Formatting email template

[beaublack]

Can anyone point me in the right direction ?
I want to be able to format our emails out of the Office so that they have a general disclaimer, have name address and contact details of sender and also Company logo on all as a template so that we don't have to do it every time. When I get such emails I don't always read disclaimers etc however they do look much more professional that just a plain sheet.

[plasticpig]

What email client/server are you using?

[onomatopoeia]

Using any kind of template like that to get pictures into the text will need your email to be in HTML format. Remember that not everyone uses a MUA that understands HTML. If they don't, the nice email with your logo in the corner and 3,000 words of disclaimer at the end winds up looking something like this (cut directly from my inbox):

[quote].arial18bold { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:
18px; font-weight: bold; color: #0066CC; } ..arial14blue { font-family:
Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal;
color: #0066CC; } ..arial20bold { font-family: Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif; font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold; color: #0066CC; }
..arial12black { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:
12px; font-weight: normal; color: #000000; } ..arial12blackbold {
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight:
[/quote]

With your text buried somewhere after three pages of formatting information.

[mattley]

beaublack said:

I want to be able to format our emails out of the Office so that they have a general disclaimer, have name address and contact details of sender and also Company logo.

No you don't.

Logos don't work in most mail clients now anyway, and is considered very bad form these days, and as pointed out above HTML formatting can go horribly wrong.

Disclaimers are worthless, and just get in the way of any extended correspondence. IMO they certainly don't look proffesional, and actually make companies look paranoid and incompetetant, as they usually run along the lines of, 'we don't know what we're doing so if we've sent this to the wrong person, or included a virus it's not our fault'.

A plain text sig with name and job title should suffice.

[beaublack]

mattley said:

beaublack said: I want to be able to format our emails out of the Office so that they have a general disclaimer, have name address and contact details of sender and also Company logo. No you don't. Logos don't work in most mail clients now anyway, and is considered very bad form these days, and as pointed out above HTML formatting can go horribly wrong. Disclaimers are worthless, and just get in the way of any extended correspondence. IMO they certainly don't look proffesional, and actually make companies look paranoid and incompetetant, as they usually run along the lines of, 'we don't know what we're doing so if we've sent this to the wrong person, or included a virus it's not our fault'. A plain text sig with name and job title should suffice.

Point well made ... so I will carry on as before ... but now I have the added credo of knowing that I am operating on the cutting edge.

[hut49]

If you're using MS Outlook (not Outlook Express) its v easy. From the inbox page choose "Tools", "Options", "Mail Format", click "signatures" button and select "new". Choose "start with blank" press Enter and start editing. If you want to get fancy with formating etc select "advanced editor" and it will open MS Word. You can chose to have your created signature just appear on new mail you send or on relies or both. If you want the formating to show in your mail you must set mail format ("tools", "options", "Mail Format" first section) to Rich Text or HTML depending on the extent of images etc that you put in the Signature file. Bold, italic and Font sizes show in Rich Text option. If you just want to send Plain Text select this and don't use formatting in preparing the signature. Of course the recipient needs to be viewing in Rich Text or HTML to see the format/images in your signature but signature text (eg your name, company name, contact info and disclaimer will be shown even if they receive your email on a Blackberry.

[beaublack]

hut49 said:

If you're using MS Outlook (not Outlook Express) its v easy. From the inbox page choose "Tools", "Options", "Mail Format", click "signatures" button and select "new". Choose "start with blank" press Enter and start editing. If you want to get fancy with formating etc select "advanced editor" and it will open MS Word. You can chose to have your created signature just appear on new mail you send or on relies or both. If you want the formating to show in your mail you must set mail format ("tools", "options", "Mail Format" first section) to Rich Text or HTML depending on the extent of images etc that you put in the Signature file. Bold, italic and Font sizes show in Rich Text option. If you just want to send Plain Text select this and don't use formatting in preparing the signature. Of course the recipient needs to be viewing in Rich Text or HTML to see the format/images in your signature but signature text (eg your name, company name, contact info and disclaimer will be shown even if they receive your email on a Blackberry.

Thanks for that Nick - I have just got a new Blackberry sitting under my desk ready for PAC Code release ... so I may be back ..........