Help Desk Geek – Help Desk Tips For IT Pros

Adding a signature to all your outgoing mail is a great way to let people know how to contact you and even promote your own website or Twitter account. Typically a signature may contain your position and place of employment, personal website, email address, phone number and any other personal information you would like people to know. Also, depending on the kind of business you’re in, you may choose different signatures for different accounts. For someone heavily integrated into social networking and the web, a good signature for them might be as follows:

You can even put images that link to different services, such as Twitter and Facebook. To begin, open the Mail app, found in the dock or Applications Folder.

From the Menu bar, choose Mail and then Preferences.

In the preferences window there are multiple tabs; choose the Signatures tab.

On the Signatures page you will see all your accounts in the left-hand column. The middle column contains signatures you have previously created and the right-hand box will show you a preview of the highlighted signature.

To create a new signature, click on the + (Plus) icon at the bottom of the center column.

A preview will appear to the right. You can now customize what your signature will contain and how it’s displayed. Remember to include ways someone can contact you. Here is a starting template to work with.

Once you’ve completed customizing your signature, drag the signature title from the center column to the account you’d like to use it for.

Clicking on an account name will display all the signatures related to it. You can create and drag multiple signatures to each account.

For each account, a default signature should be chosen. Highlight an account and click on the drop-down box that says Choose Signature. Select a signature to use as a default. When creating an email you will be able to specify what signature to use if there are multiple linked to an account.

The last option is to have the signature placed above quoted text. This will apply when forwarding or replying to an email. When the box is checked, your signature will appear at the top of the email and the thread or forwarded information will appear below it. Otherwise, your signature will appear after all content in the message and may not be seen.

Close the preferences window and compose a new email by clicking New Message in the toolbar.

Your default signature should appear in the new email automatically.

If you want to use a different signature associated with that account, click on the Signature: drop-down menu and click on your desired signature.

Using a signature on your emails will appear professional and organized. Plus, a signature is a great way to promote something to all of the recipients of your messages.