Having a HTML signature in your emails is a great way to look professional, unique and to promote yourself but creating one isn’t so straightforward. You have to design your signature layout, write up the HTML codes and know how to install it into your preferred email program. In this tutorial, I’ll go over some HTML tips for writing up the HTML codes and give instructions on how to install the email signature into Microsoft Outlook 2011 on a Mac.
There are 2 sections in this tutorial:
Section 1: HTML Tips For Coding Your Email Signature
Section 2: Installing your HTML signature into Outlook 2011 on your Mac
If you have basic HTML skills and know how to work with a web server, you will learn how to write up your HTML codes correctly by following Section 1. If you don’t know anything about HTML coding or just don’t have the time to deal with it, you may consider hiring us to do it for you. Please visit www.htmlsignature.com for more info. Go straight to Section 2 if you already have your HTML email signature file created and just need installation help.
SECTION 1: HTML SIGNATURE CREATION
Step 1.1: Design Consideration
Today, emails are viewed on desktop computers, laptops and on tablets and smart phones. It is best to keep the width of your HTML email signature as narrow as possible for the best result. Most modern mobile devices have a default width of 640 pixels so it is best to keep your design under that to ensure that the layout doesn’t break on smaller screens. From experience, designs that have a width of 320 pixels and under are the most consistent. NOTE: If your signature design for Outlook 2011 have a width larger than 320 pixels, you will have to manually adjust the width of your signature each time you compose a new email.
View sample signatures that I have created for others.
Step 1.2: Signature Information
Decide what and how much info you want to display on your signature. For this demonstration, I’ll be using my own HTML email signature design with a picture link to my website, name, title, email and some other text links. Feel free to use my design as a template. To see the HTML codes, find “View Source” in your browser menu.
Step 1.3: Writing the HTML Codes
Here are some basic but important notes to keep in mind as you design your signature. One major obstacle in designing HTML e-mail templates is that there are so many different e-mail clients out there (most if not all can’t handle CSS and HTML like our internet browsers can) so you have to keep your design and codes as simple and straight forward as possible.
- Use tables for basic layout. The CSS float property is not supported in Gmail or Outlook, making CSS layouts impractical.
- Use inline CSS. The style tag is not supported in Gmail, and support for CSS selectors is spotty.
- Use only basic CSS properties. E-mail clients tend to be very picky about which CSS properties they support. Campaign Monitor has a great summary of CSS support in e-mail to use for reference.
- Use absolute URLs. Relative paths won’t work for an e-mail signature. So all your links need to be absolute URLs.
- Link to images. I personally dislike e-mail signature images as attachments (it makes it easy to mistaken that image as a legitimate attachment). Because of this, I recommend linking to your images by placing them on a web server rather than including them as attachments. See Step 4 for more info.
- Exclude HTML, HEAD, and BODY tags. When we get ready to save your HTML signature into Mail, make sure that only the relevant HTML is included in your document.
Step 1.4: Saving and Uploading your images to a web server
Since we want the email signature to load quickly, make sure to optimize your image with Adobe Photoshop by doing a “Save for Web.” Upload your images to your web server and copy the public path. The public path (absolute URL) should look something like this: “http://www.yourdomain.com/images/logo.gif” Copy image link and insert it into the appropriate img tags of your HTML file.
Step 1.5: Save File and Preview
Once you have your email signature coded, save the HTML file to your Desktop and call it “signature.html” Locate file and open it with Safari or Firefox (not tested with other browsers).
SECTION 2: HTML SIGNATURE INSTALLATION
Step 2.1: Copy Signature Design
With your “signature.html” file opened on Safari or Firefox, press Command+A on your keyboard to “Select All.” Then press Command+C to copy design.
Step 2.2: Create Placeholder Signature
Open Outlook > Preferences > Signatures. Click the plus button on the lower left to create a new signature. Give it a name. If there are any content in the big right signature window after you’ve clicked the plus icon, delete it. It usually displays your first and last name. In my case, it’s MYDESIGNPAD.
Step 2.3: Replace Default Signature
Click anywhere on the big right signature window to have it selected, press Command+V on your keyboard to paste in the signature design that you copied from your browser.
Step 2.4: Confirm Default Signatures Setting.
Click the “Default Signatures…” button on the lower right. Click to open pop-up window on the right column. Select the signature that you created and press “Ok.” Close window and quit Outlook. Then reopen Outlook. Open up a new compose email window and your new signature should be there.
Summing Up
Feel free to contact me if you run into any problems creating your very own HTML signature. I’ll be pleased to see your creative HTML email signature so please post your link in the comment area. Cheers!
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.
63 comments »
October 23rd, 2012
good job!
