Why does my email signature not show up when replying?

If you're like me, your emails are often composed on several devices and sent via many different services. Sometimes this means that you have multiple signatures (which may be text only if you use an online service) for each account with which you interact. This also happens if you send out messages using more than one of these accounts at once -- for example, sending from your personal email address while working remotely through Microsoft Office 365 or Google Apps. In such cases, your reply signature might end up being missing something important, like a photo. It's frustrating! Fortunately, there are two ways to ensure all of your email signatures will always contain what they need to.

In this article we'll look at why your reply signature isn't displaying correctly in some instances, then offer solutions so you won't encounter this problem again. Even better, most methods apply equally to other email providers including Apple Mail, Yahoo!, AOL, GMX, Zimbra, Lotus Notes, etc., so follow along regardless of where you read your mail.

Before we begin, let's first take a closer look at how our replies work in general. A reply just refers to any response made by anyone who receives your original message. If someone sends you an email, and you respond back immediately without taking a moment to think about whether you really want to send that particular person another note, that's called "replying-to" them. The sender gets notified that their communication has been replied to, but the recipient(s) don't see anything else because no further information was included. You could even say that your initial message is the "parent," and that the reply is its child.

This is true even if you're responding to yourself within Outlook or Gmail, since those systems treat your own name as a contact label. For instance, if you send an email to your boss, and he responds right away saying "Great job!" you wouldn't receive his comment unless you went into the details section to find it. But if you write "Thanks, Bob!" instead, the same email would still go directly to your inbox without giving you the chance to add additional comments. So when people say that everything is contained within the subject line, sometimes they mean that the body of the email itself is all that needs to be examined.

Now that we know a little bit more about how emails work, we can move onto solving the problems behind why your signature doesn't display properly when replying. We've broken down solutions into three sections:

How do I get my signature to show up in replies?

Why is my signature not showing up in replies?

As mentioned earlier, this issue usually occurs when you attempt to quickly compose an email from various sources. One way around this is to set up filters that automatically insert your signature whenever you open certain types of correspondence. However, depending on the type of filter you choose, you may not realize that you didn't actually sign off. Or worse yet, if you accidentally close the window before typing your signature, the entire process goes haywire.

The easiest way to avoid this scenario entirely is to manually copy and paste your default signature over to every single email client you frequent. That way you never run the risk of forgetting to edit it later, and you can rest assured that whatever information you'd like to communicate will always be present. There are plenty of free templates available online that already include signatures like this, so you shouldn't have much trouble finding one to suit your preferences.

One great option is Signature Maker Pro [Broken URL Removed], which lets users upload images of either photos or drawings, and offers hundreds of design options. Once installed on your computer, it works seamlessly alongside Windows Live Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mac OS X Mail, and pretty much any other compatible program. Just fill in the blanks, select the fonts and colors, and hit OK. Next time you reply to an email, your signature will pop right in. No fussing required.

Unfortunately, Signature Maker Pro costs $19 USD per year after the trial period ends, so if you prefer to pay nothing at all, you can try making a custom signature in Wordpress' own editor instead. To do that, simply click Tools & Add New Post Content and start building out your profile page. On the left side of the screen under Appearance, scroll down until you reach Header Text/Tags. Click Edit HTML to enter your desired code. Be sure to check out our guide on creating a WordPress blog header for help getting started. Afterward, head to Settings & Reading Options and change the Email Field dropdown menu to Personal Message. Then replace the placeholder content with your preferred signature.

You can also opt to install Chrome extensions to automate the process. Here are two worth considering: First, Auto Reply Signatures saves you the hassle of having to craft signatures for each individual account you register. Second, Customize Your Own Emails adds basic editing capabilities to your browser. With both tools active, you can easily customize your signature without ever leaving the comfort of your webmail provider.

To learn more about auto-signature creation, be sure to review our list of popular websites for professional email signatures. And if you'd rather skip installing programs altogether, here are four easy ways to integrate email signatures into Gmail.

How do I get my signature to show up in replies?

We recommend copying and pasting your signature to every email client you use. If you frequently access your emails on mobile devices, consider setting up shortcuts through your phone settings. Otherwise, you may want to enable keyboard shortcuts. These allow you to launch specific features with keystrokes instead of clicking icons. Head to File & Preferences... to toggle this feature on or off according to your preference.

For desktop clients, press Ctrl + Shift + S to bring up System Preferences and search for Keyboard Shortcuts. From there, double click on Control Center to view its contents. Select Internet Accounts and drag the icon for whichever email app you use to the top row of functions. Now whenever you open an email, hold down Alt+Shift and tap F9 to activate the shortcut. Release the keys and voila — instant signature insertion.

