Gary, your videos are a tremendous asset to the Mac community. When creating a signature for business emails, I think it’s good practice to include all your contact information, including your email address. That way, any recipient can quickly copy your signature block and paste it into other emails, listserv posts, texts, etc. in order to pass your contact info along to others. It takes up little additional space. It looks professional, as well.
Thanks Gary, I came across your channel a couple of months ago and I can tell you that I have learned more about Mac in that time then I have in the previous 15 years of using one!
Great Tutorial!! Properly setting up signatures on a Mac has been driving me crazy, especially coming off Microsoft Office. This was the best explanation on setting up and using signatures on RU-vid that I've seen. Thanks Gary!!
Just what I needed! Leave it to Mac Customer Support to FAIL to mention that you have to use the pull-d0wn to add a signature to a certain account. Can't tell you how many damn times I had to manually select my signature for each outgoing email. THANK YOU! Apple owes you!
This is very helpful Gary. I learned a lot from your PDF signature tutorial and now you have clarified why my signatures section of Preferences has been causing me confusion. Thank you.
I love your videos! I've learned so much from you! Something to note...you said you couldn't think of a reason why you would need to put your email address in the signature. As someone who uses various CRM apps, I can tell you that it makes copying ALL the info from an email to CRM system much easier. You just highlight all the signature info at once and the content grabber will sort it into the various CRM fields.
I've been using MacMail and its antecedents since we'll, never mind! But never had to deal with the Great Disappearing Signature issue before. And won't again since you made the mystery so clear Gary. Thanks as alway.
Much thanks. I have many famous quotes signatures. My previous MacBook Pro would automatically and randomly print one of the many whenever I sent an email. (Always fun to see which one came up!) With my new MacBook Air, no signature printed at all. No big deal. But I finally I decided to try and see why -- and found this posting very helpful! I don't see that I can request a random choosing now, and that's OK. I've chosen three of my favorites!
Thank you, Gary. You are great, i truly love how you stick to stock apps mostly. Even when like mac mail, that Apple UI developers clearly have forgotten. No html in signatures Attachment compulsory inline preview Still can’t talk to gmail/google workspace properly, messes up the convo view pretty bad. When emailing some people, messages comes in with bunch if code :( My god, why can’t Apple fix this thing!
id like to think im pretty tech savvy but omggg I was sooo confused on why my signatures were not popping up! This video explained everything perfectly, thank youuuu. Also, is there anyway to sync the MacBook mail app signatures with the iPhone mail app? thats my next challenge!
Helpful info as always! Also, as a slight tip-and I’m not sure whether this might be old hat for you?-for the part at 4:48, if you need a long dash (that is: an em dash), you can also get that character by hitting Option+Shift+Hyphen. And that keyboard shortcut will work in any app on macOS. PS If you ever need a short dash (that is: an en dash), you can get that character with Option+Hyphen. And like with the keyboard shortcut for an em dash, this keyboard shortcut will also work in any app on macOS.
Great tutorial. Regarding adding images, I did something that I solved a sizing problem I was having with signatures containing an image and I believe may address the storage issue cited in this video. I had a logo file in a pdf. I copied and pasted it into a Word file and then sized it smaller by dragging a corner up toward the other corner.. Copying that reduced image into my signature addressed the enlargement problem and (maybe??) made the image smaller so it won't take up so much storage.
Yes, but it doesn't solve the problem that now every email someone gets from you shows as "has attachment." Many may not care. Personally I would be annoyed and if you were my friend or co-worker I would tell you to cut it out. Is the extra decoration to your signature worth that if I evokes a negative reaction in even just one person?
Thanks Gary. Really appreciate your tutorials. I've just switched back to Mac Mail and can't get the signature to work Even dragging the sig to the right one in the email it always shows NONE. and Edit. can't figure out why it's not showing up.
