How to create and add signatures in Outlook

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Adding a professional email signature to Outlook business profiles is simple to do and will have a positive impact on your external communications. 

Using a professional Outlook email signature promotes your brand in a positive manner while providing recipients with your contact information. 

This article showcases how to setup and create client-side email signatures in Outlook. The native functionality of Outlook 2019 (and Outlook 2016) allows you to create a signature design to personalize your emails with your contact details. 

How to create a signature in Outlook

Creating email signatures in Outlook is simple and allows for all the important aspects of a professional signature to be included. 

However, the signature editor in Outlook is fairly basic, only offering simple formatting options. This limits how elaborate you can make your email signature design. 

Follow our guide below to learn how to create a signature in Outlook. 

How to add a signature in Outlook for Mac

1. Open Outlook for Mac: Go to the top menu bar, click "Outlook", and select "Preferences".

   
   

2. In the Outlook Preferences window, under the Email section, select "Signatures".

   
   

3. Click the "+" button, name your signature, and customize it in the right pane.

   
   

4. Use the drop-down menus next to "New messages" and "Replies/forwards" to select your signature preferences.

   
   

5. Close the Outlook Preferences window, and you're done.

How to add a signature in Outlook.com

How to add images to Outlook email signatures 

Images in professional email signatures draw the recipient’s eye to your template. This might be a company logo or a marketing banner advertising a new offer, service, or promotion. 

To add images to email signatures in Outlook, do the following:  

1. Open the ‘Signatures’ tool from the "File" > "Options" > "Mail" menu or Signature menu in a new email window. Select the email signature you want to customize.

   
   

2. Select the images icon from the "Edit Signature" panel. This opens the "Image Finder" window. Select your image and click "Insert". 

Once your image has been added to your Outlook signature, you can resize it in two simple steps: 

1. Right-click the inserted image and select "Picture".  

   
   

2. Select "Size" and edit the image dimensions to change the scale of the picture.  

Keep the "Lock aspect ratio" option selected to avoid changing the proportions of the image. This is important when adding a company logo. 

How to automatically add signatures to Outlook

In Outlook, you can decide to add email signatures in Outlook to every email or add a unique signature manually with each message. 

To auto-populate emails with your default email signature, follow these steps: 

1. Open the "Signatures" tool. 

   
   

2. Under "Choose default signature", assign an email address for the signature. 

   
   

3. Select a signature to be applied to "New messages" from the drop-down menu. 

This automatically applies the chosen signature to all new emails as the default. 

To manually apply a chosen signature to an email, choose the "Signatures" tool in a new window. The drop-down menu will show all saved signature templates. Simply select your chosen signature and it will appear in the email box. 

How to add a signature on Outlook365 mobile

It’s also possible to create and apply professional email signatures in the Outlook app for Android and iOS devices. 

1. Open the Outlook app and select "Settings" via the gear icon on either iOS or Android.

   
   

2. Select "Signature" from the menu.  

   
   

3. On the following screen, enter a new email signature.  

   
   

4. Select the "Checkmark" icon in the top right-hand corner to save and apply your new email signature. 

The iOS and Android apps for Outlook are more limited than the desktop version, with only text options available. 

A common example of an email signature in Outlook for Android is: 

This provides the contact information a recipient needs to contact the sender. While it doesn’t include images or links, it’s an effective placeholder until the sender is back at their desktop. 

Outlook signature best practices

To ensure your Outlook signature makes the right impression, consider the following best practices:

• Keep it simple: A signature in Outlook that looks cluttered can be overwhelming. Stick to essential information like your name, position, company, and contact details.

• Use professional fonts: Choose fonts that are easy to read and professional. Standard fonts like Arial, Calibri, or Times New Roman are safe bets.

• Include social media: If relevant, include links to your professional social media profiles. Make sure these links are up-to-date and lead to profiles you’re comfortable sharing with all recipients.

• Optimize images: If you include an image or logo in your Outlook signature, ensure it’s high quality but optimized for size to prevent it from unnecessarily increasing email load times.

• Mobile responsiveness: Test your signature in Outlook on multiple devices to ensure it looks good on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

• Standardize across the team: If you’re managing a team, consider creating a standardized template for everyone to use. This promotes brand consistency.

Using Exclaimer for centrally managing signatures in Outlook 

Learning how to change an email signature in Outlook is simple and doesn’t usually pose an issue for employees. However, signature templates are difficult to manage across all users. Without central control, end users can update their signatures in Outlook as and when they want. This can hurt your brand reputation. 

The best way to add and update signatures in Outlook is to use Exclaimer’s email signature software. It lets you easily design and control Outlook signatures that are automatically applied to all users.  

All you need to use Exclaimer’s email signature solution is for your local Active Directory to be synchronized and configured with Azure AD. The product can also be seamlessly migrated to Microsoft 365 (Office 365) at a later date. 

See today how Exclaimer fires up Outlook email signature management and get yourself a free trial.