Adding HTML directly to your signature
With version 1.3 of SignatureProfiler, you can now insert HTML and Web Archive files directly into your signatures through the Signature Preferences pane. Although the process of adding the file is simple, there are some basic things you should know before you try this. See below the fold for more information.
Melvin Rivera has written a tutorial about how to insert HTML with CSS into Mail and the problems concerning the format to use. Much of that article is obsolete now with SignatureProfiler, however the update where he describes the way to make a CSS signature work the best is very relevant (even necessary) here.
To sum up his points:
- Do not include a CSS style sheet
- Use DIV tags instead of HTML, HEAD or BODY
- All CSS styles should be inline
- The styles should even be attached directly to the tag, no classes
- Do not put any image URLs in backgrounds
This will ensure that your HTML can be seen by as many clients as possible. He has a nice example starting point HTML file that he has posted for you to see how that can be done. Here is what it looks like.
In a later version of SignatureProfiler, I hope to include a simpler way to do this type of thing for those who don’t want to learn CSS/HTML. For the moment though you can at least put these in.
Remember that even if you create perfect HTML code and it looks great when you send it, the client that receives the mail may be set to not show HTML or not to load images. It is a good idea to think of this when creating your signature, to be sure that as plain text it will still be, at least, readable!
23 May 2007 at 01:54
Hi, your SignatureProfiler looks interesting, but not quite what I am searching for. What I was actually looking for was a script or plug-in that allows customisation of the ‘Automatically cc/bcc’ address. Currently it will only send to “myself”, whereas I would like to send to another address.
Another ‘feature’ I ahve been looking for is the ability to right-click in an email for a pop-up menu allowing me to insert my selected signature at that location, not necessarily at the begining or end of the email as provided by Mail’s preferences.
Do you know of any such plug-ins?
Cheers, Simon
14 December 2009 at 06:56
Simon, for your second request, I think what you’re looking for is a Service. You can download free Services that do a number of things to selected text, and some will insert text with nothing selected. One lets you run an AppleScript or a Unix Script, which could simply output the signature you want to insert.
I also recommend Copy-Paste and PthClipboard, either of which give you multiple clipboards that can have (for example) a list of all your signatures to choose from for pasting at the cursor.
17 December 2009 at 07:36
This is great – have heard recommendations from others before this post but now I’ll definitely have to check it out.