Another alternative is to assign hotkeys to existing commands, though you must remember to update your keyboard mapping afterward to reflect changes. For example, with Hotkey Creator 2, you can create a command by pressing Alt+F11 followed by Tab. Type "Insert signature" next to the field labeled Execute the following action. Finally, navigate to Insert - User Interface Editor and locate the appropriate button on the toolbar. Double click to configure the binding. Repeat the steps above with a second hotkey to remove the user interface element.

Once you've done this, you can map hotkeys to virtually any function. For example, with Hotkey Launcher 1, you can even trigger custom actions based on keywords entered within incoming attachments. This tool requires registration ($25), however.

Note that hotkeys aren't supported in all browsers. Use the instructions outlined previously to test compatibility across platforms.

How do I make my signature appear in Outlook replies?

Outlook 2007 introduced a new tab titled Quick Parts that allows users to import prewritten snippets of text into their outgoing messages. Unfortunately, Quick Part entries cannot be edited, meaning you can't tweak them to fit your exact specifications. Instead, you can download a template from the internet (see below). Alternatively, you can switch over to Outlook 2010 or 2013. Those versions support rich formatting tags, which can accomplish exactly what you desire.

However, if you absolutely refuse to upgrade to newer software, you can still achieve similar results. Simply highlight the signature text and save it as a.txt file. Open this document in Notepad and edit as needed. Save it as an RTF file, then load it into Outlook. This trick is particularly useful if you regularly send documents containing graphics, charts, tables, etc.

Why is my Gmail signature not showing up in replies?

Gmail provides users with lots of customization options, which includes adding extra elements to your signature. While this is convenient, it also creates confusion between the primary and secondary addresses associated with your account. As an added bonus, it makes things harder for others trying to decipher your signature.

Thankfully, thanks to a simple workaround, you can easily turn these elements on or off to your liking. Start by opening Gmail's settings menu. Navigate to General and uncheck Show Preview Pane. Hit Close afterwards. Next, visit gmail.com and log in. Hover over the downward arrow located near the upper right corner of the pane and hover over More Actions. Choose Manage Labels and Filters... Afterwards, disable Show Labels In Sidebar. Lastly, repeat the previous step to hide Labels In Sidebar.

By doing so, you eliminate unnecessary clutter and keep your main address separate from your alternate ones.

While this tip seems overly complicated, it's actually quite straightforward. Users typically spend less time looking at their labels than they do reading their messages, so you definitely lose fewer opportunities to catch peoples eyes. Plus, it looks nicer too.

I have been using Microsoft Office for over 10 years now and am still amazed at how many things we take for granted with our computers that are actually fairly simple features. One of these seemingly-simple features is being able to see your photo in your email signatures. You don't even need an account on any website before you start taking pictures online and uploading them into your computer's My Pictures folder. But what about having this same image appear every time you send out emails from within software like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.? It seems so easy yet most people never think of doing it until they try! Here is how to do it...

First off, if you haven't already done so, go ahead and open MS Paint (or another program) and take some photos of yourself. Make sure you use good lighting, stand where there isn't too much background noise, etc. Then select one of those photos and save it somewhere onto your PC. Once saved, right click on the file and choose Properties " Details/Summary tab. This will bring up information such as the date created, size, location, type, and more. What we want to change here is the Location field. Change this value to something other than Desktop. If you're unsure which directory to put your files in, just browse through your C:/ drive or wherever else you store documents and folders. The easiest way to navigate through drives is by holding down Alt + Tab while clicking each drive letter. Selecting anything under Documents & Settings would be sufficient for this purpose.

Now that you've changed the location, press OK. Your newly-saved file may ask you if you'd like to associate it with certain types of content. Choose Application Data and then scroll down to find Picture Files. Click inside the box next to this option and enter the name of your file - e.g., JohnSmith_SignaturePhoto.jpg. Now close the properties window without saving changes. Next, go back to the original Properties page and set the Type dropdown menu to Icon Only. Finally, rename the icon itself. Right click anywhere blank and choose Rename.... Enter Signature Photo 1 in the dialog box and hit Enter. Do this again but instead call the second icon Signature Photo 2. That's it! Now whenever you respond to an email from someone who uses Outlook 2007 or later, their recipients will see both images alongside your contact info. And yes, you'll also see your photo in your own personal email client(s). Enjoy!

If you ever run across problems getting either of these steps to work properly, please refer to the following articles:

How do I get my signature to show up in Outlook when I reply?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302237

Outlook doesn't recognize my.bmp graphics file format. Why not?

In addition, let us know how you got everything working correctly. We love hearing success stories!

