Windows XP Power Hound

Sign-Offs

You can unleash your inner, digital John Hancock thanks to a few signature tools in email. As this section explains, you can end your messages with a custom signature, use homegrown art, or even include a digital business card.

Customized Signatures

Have you ever noticed how some emails feature a carefully constructed sign-off at the bottom of the message—either no-nonsense information like the sender's name and phone number, or a pithy (or not-so-witty) saying or quote?

These personalized blocks of text are called signatures. And you don't have to retype them every time you send an email. Instead, you can set up your email software to automatically add a signature to your outgoing mail.

Both Outlook and Outlook Express can append signatures to the bottom of your messages. You can even create multiple signatures, and then choose among them depending on the recipient of your email. Writing the president of a bank? Use your standard signoff. Writing your garden club buddies? Go flowery.

Setting up and using a signature in Outlook

To create a signature in Outlook follow these steps:

1. Choose Tools→ Options→ Mail Format→ Signatures→ New.

   The Create New Signature dialog box appears. Enter a name for your signature—something descriptive, so you can easily distinguish between multiple signatures, if you create them.

2. Decide whether you want to create your signature from scratch or modify an existing signature.

   Select one of the options beneath "Choose how to create your signature," ...