Helpful as always, thanks Gary. One thing I have not been able to find is how to have a different signature for reply emails. Our company has a standard signature with logo, etc., for composing email but I'd like to include a simpler signature for replies to emails (this is a pretty standard email feature on most apps) but I haven't been able to figure out how to set this up in Apple mail. You can of course manually change it every time, but goodness that'd be a hassle. Wondering if you have any tips or workarounds for that. Thanks!
Hi Gary, for once I am going to disagree with you. In the case of business mail you may definitely want to include an image with your signature; this could be a small logo or even a handwritten signature with no background. The file sizes are small, and certainly nothing compared to the business related attachments (PDFs etc) you may be sending. Where Mac mail seems to have a major drawback with signatures (unless I am mistaken) is that when you reply to messages and include your signature (with or without images), the signature appears right at the bottom of the email chain, not at the bottom of your reply. This seems to me is a major problem.
But did you hear what I said about it? You can include it, but it WILL annoy people. I'm not the only one.Just keep that in mind and make sure you are OK with it.
@@macmost Thanks for the reply. I agree that you have to use careful judgement when the email is becoming a back and forth correspondence. You can get a lot of ‘logo litter’ (and it happens often). I have to say, I think Outlook mail is better in this regard: signatures and attachment layout; it is cosmetic mainly, but certainly more pleasing to the eye (and costs money).
Great tutorial! Thank you for an easy explanation. Could you please explain how to use the signatures made in macOS Mail on an iPhone? I can't seem to find it anywhere on my iPhone.
Thank you, very useful. HOWEVER, if my company needs me to add an image? and I only want it to appear in new emails (not in Replies and forwards) is there a way to automate that? as it stands now, it's extremely basic and only can default to 1 Signature for ALL kinds of emails.
I needed full signature (designed one) for every new mail I compose automatically and a simple one liner name on all replies. Such a bummer that option is in outlook but in Mail.
For those looking for a more robust professional email signature such as having an image, social links, booking links, etc. Try the plugin for Mac mail called Mailbutler. I think it is a great plugin that you can get right from the Mac App Store and works great with the native Mac mail interface.
It is pretty powerful and does a lot of things. However, I would strongly warn against putting an image in your signature. Once you do that, every time you send an email with it the recipient is getting an attachment. Even if you take care to make it a small attachment, it is still using up bandwidth (mobile bandwidth = $$) and filling up email server storage. Personally, I hate getting email with needless attachments like this.
Encryption depends on the service you use. But I think at this point any decent email service uses encryption (SSL) to send and receive, though email by its nature is not encrypted when it travels from server to server.
Your tutorials are great - do you have one which shows how to copy a mailbox on MacBook (I'm worried if they disappear one day!) . I tried exporting but it saves in a mbox. file format and have no idea what to do from there - Many thanks.
@@macmost Thanks for swift reply. The exported file got saved in finder and when I open it is not text but gobbledygook. How do I get mail and other apps to open it?
@@karenclarke5684 So you are exporting a mailbox as an mbox file? In Mail, you would go to File, Import Mailboxes and select the mbox file. But it sounds like you'd be better off exporting as .eml files (create a folder in the Finder to hold them, then drag and drop email messages to there). eml files will open up individually if you want them. Of course you could also do PDF files. It all depends on what your ultimate goal is here.
Excellent video. Could you also show how to include a hand written signature as well as the typed version? I believe you can take a picture of your hand written signature with the iMac camera and somehow save it with the other signatures.
I wouldn't recommend that. First, it would be an image. Attaching an image it every single email you send out will use more bandwidth and storage (for you and the recipient). Anyone you email with on a regular basis will have a lot of copies of that image stored without a good reason. Also, for security reasons it is probably best that your signature is at least semi-private.
Great vid. So I am trying to add a link from my google calendar view to my mac signature. When I add the link it shows up with the entire code for the url. How do I change this to show " Calendar schedule availability" in my signature? Thanks
Hi Gary, thanks so much. however why can we not have an automatic REPLY signature? one that is shorter than original email signature! no one has been able to answer this.