Thanks!

"Lori M." wrote in response to article ID #86987. She explains, "This was very helpful. However, I'm wondering why my signature disappears when I reply to an email. In my profile settings, it says 'Always Include,' but my signature only shows up when creating a new mail."

The difference between adding a signature to a new message vs. replying to an existing one likely has something to do with the fact that outlook saves copies of your previous replies when composing new ones. So depending upon whether you sent them via email or IM, the behavior could vary. Also, sometimes sending a reply resets the signature section since it no longer displays any text. To avoid this problem, you might consider pasting the contents of your signature into a separate outgoing message you send after receiving a followup request. Or simply attach the signature separately to subsequent replies you send.

Also keep in mind that when you delete a signature, it is removed from ALL future messages you compose unless you manually reinsert it elsewhere. For example, suppose someone sends you an email asking if you received a message from someone named Smith. Since you deleted your signature for that person earlier, Outlook won't display your photo when replying. By contrast, if you had added his signature to the top of an incoming message and clicked Reply All at the bottom, Outlook wouldn't bother deleting it because it's currently displayed in a different part of the screen.

With respect to your question regarding displaying signatures when replying to old messages, unfortunately if your contact hasn't updated their address book to point to your new E-mail Account, Outlook won't automatically pull your signature from your profile. As long as you remember to paste it into the body of your reply, it should always show up. Note that if you happen to receive a lot of messages from contacts that haven't updated their addresses, you can easily fix this issue by going to Tools / Options / Trust Center / Mail Setup / Send New Email Messages and checking Automatically insert my default signature into outgoing messages.

To answer your last question, to add a signature to forwarded mails, first locate the Add Attachment button located directly below the Forward Message button. After choosing this option, look to the lower left corner of your screen to view several icons including More Items and Open File Explorer. Hover over Open File Explorer and a small arrow should pop up pointing towards the center of the screen. Drag and drop the attachment you wish to forward into the desired spot. A small popup window containing said item should appear once dropped. Double-click on the attached document and select Edit From Clipboard. Find the Insert Section dropdown box near the middle of the dialogue box. Choose Text Boxes followed by Plain Text. Scroll down and place your cursor in the area where you want your signature to appear. Hit CTRL+V (Windows), Command+ V (Mac OS X), or Ctrl+Shift+V (Linux) and drag your mouse over to the end of the line. Release the mouse. The rest of the process is exactly the same as forwarding regular messages.

Hi Tina, thanks for writing in. There are two ways to achieve this. First, you could replace your current signature with a plaintext version and edit it to suit your needs. Second, you could download a free copy of Windows Live Writer and install it on your system. With WLW installed, you can customize your signature by typing text and inserting links. This method allows you to retain control over the formatting and placement of your text. Hope this helps.

If you've ever checked your email and found that several of them were missing from their usual spot on top of your inbox or if you're experiencing this problem yourself, then there's nothing more frustrating than finding out why they disappear. One way for an incoming mail client like Microsoft Office 365/Outlook 2007 to sort through all messages is by using rules. These are set-it-and-forget-it instructions that tell Mail which emails to delete automatically based upon criteria such as sender name, subject line, etc. The downside to these automatic deletions is that sometimes important information gets lost along with it. For example, some people have signatures at the bottom of every single outgoing mail but when you use rules to move those mails into another folder (or even delete them), the signature disappears from view. This usually happens because the rule instructs Mail to remove any text following "Sent" and since most signatures contain contact info, phone numbers, addresses, company names, etc., removing the signature means losing access to this essential data.

The good news is that there are ways around this issue so you don't need to worry about losing important details while setting up rules to manage your mailbox. In fact, there are multiple reasons why your Outlook 2007 signature might be disappearing after adding certain types of rules to your outgoing mail. If this has happened to you before, here are five tips to help rectify the situation.

Why does my signature disappeared in Outlook?

There could be many reasons why your Outlook 2007 signature disappeared after applying one of your own rules. Some common culprits include having too much junk mail being sent to your account, having too many outgoing messages containing attachments, having too many spam messages, and having too many large files attached to outgoing messages. Each of these factors may cause your signature to vanish depending on how you configured your settings. Here are some things you can try to see if you can get rid of the problem once and for all:

Check your Junk Filter - By default, Microsoft Outlook 2007 uses its built-in junk filter feature to prevent potential phishing attacks and unsolicited commercial e-mail messages. However, unless you specifically turned off this option, it may still send unwanted messages. To disable this feature go to File & Options & Trust Centre tab and uncheck Block non-safe Attachments. Also check Prevent blocked content from downloading unchecked Attachments and Documents.

