How to Automate Your Signature

Why a Signature File?

It is a polite convention to identify yourself, your institution, and your email address in one or two lines at the end of your message. These line are known as a "signature".

There are two good reasons for including a signature.

  1. Some mail readers do not allow the user to scroll back up to the top of the mail message to see the e-mail address. Therefore, it is a courtesy to these readers to repeat one's e-mail address at the end of the message.
  2. Also, signatures enable contact with the poster in the event a mail server mangles email addresses in the header.
Mick Brown says, "Addresses in sigs are redundant in most cases, but there are cases where the sigs may contain the only valid address."

What to Put in a Signature File

Think of your signature file as your electronic letterhead. Put your full name, your e-mail address, and your institutional affiliation. Optionally, you may find it useful to include your phone number, your surface address, and the address of your web page or other contact information.

Be careful not to make the file too big. A large signature file is not considered polite.

Jay's signature file looks like this: 

              **********************************************
Jay C. Treat                       manager of the Prep Center, SAS Computing
440 Williams Hall                  voice:  (215) 898-9892
The University of Pennsylvania     email:  jtreat@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Philadelphia PA  19104-6305        www: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jtreat/

How to Make a Signature File

The easiest way to append a signature to every e-mail message is to automate it. Most e-mail software allows an automated signature.

Eudora

In Eudora 1.2 for Macintosh, go to the Special menu and select the Signature item. You can then fill in your name, institution, e-mail address, and anything else useful. Then go to the Special menu and choose Switches, and click on Use Signature. Your signature will be appended to all of your e-mail.

In another version of Eudora, you will find the signature under the Tools menu, under Signature. After creating your signature, you can automate adding your signature by choosing Tools > Options > Sending Mail and click on "Use Signature."

Netscape

First, create a little text-file that contains the information you want.

In Netscape 2.0, go to the Options menu and choose Mail and News Preferences. Under Identity, you can identify the signature file that contains the information you want.

Elm

First, create a little text file with the information you want. The usual name is ".signature".

In elm, press "o" for Options. Page forward until you see L)ocal signature and R)emote signature. Press "r" for Remote signature and enter the name of your signature file on the line. Press "return" to accept the file name. Then press ">" to save the changes and "i" to return to the main index..

Pine

From the main menu, choose Setup, then Signature. Type in the information you want, and Exit.

Then choose Setup and Config. On about the fourth page, you'll find "signature-at-bottom". Move the cursor to this line, and press "x" to select it. Then press "e" to exit the configuration.

This page (http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/ioudaios/signature.html) was last modified on December 13, 1996.
As of December 31, 2004, this page is no longer being updated.