Weird signature behavior. If I mix different font sizes, these are modified when I send. It happens not just to saved signatures but to anything that even looks like one (MacOS Ventura)
I've learned a nice amount from watching some of your videos. I had a question: Do you know how to leave your signature in a thread, but I want it to be first and not allllllll the way down to the bottom of all threaded emails? thanks
what about if the signatures disappeared after restarting the mail app? Apple support is worthless, follow all imaginable solutions over the internet, and nothing helps. I even freshly reinstalled the OS without any backup recovery (to not transfer any bugs from previous versions). Was working again for a couple of weeks, and then it happened again. It's so frustrating and so useless to have icloud mail account which does not work as intended. Sick and tired of creating my signatures from scratch just to find out that the next time I open the mail account - there are no signatures whatsoever.
All your videos are extremely helpful. I have a question concerning the signature in mail. How can I add a hyperlink to the image I will be using in my email signature? Thank you
Just add it. like type the link and put it in there. It is up to email client apps as to whether they make it clickable, but most will. To make the chances of what greater, make it a full URL, which means starting with
Great explanation .. thanks. The signature I've created always appears at far left bottom of my emails and I would like to be able to adjust it's placing on the page, for instance move it across to a middle position, but can't get it to change position? Any tips?
Just faced this issue last week and couldn’t fix it, thank you Gary. One thing I wanted to learn how can I send mail later on mac mail app without using third party solution? Thank you in advance.
No, it doesn't share across. But you can copy and paste from one to the other, so it should only take a minute to pull your favorites to the other Mac.
Why is it the picture on my signature comes out super large (even though it was quite small when I pasted it into the signature section) and there seems to be no way to scale it down?
Hi Gary Just followed you instructions and my name on emails comes out in capital letters but the email address in lowercase, how to change the capital letters. Thanks Gary
Hey I have two iCloud domains and I would like to have a custom email signature for both But when I go to Mail in settings and down to signatures I can only select iCloud it doesn’t let me select my individual domains. Is there a workaround?
In PC Outlook you can have a standard reply signature (example, your name and, say, number or email). How can you do that in the Mac Outlook program? I don't see a "reply signature."
Do you mean one default signature for new messages and one for replies? I don't think you can do that in Mail. You'd just have to choose the one you want if it is different than your default.
When creating new signature with my photo setup below my name and company logo when I go to compose new mail that photo shows up out of place and moved upward crowding text. What is the fix, thanks!
"MY" solution is to not include a photo at all. Don't impose an "attachment" on every recipient of your messages unless one is really needed. Otherwise, just keep working with it and experiment. In the end, it will always depend on the recipient's email client app how and whether attachments are displayed. You can't control everything on the other end.
Just put the URL there. It is up to the recipient's app whether this is a clickable link, but in most cases it would be. Start it with if you want the most apps to recognize it as a link.
Can you show how to create a nice business signature with a small profile picture on the left and the company info on the right. It seems impossible to create. The email space only allows you to go vertical instead of horizontal. ☹ Why isn't Mail as simple as Gmail. But I don't need a business signature in Gmail.
They don't sync up, probably because there is the long-standing practice of using different signatures on mobile devices. You can always copy and paste if it is too hard to recreate them.
@@macmost :), but I have 4 MAC's, an iPhone and iPad - also no export function :(, I'm just thinking its an old app in the days when "programmers went wild" with minimal standardization
I personally stopped using Apple mail long time ago. Tried it a bit last month and thought its a bit old and had cpu issues. Any reasons why to use it ? On the other hand I always had an issue with having a signature on my iphone, it gets distorted when you copy and paste.
If you have another email app you like, there's no reason to switch. Same in the opposite direction, like for me, Mail does everything I need and more, so no reason to switch.
It is annoying to get those attachments in email messages, but I'm really confused about the QR code. How does that make sense? The idea of a QR code is to point your phone's camera at them. So you'd need to be reading your email on a second device like a laptop, then pull out your phone, then point the camera at it to access the link on the phone even though you were working on your laptop. A QR code is just a URL. So why make the user use two devices and 5 steps to view the URL on the wrong device instead of 1 click on the right device?
