A signature file (or, for those in the know a "sig file") is usually just a little peice of text that automatically gets put at the end of an e-mail.

For example, when I send out an e-mail, the following is automatically plopped in at the end:

Have a great day,

Steve

====================
Web:
http://www.worldstart.com
E-mail
steve@worldstart.com
====================

That way, I don't waste countless hours of my life typing the same thing over and over. How does one do this little piece of digital magic? It's easy. So easy that you're gonna wish you'd been doing it all along.

Here's an example for Outlook Express, since that's the e-mail client most of you are using. Note the procedure is pretty much the same for most other e-mail programs.

1. Hit the Tools menu, Options.

Click the Signatures tab on the resulting screen.

2. Under the Signatures area, click the New button.

3. Next, type your good-bye message in the Edit Signature area. If you want to get fancy, you can use a file, even HTML. For now, probably best to stick with plain text. We don't wanna go crazy here :-)

4. OK, now if you want this to automatically be added to your outgoing messages, go back to the top of this little screen and check the "Add signatures to all outgoing messages" box. I also uncheck the "Don't add signatures to replies and forwards" so that my sig file is added to those too.

5. Click OK and you're all set. Create a new e-mail message and your new sig file should automatically be added.

BONUS TRICK!

OK, now let's take this up to the next level. You may have noticed back on the Signatures screen that you can add multiple signatures. Although this could be used for just having a couple different ways to say "C-Ya", I have a better plan.

If you receive a lot of e-mail and find that you are sending the same message (or messages) to lots of different people, why not set up a sig file for that message (or those messages, as the case may be)?

For example, let's say you have a lot of requests for a brochure. You generally reply to people and tell them that you'll be sending one shortly. How do you apply this to the sig file trick? Easy:

1. Set up a sig file with your complete message (minus the good-bye part). For our example, I'll put:

Hi,

We'll be sending you the brochure shortly. Thanks for your interest!

2. Now, start a new message (your default sig file should automatically be inserted). When you get to the "body" part of the message, place your cursor where you want the second sig file.

Next, hit the Insert menu, Signature, then (for our example) the brochure sig file.

Poof! It's in your e-mail and your fingers are spared some keyboard pounding.

The final product is shown below. Note that when I started the new message my default sig file (starting with the "Have a great day" part) was automatically stuck into the message. I just put my "brochure" sig file on top of it:

We have a half dozen of these extra sig files and it really saves a ton of typing (not to mention time) every day.

BONUS BONUS TRICK!

OK, I'm almost done, I promise.

If you decide to use the bonus trick above, there's one more thing you should do.

I'm not sure about other programs, but Outlook Express lets you plop a button on the toolbar for your sig files! This button has a drop down arrow that allows you to insert any of your sig files on the fly - no messing with the insert menu. This just keeps getting better, doesn't it?

To set this up, do the following:

1. Start a new e-mail message.

2. Right-click a blank area of the toolbar and select Customize from the resulting menu. (Again, you need to do this on the New E-mail Message screen, not the regular outlook express screen)

3. Find the Insert Signature button on the left and add it.

4. Hit OK and you're all set!