Tip 773: Accounts & Signatures

When you use Outlook 2003 with Word as your editor or Outlook 2007 / 2010 / 2013, you can assign a signature to each account and Outlook will use the correct signature when you change accounts.

In Tools, Options, Mail format tab, Signatures (Outlook 2003/2007) select *each* account from the dropdown account list and assign a signature. In Outlook 2010 and 2013, go to File, Mail, Signatures and assign a signature to each account.

The most common cause of signatures not working as expected is not assigning a signature to each individual account. If you don’t want a signature on an account, make a blank signature that contains just – (two dashes) at the top and select it instead of (none). This allows the signature switch to work with very account change.

I recommend using – (two dashes) at the beginning of every signature because it shows you where the signature begins. This helps to avoid another common problem: typing in the signature block. When you type in the signature block, spell check doesn’t work and changing accounts after composing the message deletes the message when the signature changes.

Published August 19, 2010. Last updated on August 15, 2012.

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