Clear your Temporary Files Folder - Another reason your Outlook Signature can suddenly disappear is due to a temporary file left behind somewhere within your system. You'll want to run Disk Cleanup tool to find any leftover files that haven't been fully deleted. Once done, restart your computer and see if the problem persists.

Disable Word VBA features - Have you enabled Word macros and ActiveX controls? These are two programming languages used by Microsoft Word to allow users to write code that control various aspects of Word itself. As such, enabling either of these features will result in unexpected actions taken without user consent. Disabling both of these functions would be ideal. Go to Tools & Compatibility & Disable Macro Features. Then go to Control Panel & Administrative Tools & Performance Monitor. Click Start Task Manager and click Processes button. Look for word.exe processes and right-click each process and select Properties. Check the box next to Hide stop button. Repeat this step for explorer.exe. Restart Windows Explorer and reboot again.

Clean Up Your Rules - Sometimes getting rid of old outdated rules can fix problems with your current ones. Right-click on the Rules icon located near the upper right corner of your screen and choose Manage Rules & Alerts... Select Run Rule Now. You should now browse through the list of existing rules and identify the ones that apply to your specific case. Delete any unnecessary rules and save changes. After doing this, rerun your Outlook 2007 setup wizard and hopefully this tip alone should take care of your problem.

Try changing your Account Settings - If none of the above solutions worked for you, perhaps your profile needs updating. Head over to Home & Personal Information & Customize Ribbon tab. Under Main Tabs, change Email Layout dropdown menu to Classic. Close Setup Wizard. Open outlook manually and head over to Edit Accounts section. Change Profile Name under Internet E-Mail Client to whatever you'd prefer. Finally, you'll also want to switch your Default Account back to None.

This article was adapted from Anoop Kishore's blog post titled Why Does My Email Signature Disappear With Outlook 2007. We encourage our readers to visit his site for further resources related to this topic.

Why is my email signature not showing up in Gmail?

It doesn't matter whether you use Google Apps for Business or standard accounts, chances are high that you've encountered this annoying problem where your Outlook 2007 signature doesn't appear in your Gmail account. While there are possible fixes listed below, we suggest trying them only AFTER making sure that your account hasn't gotten compromised somehow. Otherwise, resetting your password or contacting customer support to initiate a security audit of your account may be necessary.

Here are four steps you can follow to ensure that your Gmail address is safe from malicious parties:

1) Set up Two-Step Verification - If you didn't already do so, you must enable two-step verification to protect your account against unauthorized logins. It's highly recommended that you keep your recovery codes secure and never share them with anyone else. Visit https://www.google.com/settings/security under Security header and scroll down until you reach Signing in to Google. Click Get Started link. Choose 2-Step Verification and enter your mobile number. Follow the rest of the directions provided.

2) Enable Secure Browsing - Enabling secure browsing allows you to encrypt sensitive communications between your browser and servers. This helps safeguard your personal information during transmission. Simply type https:// instead of http:// whenever you hit the URL bar in Chrome or Firefox browsers. Most web pages loaded via HTTPS display green padlock icons indicating a secure connection.

3) Use Stronger Passwords - Make sure that your passwords aren't easily guessed and contain characters from three random alphabets. Don't reuse previous login credentials and always use unique passwords. Should you forget your password, simply sign in using your Google ID and ask us to recover your password.

4) Protect your Identity - Never provide your real credit card and bank account details online. Instead, pay attention to warning signs including generic words such as "hackers," "breached," "compromised," etc. Be cautious when clicking links or opening attachments sent to you via unknown sources. Take extra measures to avoid social engineering scams involving fake websites designed to steal your identity.

For additional reading material related to this question please refer to Paul Schriber's informative article entitled What Is A Browser Cookie And Do Cookies Cause Problems On Web Sites [Technology Explained].

Why is my signature different when I reply in Outlook?

An interesting phenomenon associated with Outlook 2007 is that the signature displayed when sending an outgoing mail appears slightly altered when someone replies to it. Although this difference isn't obvious enough to bother most people, it can become quite noticeable when looking at a quick comparison shot. Thankfully though, this anomaly isn't difficult to correct. All you need to do is open your original outgoing mail, copy the entire contents and paste it directly underneath the reply portion of the latest response. Thereafter, highlight everything inside the quotation marks and press Ctrl + C to copy it. Next, navigate to View & Options & Font tab. Uncheck Display Preview pane and click OK. That's it! Note however that unlike other cases described earlier, this solution won't work unless you actually copied and pasted the contents of your original mail.

To learn more about this particular scenario, read the full explanation written by Sushil Kumar Jain. He shares what he believes to be the exact root cause of this bug.