Since I wrote the tutorial, Creating an Attractive HTML Signature in Apple Mail, many people have asked for instructions in getting their very own customized HTML email signature installed for Microsoft Outlook (Version 2010 – Windows). So here it is! This presumes that you already have a well-designed HTML email signature like the ones I create for my clients.
Read my tutorial, Create a HTML Signature in Apple Mail on Lion OS X 10.7 for an overview on how to create your own HTML Signature or for a small fee, I can create one for you. Vist www.htmlsignature.com for more info.
Step 1: Add a New Placeholder Signature
In Outlook, go to File > Options > Mail and click on “Signatures“. Click “New” to create a new placeholder signature. Give the new signature a name you can remember.
Step 2: Open Outlook’s Signature Folder on Your Computer
Here are the locations on the hard drive where Outlook places signature files:
Windows 7 and Windows Vista
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures
Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures
Note: Make sure to show hidden files and folders.
Step 3: Find and Open the New Signature file
Within the Signature Folder, locate the file that you have created in Step 1. Open it with Notepad. You may right-click on the file and select the option to open with Notepad.
Step 4: Replace Placeholder Text With Your HTML Codes
Erase all content in the placeholder signature file and paste your HTML signature codes. Hit Save.
Step 5: Assign Signature for Messages
In Outlook, go to File > Options > Mail > Signatures, set to use your new Signature for both New Messages and Replies/Forwards. This will ensure consistent application of your HTML signature on all your messages.
Summing Up
That is it! You are done. Setting up the signature for Outlook is a bit tricky but doable. If you run into any problems, let me know by writing in the comments. I will try my best to help or maybe a fellow reader may be able to help as well. I hope this tutorial is helpful to you and it would be a great pleasure to see your creation so please showcase that wonderful signature you have created!
If creating your own HTML signature seems a bit too much work or you just don’t have the time for it, we can help. We have created over 8000 attractive email signature with clickable images and text links for clients across the globe. Visit our HTML email signature design service website: www.htmlsignature.com to get started.
40 comments »
December 6th, 2012
Hi,
I have Outlook 2007 in my computer, is there any other way to install and setting up HTML Email Signature?
Thanks
May 10th, 2013
This works great! Thank you. One question. I am creating these for use by all employees in my company. When I have them install the signature in Outlook, then change it to add their information, the color of the email link changes to the default blue. How can I keep that from changing?
June 10th, 2013
If you add the colors for links to the tag it should keep from updating the color for link and viewed link. Replace 476B5F with your color.
June 10th, 2013
Sorry the previous response did not display properly because of html tags. Try below but I left off the brackets. Hope this works
body text=”#476B5F” link=”#476B5F” alink=”476B5F” vlink=”#476B5F”
August 9th, 2013
Does the and tags get pasted into the signature?
August 13th, 2013
Please explain further what you mean.
August 20th, 2013
thanks a lot!
i just noticed that there were three files with the same name as the signature, but having these different extensions: HTM, RTF, and TXT. I had to customize the content for each, going from full HTML (with inline CSS) down to simple text (Notepad style).
September 19th, 2013
My html file consists of a png with an image map allowing for click-thru to different parts of our website/ social media sites. My image is not showing up though. Just the box with an X in it. Any suggestions how to fix this?
September 19th, 2013
Ashley, make sure your images are uploaded to a web server and that the links are correct. Second, image mapping doesn’t work well for email programs. Using simple table and cells are the way to go.
October 15th, 2013
My signature is similar to Ashley’s, but I can get the image to show up. It’s the links that don’t work. By all appearances on the outgoing email, the signature looks fine. If I hover my mouse over the hotspots the links show correctly. On the incoming email, however, the banner is just treated like one big image without any hyperlinks at all. Ideas?
October 15th, 2013
BTW, I don’t have any option on the incoming email that I can “enable” links and active content, so I don’t think that’s the issue.
November 1st, 2013
Using the steps above I have created and installed an HTML email signature on many PC with no issues. However, one PC installs everything appropriately, but when you send the email, all 6 images are replaced by one of the images. When sent again, all images are replaced with another image that is not even in the html document.
November 2nd, 2013
Lewis, you sure you have the image links written correctly and that they are upload to your web server?
November 15th, 2013
I completed up to step 3 and stuck on step 4. The signature file is a webpage and there is nothing there to erase and does not allow me to paste.
1) I opened the page with notepad, copied the codes but I am not clear on where I should paste it. I tried pasting it in all the signature files but unable to go further to step 5
2) When I go to the signature page, under choose default signature, it does not allow me to fill in the email address or select the types of messages (new, replies, forward) my signature will be affixed to.
December 16th, 2013
Tim,
Thanks for your tutorial here. I have copied your HTML to a T, but for some reason Outlook is ignoring my “padding-left: 10px;” command and smushing everything together in the middle and on the edge of my signature. It looks awful. As I said, I copied your HTML verbatim and modified the content to fit my agency needs.
