E
Eric B
OK, I solved this problem on my own but felt I should
share it because so many other people have posted the same
thing without anybody helping out.
PROBLEM: When an e-mail with a signature having a
graphic / logo / image is printed the image prints as a
place holder box with the 'X' and not the image that is
viable on the screen on the recipient's end.
CAUSE: The conclusion I have hit upon is that the
signature file is awkwardly embedded / linked and this
improper embedment occurs at the time when the signature
is created, not during any insertion or printing process.
It may show up on the recipient's screen but the complex
content, i.e. the graphic, will not print.
CONTRIBUTING FACTOR: Having Word set up as your e-mail
editor can create confusion in the way the signature
editor organizes the information that makes up the
embedded image. I have not tried this, but I would think
that temporarily turning this Word option OFF when you
create a new signature would help things. It does not help
that this set up creates two different signature editing
environments and that Outlook and Word both edit and
maintain signatures in slightly different ways.
SOLUTION: (with Word set as your current e-mail editor)
This sequence of steps is exactly the ONLY way I was able
to make this work. I tried almost every possible
combination of steps and actions and this did it. When I
followed the simple logical instructions from Microsoft it
never worked.
1 - Create your Signature without any hyper links, but
with the graphics in Word and save as an HTML file.
2 - Open Outlook and pick 'Tools \ Options \ Mail Format
(tab) \ Signatures.'
3 - Click 'New' and pick 'Use this file as template' and
then Browse for the HTML use just made in step 1
4 - The Outlook Signature Edit box appears with the
Signature in the window, don't type anything and
click 'Advanced Edit'
5 - You get an alert that you are opening a different
editor, accept this and you get.
6 - Word Signature Editor (actually HTML editor) should
open with the signature from step 1
7 - Attach your hyperlinks by right clicking on the
graphic or e-mail and pick 'hyperlink', set the paths and
such.
8 - When you are done click the 'save' icon or 'File \
Save' and you should get an error or alert, accept it.
9 - Close the Word dialog box and you will return to
Outlook's Signature Editor.
10 - You should now have a new Signature called "Untitled"
because we did not give it a name in step 3 - however any
time I gave it a name in Outlook the signature did not
work when printed.
11 - Now click 'OK' to return to Outlook
12 - Open Windows Explorer and browse the Signature file
folder located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\your-name-here\Application
Data\Microsoft\Signatures
13 - Keep the "Untitled.htm" and delete
the "Untitled_files" folder. You will get an alert that
this will loose functionality in the associated files.
14 - Now return to Outlook and pick 'Tools \ Options \
Mail Format (tab) \ Signatures.'
15 - Click 'New' and ENTER A NEW NAME FOR YOUR SIGNATURE
NOW pick 'Use this file as template' and then Browse for
the "Untitled.htm" file located in your C:\Documents and
Settings\your-name-here\Application
Data\Microsoft\Signatures
16 - You should get the Outlook Signature Edit box to
appear with the finished Signature in the window. Accept
this version and then click 'OK'
17 - While still on the 'Mail Format' tab select the NEW
NAME from step 15.
18 - Return to Outlook and test this by clicking the 'New'
message button, You should see your new Signature opened
inside of a Word editing dialog box with the hyperlinks
active.
WHY SO COMPLICATED?
What these bizarre steps do is force the functionality
gained from the Word document to be maintained and
organized by Outlook. The trick is to force Outlook to
interpret the complex hyperlink and graphic content of the
Word document and then organize that content in a way that
Outlook will maintain every time an e-mail message is sent
out. You can't create the complexity of signature I needed
from within Outlook. However, any fully functional
signature I built in Word did not function in Outlook.
Namely, any recipient could not print a complete signature
with an intact graphic. By using the little "Untitled.htm"
trick I was able to get the code from the Word Signature
to remain accessible to Outlook's more simplistic
Signature Editor when it creates the "NEW NAME" Signature.
The graphics and hyperlinks that Outlook could not create
are then organized in a way the Outlook can successfully
embed in the outgoing e-mails so that they will print.
EXCLUSIVE FIX FOR SIGNATURE PRINT PROBLEM
This is what it took for me to have a complex active
hyperlink signature appear within my outgoing e-mail and
still have that signature successfully print on the
recipients end. DO NOT USE THESE STEPS for any other type
of signature problem. I am not a Microsoft expert and only
hit on this work-around by trial and error over many days.