Hi, trying to do something that I don't think is possible on Mac Mail. Can you help? Trying to have an image as an email signature, not show up as an attachment and have it hyperlink to a website. It's easy to do in the gmail web interface settings, but I really want to continue using my Mac Mail for my email. Its for a work signature so I've got to figure it out. Thanks,
You can do the image, but with a link it is tough as you have to send an HTML document as an email and Mail doesn't really do that. On the other hand, are you sure you want every single email message you send to include an attachment like that? Many people (myself included) find that very annoying. People you correspond with regularly will have hundreds of your attachment stored forever in their email archives and running up their mobile bandwidth tabs.
@@macmost Thanks for the reply! No, I hate attachment signatures as well. Other applications embed it so it doesn't show up attached. Native Gmail settings on the web can do it but that means I need to use that as my email interface which I was trying to avoid. Appreciate the reply.
Facing an issue with signatures and rules. Essentially despite permanently deleting older signatures and adding a new one, the new signature gets deleted and replaced with the old ones. this has happened multiple times. I've noticed that when I quit email app or if there is an apple update, this issue re-appears. the same is happening to 'rules' that have been applied to certain mails (they all get wiped out). Need some help on this Gary please!
Not sure why the signatures aren't working right for you. Keep trying. As for rules, don't use the ones in the Mail app since they won't work well unless you only check email on your Mac. Use server-based rules instead. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-66w7vRtHEqg.html
@@macmost this helps me understand a lot. thanks, Gary. the only hiccup is that I use multiple ids on my mac, so instead of the mails going to the folder intended on my mac, it's going to a new folder created on icloud. bummer! also, the signature is a mystery, I saw your video and I'm sure that I'm doing the right thing. who know!
Hi Gary - I've added my company logo at the top of my signature. The logo is in the correct place in the signature settings, but when I add the signature to a message the logo goes right to the bottom of the page beneath the signature text. Any ideas on how to fix please?
Just play with it and try different things. Though I would encourage you to not include a logo in your emails. I personally hate it when I get an email with an attachment and the attachment isn't necessary. It clutters up my email storage. And if I get lots of emails from that same person, it is the same logo over and over again stored forever in my email. Just be aware that this annoys some people.
For links, just put the links. Simple. Icons would take a lot of work and know-how and probably a different pro-level email system. Plus then everyone you email will be getting attachments with those icons filling up their email accounts and taking up bandwidth.
You need to upgrade your green screen to some real background. It seems your videos are very old hence I was going to skip but then I saw it is just uploaded. Thanks
What type of electronic signature? Canva is a drawing web app, right? Maybe just an image of some sort? You can include that image in an email like any other (though I advise against it).
@@macmost Ya, it just becomes a pdf added to the signature at the bottom of the email. But I can't seem to upload it on an ipad. Can I ask why you advise against it?
@@theologymatters5127 Make sure you create an image, not a PDF. I don't use Canva so I can't tell you how to do that. If you put an image in your signature then every email you send will have an attachment and that can annoy the people who receive your messages. I know if I get an email with an unnecessary attachment I am annoyed. Just use a simple signature with your name and maybe one line of text (website, or phone number, whatever). Keep it simple and concise.
Hi Gary. Greetings from Spain. Thanks for the video tutorial. It was, as usual, very enlightening. I have been using signatures for years, but never understood really how they actually work. By the way, I have an offtopic question: my Mac seems to have been infected by some sort of malware ( I am currently using a 2012 MacBook Air, with MacOS Catalina). I am currently using Firefox as my default browser, and very often, when I open a link in a new tab, another tab opens automatically with publicity of some sort, mainly about McAfee. Sometimes this advert website substitutes the tab I was trying to open from a link of my choice. I tried some anti malware software apps, without much luck. The question is: Is there any way to solve the problem without the obvious choice of making a MacOS clean install? Thanks a lot in advance.
It sounds like you just have some sort of extension installed for Firefox that is causing the issue. Do you get the same problems with Safari? You can always take it to an expert before you do the extreme thing and wiping everything.