January 2nd, 2013
Thanks – very nice steps. I’m wondering if you’ve ever had any difficulty sending HTML signatures from an Exchange account? I can successfully send a signature from Gmail (through Outlook) and it works fine, but getting it to work from my work email (which uses Exchange), it does not send the images properly (when I open the email in Gmail, Hotmail, etc.) — happen to have any insight or clues about that or know of any solutions?
January 14th, 2013
Nice guide – only comment would be to add,
“Once the signature is selected (it will go blue), press “Command + C” to copy it.” to section 2.1.
Thanks! :)
February 16th, 2013
Ive done all these steps and i cannot get my signature to show up every time i sent an email?
February 26th, 2013
Excellent thanks. MS have changed the way it works, so its more tricky but your tutorial helped alot.
February 26th, 2013
Thanks a lot for the info. May you be kind enough to share with us how MS have changed and in what version and operating system you are talking about? Thanks in advance.
February 27th, 2013
Good Morning – I’ve created the HTML using Dreamweaver and have saved all of the image files on my public dropbox folder, copied the dropbox public link, etc. and the signature shows up fine when I test it… however, when I copy/paste the email and send a test email, the icons do not go to the appropriate social media page?
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/95652721/signature.html
March 20th, 2013
Excellent idea, thanks. I`ll use it for my sig.
April 9th, 2013
thank you. on my PC i can have one signature for new e-mails and another for reply / forwarded mails. is that possible on outlook for mac please?
April 9th, 2013
James, on Apple Mail, multiple signatures may be assigned to each email account. When composing a new message or for a reply, there is an option to select which signature you want to use if there is more than one available. On Outlook for Mac, I am not sure. If I find out, I’ll be sure to post about it here. If you figure it out before me, please help me and others by posting your answer here. Thanks!
April 9th, 2013
thank you. ok, same as apple mail. as long as you have created more than one signature you can chose which one to use once you are in the body of the compose area.
April 16th, 2013
Great tutorial Tim! I’m getting ready to install the signatures in Outlook for Windows on my client’s computers. How close is the instructions above to installing on a windows machine?
Thanks in advance!
April 16th, 2013
Here are instructions to install signature into Outlook 2010 on a PC. http://mydesignpad.com/how-to-install-html-email-signature-for-microsoft-outlook-2010-windows/
April 24th, 2013
Hi!
Thanks for sharing!!
Everything works fine when email is sent to a regular email users..hotmail, yahoo,gmail etc..but people that use exchange email system at work will still see the image/logo as an attachment. Any ideas how to solve this Problem?
Any hep much appreciated:0
May 30th, 2013
I have designed a signature using html. The tool is dreamweaver. the signature is working fine but it is marking as junk mail i outlook .Please anyone help me
May 30th, 2013
Please anyone help me for solving this. It has became crucial for me.How to disable the mails to be moved to junk mail.I have used this steps only for designing html signature but it is moving to junk box. please anyone help me
May 30th, 2013
Hi Tim pls help me in this
May 31st, 2013
Let me look into this further for you. I’ll get back to you soon by commenting here.
May 31st, 2013
Thank you Tim. I have fallowed your steps and used your source code only.It is working pretty but only thing it is moving to junk mail box.
May 31st, 2013
It is going to your recipient’s junk mail box? Have you ever send to that email address before? Does the recipient have your email address in their address book? Where are your images hosted and how big are the images?
May 31st, 2013
Yes it is going to recipient’s junk mail box.Yes i have sent before with old signature.Now it is going to junk mail box.Yes they have my address in their address book.Am storing the images over here. %userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures. where my signature files stores.Am using it in outlook so.100x100px logo and small icons for social media.
June 4th, 2013
thank you very much for your tips.
August 8th, 2013
Very good instructions!!
I was struggling with Mac Outlook 2011. I managed to get it right in one go.
Thanks a ton.
Shubha
September 3rd, 2013
Worked great for me, thanks!
September 19th, 2013
Is it possible to link a vcf card without opening a browser?
September 19th, 2013
As far as I know, you cannot link to a vcf without opening a broswer. As the vcf card needs to be downloaded in order for it to sync into your address book, it have to open up a web browser for the download process.
October 25th, 2013
I can’t seem to get my FB & Twitter buttons to come across….at all. Is this something to do with Outlook?
November 7th, 2013
I Can´t create hyperlink on the image, Pls anyone help me
November 8th, 2013
I am having trouble with the font changing when it is sent and then replied… any ideas? I have tried everything, and nothing is working. Help!
January 15th, 2014
I am having an issue with my outlook email signature. I created an html files and hosted the images on my ftp site. When I send a email out to test it. Outlook blocks all of my images leaving a black box where I had made a background color. I get emails from some people that I dont have to download the images to see. I know that they are using a html style signature. What are they doing that Im not? Do you have any wisdon you could pass on?
