E-mail Signatures

E-mail Signatures

September 23, 1998

E-mail is a peculiar combination of the casualness of phone conversations and the formal structure of business letters. It is immediate and convenient like telephones, but also has a sense of permanence that is characterized by mail and other written documents.

E-mail is also important. Anything that is worth the time that you, school and district administrators, take to type and send as e-mail has to be important. It is, therefore, important that the reader(s) of your message know who it is coming from, and why the message should be considered seriously.

Now you could add this supporting information to your message, but that takes time to write, and time is just as critical for most of your readers -- you don't want to make them read anymore than is necessary. To help solve this problem, "signatures" have been adopted as a method for introducing the writer to the reader(s) and, in many cases, lending credence to the information that is being shared.

Specifically, an e-mail signature is three to six lines of text that are automatically stamped onto the end of all e-mail messages you send. You have the option to remove signatures, but most of your messages should include them. Signatures insist of information about you and your position. In my case, I am a free agent educator. I include a range of contact information, my phone and fax numbers, my e-mail address, the URL of my business website, and my education website. Each of these pieces of information helps potential clients to contact me.

To add credibility to my ideas, I also include my connections with the Global SchoolNet Foundation, which is recognized internationally among technology using educators. I also, from time to time, use my signature to promote my book...we all have to make a living.

For a principal, it would be wise to include the name of your school, its address, and phone and fax number. Other pieces of information may also be relevant such as the URL of your school's website. Central office people might want to include contact information for other people in your department. You have to determine what information your readers should know about you that will help you (and them) accomplish your goals.

You signature should be structured such that it is easy to scan. You don't want to make people read it, but to glance at it and immediately see the bit of information they need, your phone number, web URL, or association memberships. In the early days, people also included a passage from a book, a line from a poem, or (quite frequently) a quote from the latest Star Trek episode -- something that reflected the personality of the writer.

Many signatures also include text-based images -- letters arranged to look like a person or an animal. Admittedly, you sometimes have to step back and squint your eyes to see it.

Here are some websites that you might visit to see some of the most creative signature files on the Internet:

The Signature Museum -- http://huizen.dds.nl/~mwpieter/sigs/

CoolSig -- http://www.coolsig.com/

Esther's Signature Collection of Doom -- http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~moose/sigs.html

Setting Up an E-mail Signature

1.	It is best to construct your signature file using a text or word processing program first. These programs will give you lots of flexibility in crafting a signature that you are happy with. I recommend SimpleText if you are using Mac OS, or WordPad if using Windows 95/98.
2.	Be sure that your text or word processor is set to "Courier" font. This is the font that most e-mail programs use, so you will want to know how your signature will look in e-mail while you are constructing it.
3.	When you have finished with you file, highlight it with the mouse and copy it into the clipboard by pulling down the [Edit] menu and selecting [Copy].

Qualcomm's Eudora v. 3.0

http://www.eudora.com

1.	Pull down the [Tools] menu, select [Signature], and then select either [Alternate] or [Standard]. Note: Eudora offers two signature files, "Alternate" and "Standard". With this option, you can have an official signature for professional correspondence and then a less formal signature (Alternate) for family and friends. When you send a message, you can select either signature although the default will be "Standard."
2.	When you select [Alternate] or [Standard] you will receive a basic text box. Pull down the [Edit] menu and select [Paste] to insert the signature text that you constructed with your text or word processor.
3.	Close the signature window and click [Yes] when it asks if you want to save the changes.
	Done! Your standard signature will automatically stamped onto every e-mail that you send unless you indicate in the message that you want the alternate signature or no signature at all.

Netscape Messenger v. that accompanies Communicator suite 4.05

http://www.netscape.com

Messenger pulls your signature from a file on your hard disk. To set your signature file, follow these steps:

1.	After you have composed your signature with a text or word processor, pull down the [File] menu and select [Save] or [Save as] (this is while you are still using the text or word processor).
2.	A standard file dialog box will appear. Find the directory or folder where the Netscape application is located and save your signature file as: sig.txt You can actually save it as anything you like, but it should be a filename that you will recognize at a later date.
3.	Run Netscape Messenger, pull down the [Edit] menu and select [Preferences].
4.	When the Preferences dialog box appears, click "Identity" in the category window. If you do not see "Identity", click the plus (+) sign by "Mail & Groups". This should cause "Identity" and several other options to appear. Now click "Identity".
5.	You should already have your name, e-mail address, reply-to address, and organization filled in. The final entry is for "Signature File". Click the [Choose] button to the right to select your signature file.
6.	Use the standard file dialog box that appears to find the directory or folder where the Netscape application is located. If there is a large number of files, pull down the [Files of type] menu and select "Text (*.txt)". When you find your sig.txt file, click it and then click the [Open] button.
7.	The path to your sig.txt file should appear in the "Signature File" text box. Click the [OK] button.
8.	Each time that you start a new message, your signature should be included. Simply insert the text of your message above the signature text.

Microsoft Outlook Express v. that accompanies Explorer Suite 4.0

http://www.microsoft.com/

1.	After you have constructed your signature with a text or word processor and copied it into the clipboard, run Outlook Express.
2.	In Outlook Express, pull down the [Tools] menu and select [Stationery].
3.	Click the [Mail] tab at the top of the window that appears, and then click the [Signature] button at the bottom.
4.	At the top of the dialog box that appears, find a radio button labeled "Text". Click this button.
5.	The larger text area to the right will turn white, enabling you to enter text into it. Click the cursor inside of that box and then pull down your [Edit] menu and select [Paste] to paste your signature into the text area.
6.	Finally, click the checkbox at the top of the dialog box labeled "Add this signature to all outgoing messages" and then click [OK] and [OK] again.
7.	Each time that you start a new message, your signature should be included. Simply insert the text of your message above the signature text.

\\\|/// \\ - - // ( @ @ ) -------------oOOo-(_)-oOOo----------------
David F. Warlick
The Landmark Project
Vice-President/BOD, Global SchoolNet Foundation
Residence: Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
v:919-571-3292 f:919-571-2760

Landmarks for Schools -- www.landmark-project.com/
Global School House -- www.gsn.org/
Carolina Global School House -- www.cgsh.org/

.oooO -------- ( )-- Oooo. --------------------- \ ( ( ) \_) ) / (_/