in Outlook.
How to create a professional Outlook Signature
This section contains step-by-step directions for creating a more comprehensive email signature that includes your contact information, a photo, and social media buttons with links to relevant profile sites. Because the Outlook signature mini toolbar only has a few options, we’ll make a signature in a new message and then copy it to Outlook Signatures.
1). On the Home tab, select the New Email option to start a new message.
2). Include a table to contain and highlight your contact information and photographs.
Switch to the Insert tab in the new message window, choose Table, and drag your mouse in the table grid to pick the number of rows and columns that correspond to your email signature arrangement.
The table will assist you in aligning your visual and text components in order to create harmony in your Outlook email signature design.
If you’re not sure how many rows and columns you’ll need, add 3 rows and 3 columns as we did in this example, and then add or remove further rows/columns as needed.
3). Insert your company logo or a personal photo into one of the table’s cells (first cell in this example).
Put the cursor on the cell where you want to insert a picture and then click the Pictures button on the Insert tab.
Fill up the blanks with your company logo or a personal photo.
Find a picture on your computer, select it, and then press the Insert button.
4). If necessary, drag a diagonal double-headed arrow in the corner of your image to resize it accordingly.
If required, resize the picture.
5). Remove the unneeded row borders if you don’t intend to add any other visual or text components in the first column. To do so, go to the Layout tab > Draw group and select the Eraser button.
This allows you to position the picture wherever inside the first column by utilizing the Alignment settings on the Layout tab.
6). Fill up the blanks with your personal information, such as your name, job title, company name, and phone numbers, and format it any way you like by choosing different fonts and colors:
7). Fill out your Outlook signature with your personal information.
If you wish to incorporate social media symbols in your signature. Simply right-click any of the icons below and choose Save picture as… to save each symbol individually as a .png image on your PC.
8). Insert hyperlinks when necessary. To make the social media symbols in your Outlook signature clickable, for example, right-click each icon individually and select Hyperlink. Type or paste the URL into the Insert Hyperlink dialogue box, then click OK.
For example, here’s how to add a LinkedIn symbol to your profile:
Connect social networking symbols with hyperlinks.
Similarly, you may include a hyperlink in your corporate logo or other visual and text components.
To make a short link clickable, write a short name of your website, select it, right-click, pick Hyperlink from the context menu, then type the full URL.
9). Drag to resize the table columns to eliminate or add additional space in cells.
10). Our Outlook email signature is nearly complete, and we may remove the table borders.
Make sure the entire table is selected, then go to the Design tab, click Borders, and then pick No Border.
Take away the table borders.
To divide the signature content, you may use the Border Painter option and the Pen Color of your choice to paint a pair of vertical or horizontal borders.
Experiment with different Line Styles and Line Weights to make the divisions thinner or thicker (these options reside right above the Pen Color on the Design tab in the Borders group).
11). When you’re satisfied with the look of your Outlook email signature, select the entire table and copy it by pressing Ctrl + C, or right-click and choose Copy from the context menu.
Make a copy of the Outlook email signature you just made.
12). Finally, in Outlook, create a new signature by navigating to the Insert menu and selecting Signature > Signatures…
Then, either press Ctrl + V or right-click anywhere in the text box under Edit Signature and pick Paste from the context menu to paste your signature:
Now that you’ve built your signature, all that remains is to decide when it should be utilized automatically. You choose that option below. Select the default signature. You may specify which email account to use and have it used automatically for new messages, replies, and forwards. It is possible to select various signatures for each of these activities.