January 26th, 2014
Superbly clear instructions Tim – you are a legend!
January 30th, 2014
Can you tell me how to do this using microsoft outlook 2013 windows?
Thank you!
February 3rd, 2014
Sally, the tutorial post for Outlook 2013 for Windows is in the making. Please check back soon.
March 18th, 2014
Hi, this is really helpful but I am having trouble to get my HTML mailer to work across all platforms. When i email my signature out to a mobile phone it all jumbles up, fonts go massive and the logo jumps all over the place!
I built the signature in Dreamweaver and have basic skill. Please help me!?
Thanks!
March 26th, 2014
Hi I have a gif animated signature which through Word have transformed in html – works!
However after copy past (all) into sig Outlook 2011 for Mac the animation and links dont work
Tried it a few times
Would you know what could be wrong?
Thanks
March 28th, 2014
and where can i edit the html of my signature?
i’m on a mac and don’t know where the htmlsignature is stored
thx
March 28th, 2014
Thanks for the great tutorial! Solved all my e-mails signatures problems.
;)
April 9th, 2014
Hi Tim,
The signature is not appearing when I click share via email from a Microsoft Document. Any solutions to this problem?
April 9th, 2014
Hello just wanted to give you a quick heads up and let you know a few of the pictures aren’t loading properly.
I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue.
I’ve tried it in two different web browsers
and both show the same outcome.
April 16th, 2014
Do you have any solutions, when outlook is changing the sizes of the fonts sometimes by it self? I wrote a perfect html-code for the signature, defined all system-fonts and sizes, but outlook is so crazy and changed it! Has it something to do with some standard formats in outlook?
With mac all works fine, but in outlook…
Thanks
May 8th, 2014
Hi,
I also made the signature like you did and it worked as well, but only on my mac/outlook. When I send a mail out, the signature brokes. Sometimes direct at the clients mail-program, sometimes, when they send me an answer …
Does anybody figured out how to fix this?
I’ve heard about putting an html file on the mac system, but I don’t know where, which folder?!
For windows, there is a folder for that …
Looking forward to hear from you :)
July 8th, 2014
I have used your code. It is useful. Thank you so much for that . I have some doubt that when I set appointmentthe signature wont appear, can you please help me
August 13th, 2014
Tim, you created 3 html signatures for us and one of my colleagues needs to re-install his into Outlook for Mac 2011 but is using OS X Mavericks. Is there any change to the instructions with Mavericks? Because he is experiencing problems with sending mails when the signature has been copied and pasted into Outlook. If he removes the html signature, Outlook sends perfectly fine. Very odd???
October 3rd, 2014
[…] Mac Microsoft Outlook 2011 – Portfolio site of Timmy Cai … – Create an attractive HTML email signature for Apple Mail. Website best viewed … I’ll go over some HTML tips for writing up the HTML codes and give instructions on how to install the email signature into Microsoft Outlook 2011 … Here are instructions to install signature into … […]
October 6th, 2014
Hi
Please excuse my ignorance but I am a print designer trying to meddle with the world of email signatures and (as expected) I am failing.
I have set up the signature in Photoshop, sliced it up, attached the links to the sections that I want to be buttons and then saved the entire thing as HTML and images. However, I’m a bit stumped as to what I need to do next. Am I missing a step? Perhaps then taking all of this into Dreamweaver next?
Again, apologies for the ignorance here but it really isn’t my field. When I go into outlook to try and import a signature I can only import an image or create a hyperlink?
Cheers
Ali
October 8th, 2014
the email signatures work best when it is coded with simple tables and cells. You also need to upload and host your images on a web server in order for the images to load remotely so that it doesn’t get sent as attachments.
October 22nd, 2014
Hi
I have followed the instructions as above, but the images in the signature are not showing in Outlook 2011 for Mac. The same signature is set up for several users on a PC without problem, so it is not a problem with where the images are hosted – any ideas?
Thanks
Catherine
April 24th, 2015
Hi Tim,
Many thanks for the insight and guidance. I do a challenge and will appreciate your assistance.
When I copy and paste the HTML signature in Outlook 2013 client during signature set-up, the following happens:
1. The telephone icon disappears and some fonts change from Helvetica Nueue to Times New Roman.
2. The email address and phone numbers is displayed are underlined.
Please advise.
Regards.
April 27th, 2015
Do you know if there’s any way of having jpegs with the email signature to look crisp when viewed on the high-res retina screens now popular on mobile devices.
May 1st, 2015
Everything worked perfectly; however, I am wondering if there is a way to show a text-only version if the receiver does not support html messages. Thanks,