My HTML proficiency is fairly limited, so I’m not sure why Outlook is doing this. I used the exact same HTML for the signature I set up on Apple Mail using your instructions and the signature looks just perfect. I’m really confused how to approach this. Any help? Thanks in advance.
January 10th, 2014
Ive made an HTML signature and uploaded it to my outlook. Can my colleagues just copy and paste my signature into their Signatures box, or do they also have to copy the HTML code on their computers as per steps 3/4?
January 27th, 2014
Each user should do a clean install from beginning to end for the email signature to work properly.
January 28th, 2014
Tim,
Thanks for your tutorial, this is working perfectly.
But if any way to avoid the images download.
The bottom of the mail showing download option to download the image. Pls help me…..
February 3rd, 2014
Jaison, is your image hosted on a web server?
February 4th, 2014
Hi tim,
Thank you so much for this great tutorial.
It works well, however i was wondering if you know how to prevent underlined text links in Outlook?
Font-decoration none is working fine in thunderbird, but in Outlook text links always get those stupid blue underline…
Would be great if you would let us know the trick!
Thank you in advance,
Sebastian
April 9th, 2014
Hi so I created an email signature everything works great. The only question I have is when I send the email the recipient gets a pop up that says download images, of course when they click it then my signature images pop up. Is there a way to avoid that message popping up for people all the time?
April 9th, 2014
Ok so when I hit new E-mail message, the correct email footer comes up, but when I reply to a message, the formatign is all wrong and the logo is not shown. Any suggestions?
May 14th, 2014
Hi, I had no problem, until I changed to Windows app, and the Microsoft Office apps. Now I see no \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures.
Is this because it’s an app rather than program?
May 14th, 2014
sorry, I did mean Windows 8, not Windows app…
May 27th, 2014
Thanks for the tutorial – I couldn’t figure out how to get the HTML version to show and this did the trick!
June 12th, 2014
I have a HTML signature with image map. Works fine on Outlook 2007 on Windows 7. Created by pasting signature files to Signatures folder. Have tried creating the same HTML signature with image map in Outlook 2013 on Windows 8. When you create the email the signature works fine, with links displaying on mouse over. But when you send the email the received mail just displays the image map as an image with no links associated. Have you come across this and any suggestions to make HTML image map signature work? Thanks for your help.
August 27th, 2014
Hi,
I’ve got my signature for outlook 10 in windows 8 created in html and it work just fine. But I wanted to do a a similar signature for my co-worek. I have changed all information required inf source code and saved it in html. It looks good and as I want. I’ve put it in the “signatures” file and outlook sees it but when I try to set up it it doesn’t work. Do you know why and can help me?
Cristopher
August 29th, 2014
Can you help with same procedure but on Outlook for Mac? Thank you so much!
September 4th, 2014
Aviva, I do have a tutorial for creating a html email signature for Outlook on a Mac: http://mydesignpad.com/how-to-create-html-email-signatures-for-microsoft-outlook-2011-on-mac/
October 20th, 2014
Hi Tim,
Thanks for your tutorial. Are these instructions the same for Windows 8 and Outlook 2013 ?
January 20th, 2015
I’m stuck on step 3. I can find the file I created but cannot open it with Notepad or any other program. When I click on my file I see:
colorschememapping.xml
filelist.xml
themedata.thmx
Running OL 2010 version: 14.0.7128.5000 (32 Bit)
February 4th, 2015
I have an HTML signature that shows up beautifully in MSIE – proper layout, proper sizing, etc using fairly basic width and color styles on div, table and images. However, once pasted into the HTM file for the signature in the signatures folder, the image becomes miniscule – not even close to it’s original size. The table is also shortened width-wise, making the signature appear squished.
We are using Outlook 2007/2010/2013 … I am doing the initial testing in 2007 since if it works there, it usually works on all systems. I need to have a file that is plug-n-play basically, because otherwise I will spend the rest of the week just editing the signatures for everyone.
Thanks.
April 9th, 2015
I am trying to change the colour of the font i type in so that it is a similar red to our company logo, is there any way I could do this myself, as Microsoft colour options appear to be very limited and you end up with more of an orange than a red?
Many thanks
July 30th, 2015
I wrote a beautiful code that works great in Thunderbird but when I go through the steps you provided above all I get is the code showing in my email signature, no images. Any ideas? Work uses Outlook 2007
August 31st, 2015
How I can set up signature from shared folder. I have lot of user and we change signature from shared folder to all user how to set up that now?
March 31st, 2016
Tried this three times on my Mac running Outlook 2011. Each time, I had to rebuild my database and the signature never carried over:/
Is there another method for Mac?
May 2nd, 2017
Hello! Do I need to delete the html, head, and body tags before I paste the HTML in? Thank you very much!
June 13th, 2017
Try with and try without to see which one works better.
January 4th, 2018
are you able to have hyperlinks in your signature by doing it this way?
March 9th, 2018
yes, you can have text links as well as image links.