I hope it helps someone. Any simple signature can be
created in the typical steps the Microsoft has on their
support pages.
share it because so many other people have posted the same
thing without anybody helping out.
PROBLEM: When an e-mail with a signature having a
graphic / logo / image is printed the image prints as a
place holder box with the 'X' and not the image that is
viable on the screen on the recipient's end.
CAUSE: The conclusion I have hit upon is that the
signature file is awkwardly embedded / linked and this
improper embedment occurs at the time when the signature
is created, not during any insertion or printing process.
It may show up on the recipient's screen but the complex
content, i.e. the graphic, will not print.
CONTRIBUTING FACTOR: Having Word set up as your e-mail
editor can create confusion in the way the signature
editor organizes the information that makes up the
embedded image. I have not tried this, but I would think
that temporarily turning this Word option OFF when you
create a new signature would help things. It does not help
that this set up creates two different signature editing
environments and that Outlook and Word both edit and
maintain signatures in slightly different ways.
SOLUTION: (with Word set as your current e-mail editor)
This sequence of steps is exactly the ONLY way I was able
to make this work. I tried almost every possible
combination of steps and actions and this did it. When I
followed the simple logical instructions from Microsoft it
never worked.
1 - Create your Signature without any hyper links, but
with the graphics in Word and save as an HTML file.
2 - Open Outlook and pick 'Tools \ Options \ Mail Format
(tab) \ Signatures.'
3 - Click 'New' and pick 'Use this file as template' and
then Browse for the HTML use just made in step 1
4 - The Outlook Signature Edit box appears with the
Signature in the window, don't type anything and
click 'Advanced Edit'
5 - You get an alert that you are opening a different
editor, accept this and you get.
6 - Word Signature Editor (actually HTML editor) should
open with the signature from step 1
7 - Attach your hyperlinks by right clicking on the
graphic or e-mail and pick 'hyperlink', set the paths and
such.
8 - When you are done click the 'save' icon or 'File \
Save' and you should get an error or alert, accept it.
9 - Close the Word dialog box and you will return to
Outlook's Signature Editor.
10 - You should now have a new Signature called "Untitled"
because we did not give it a name in step 3 - however any
time I gave it a name in Outlook the signature did not
work when printed.
11 - Now click 'OK' to return to Outlook
12 - Open Windows Explorer and browse the Signature file
folder located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\your-name-here\Application
Data\Microsoft\Signatures
13 - Keep the "Untitled.htm" and delete
the "Untitled_files" folder. You will get an alert that
this will loose functionality in the associated files.
14 - Now return to Outlook and pick 'Tools \ Options \
Mail Format (tab) \ Signatures.'
15 - Click 'New' and ENTER A NEW NAME FOR YOUR SIGNATURE
NOW pick 'Use this file as template' and then Browse for
the "Untitled.htm" file located in your C:\Documents and
Settings\your-name-here\Application
Data\Microsoft\Signatures
16 - You should get the Outlook Signature Edit box to
appear with the finished Signature in the window. Accept
this version and then click 'OK'
17 - While still on the 'Mail Format' tab select the NEW
NAME from step 15.
18 - Return to Outlook and test this by clicking the 'New'
message button, You should see your new Signature opened
inside of a Word editing dialog box with the hyperlinks
active.
WHY SO COMPLICATED?
What these bizarre steps do is force the functionality
gained from the Word document to be maintained and
organized by Outlook. The trick is to force Outlook to
interpret the complex hyperlink and graphic content of the
Word document and then organize that content in a way that
Outlook will maintain every time an e-mail message is sent
out. You can't create the complexity of signature I needed
from within Outlook. However, any fully functional
signature I built in Word did not function in Outlook.
Namely, any recipient could not print a complete signature
with an intact graphic. By using the little "Untitled.htm"
trick I was able to get the code from the Word Signature
to remain accessible to Outlook's more simplistic
Signature Editor when it creates the "NEW NAME" Signature.
The graphics and hyperlinks that Outlook could not create
are then organized in a way the Outlook can successfully
embed in the outgoing e-mails so that they will print.
EXCLUSIVE FIX FOR SIGNATURE PRINT PROBLEM
This is what it took for me to have a complex active
hyperlink signature appear within my outgoing e-mail and
still have that signature successfully print on the
recipients end. DO NOT USE THESE STEPS for any other type
of signature problem. I am not a Microsoft expert and only
hit on this work-around by trial and error over many days.
I hope it helps someone. Any simple signature can be
created in the typical steps the Microsoft has on their
support pages.