Signatures are removed upon choosing email account to send from

[Chigongman]

I run Outlook 2007 in a hosted Exchange environment. I have a few POP
accounts set up so I can send mail "from" whatever I choose to show others
since I represent a couple different companies. For my convenience, I've
created Outlook Signatures for each POP account, with full contact info
(company, address, etc).

Sometimes I want the signature in there, and sometimes I don't. Therefore, I
like the control of being able to go in and manually select a signature from
the icons at the top of my screen, which I've been in the habit of doing from
using Outlook 2003. I'm also in the habit of always manually selecting which
account I want to send from (I put an Account button on the toolbar in 2003;
it's default in 2007).

I'm in the habit of the following procedure:

1. Write my email message.

2. Choose the Signature to have it insert at the bottom.

3. Choose the Account to have it send from.

4. Hit Send.

I'm encountering a very annoying and now potentially very problematic issue
here, now that I've moved from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007.

Depending on what "format" or "mode" Outlook is doing the message in, such
as I guess HTML vs plan text or what have you (I can't attribute this
intermittence to anything else), sometimes after I selected the Signature and
watched it get inserted at the bottom of the message, where I placed it, when
I then select the Account to send from it removes the signature I just
inserted!

I can go back in and then manually insert the signature again, and as long
as I don't select the Account again, it will stay there. But if I do select
the Account again, it will be removed again.

This is annoying enough. But now it's becoming a danger to my business as
well. I have certain emails that really must have my contact info in the
closing, and in some cases there are Notices/Disclaimers at the bottom of my
Signature that are extremely important.

I've been dealing with this nonsense for awhile and yet I still find that
sometimes I fail to remember to double-triple-quadruple-check, after choosing
the Account, to see if it removed my Signature yet again. It's my habit, out
of prudence, to choose the Account right before hitting Send, in a one-two
movement. I will not be able to reliably get into s new habit of "never"
hitting Account "after" choosing Signature.

And I shouldn't have to. I should be able to manually insert a signature and
have it stay there regardless of which Account I choose.

Yes, I have tried to set up Signatures in such a way that the appropriate
Signature goes with the appropriate account. But that doesn't seem to work
well at all. It STILL sometimes removes my signature after I manually
selected it if I subsequently select Account -- even if the signature is the
one associated to that account for new messages!

Oh, maybe I need to put it in for replies as well. I didn't try that. Again,
it's not logical for me to do that since most of the time I won't insert the
signature in a reply. But to have it stick once I manually selected it, if I
then choose Account, I guess it has to be the "default" selection in the
Signatures setup as well.

This is REALLY REALLY annoying to deal with.

Even if I set the defaults to None for all cases, it still wants to remove
the signature I manually inserted if I then select an Account and it's not
associated.

That's just plain stupid.

And is not only annoying but is now causing be problems in business
relationships.

I don't see any way to tell Outlook to mind its own business and leave it
alone if I tell it "this" signature and then tell it "this" account.

But that's what I need to tell it.

How do I do that?

Please tell me there's a way.

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

the only way to solve your problem is to either set the auto sig feature to
never add a sig or to create a bunch of sigs in the sig folder and right
click on a sig to choose a new one after choosing an acct. You can't have it
both ways - outlook will always change the sig when you change accts if you
have sigs assigned to the accts.

 

[Chigongman]

I'm finding not only does it change the signature if I have one assigned to
the account, but it removes what I had if I have None assigned to the
account, too (I guess None is a designation, per se, which it's following).

I'm very happy to have it "never" add a signature, so it's always up to me
to do it manually... as long as it leaves my choice alone after I
subsequently choose an Account.

Please clarify for me "how" to do that! How to do the first of the two
things you mentioned:

--> Set the "auto sig" feature to have it never add a signature

That's what I want to do.

I have gone into the Signatures in Mail Format - Signatures and created
Signatures which I named the same as the mail accounts I usually use them
with, but other than that I don't see them "tied" to any email account unless
I go onto the right side of the Signatures screen and assign default
Signatures to each account. So, I'm only aware of how to set them to None,
which isn't helping me much. Is there a different way to simply tell it to
stop doing "anything" "automatically" that I'm not seeing? (I can't imagine
that but simply manually naming a given Signature the same way as the account
is named that that alone ties them in any way.)

Thanks!

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

if a sig is added automatically by an acct and you change to an acct that
does not use a sig, it will remove the sig and you will not be able to
change the sig - there is nothing to change. Sigs are controlled by styles
and if its set to none, there is no style... so the sig will not change when
you change to another acct.

My preferred method is to create a bunch of sigs including one called Blank
and assign one to each acct - then before sending, right click on the sig
and change to a different one. But then I don't change my sending acct
much... I select the sending account before I start to compose and stick
with it. If I need to change my sig, I r-click on the sig and choose another
from the list.

I think you'll do best if you set every sig to None and insert signature
text manually. That way they will never change unless you change them. In
fact, it almost sounds like you use sigs as boiler plate text - in that
case, Quick Parts might meet your needs better. Or you could change your
habits and choose the sending acct first, then the sig. Either way, you need
every acct to have a named signature assigned or set every acct to None.

 

[Chigongman]

I just did a search in Outlook Help for "Quick Parts" and nothing came up.

I'm curious what you were referring to, since I'm still struggling with this.

(So far I'm getting in the "habit" of first choosing a sending account and
then a Signature, but this is not a foolproof process. A better way would be
welcome.)

Thanks.

Jay

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

see http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102086531033.aspx - this is
the help content you'll get on it.