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Last Updated: 12-Apr-2007

Adding a default signature to all Outlook Express emails

As an individual, you may find it convenient to add a standard "Signature" to all your outgoing emails to avoid the tedium of repeating the same text in every email you send. This is even more relevant if you're running a business. Examples of possible signatures:

To add such signatures:

1. Open Notepad (Start | Run | Notepad | OK) and type in the text required.

2. Save the file (probably in My Documents) as signature.txt or any other preferred name.

3. Open Outlook Express (OE) and go to Tools | Options | Signatures.

4. Click the New button.

5. Tick the box next to "Add signature to all outgoing messages".

6. Do not tick the box against "Don't add to Replies and Forwards" if you're a business; otherwise tick if you prefer this option.

7. Click in the radio button next to File and click on Browse; navigate to signature.txt and click on Apply.

This will add the signature to all outgoing emails; if for any reason you don't want the signature on a particular email, simply select it once the new email has been started, and delete the selection.

Instead of creating a text file as above, you could incorporate your signature into OE itself using the alternative option it offers; however a separate text file can be easily changed as required without opening OE, and moreover as a file in My Documents, it will automatically become part of your regular backup routine.

Several Signatures

If you have more than one email account, for instance both a personal email account and another just for business, you can (in theory) create individual signatures. However there appears to be a bug in OE that results in the default email signature being added to every email. When you select to Create Mail, OE will open the new email with your default account pre-selected, and hence will append your default email signature for that account. However if you then change the sending email account to a different one, the signature line remains the same. You may wish to experiment with the following:

1. Open Notepad (Start | Run | Notepad | OK) and type in the text required.

2. Save the file (probably in My Documents) as signature1.txt or any other name that you can easily link to the corresponding email account.

3. Open Outlook Express (OE) and go to Tools | Options | Signatures.

4. Click the New button.

5. Tick the box next to "Add signature to all outgoing messages".

6. Do not tick the box against "Don't add to Replies and Forwards" if you're a business; otherwise tick if you prefer this option.

7. Click on Rename and use the same name here as used in naming the text file, e.g. signature1 and also ensure that it is set as the default signature.

8. Click in the "radio button" next to File and click on Browse; navigate to signature1.txt and click on Apply.

9. Click on Advanced, and in the displayed list of your email accounts, tick the account(s) with which signature1.txt is to be used.

10. Repeat from 1 above for the second and any subsequent email signatures (but omitting the default signature comment at step 7).

One way around the problem, is to untick the box "Add signature to all outgoing messages"; this will result in no signature being appended automatically. After starting a new email, and once the cursor is in the email body area, you would then use the Insert | Signature feature. The danger here however, is that if you accidentally press Send before doing so, the email will be sent with no signature at all.

What I do is accept that my company signature line is appended to all emails, and then simply delete or amend it for private emails.

If you're running a business, please note that the italicised text above is a legal requirement (see http://tinyurl.com/y95vtp or www.out-law.com/page-5536). Hence if you also use an auto-responder to reply automatically to all emails, you should ensure that the italicised text (relevant to your business) is added to your auto-responder message.