How to Make a Signature File in Thunderbird

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By Patricia Bryant Resnick
eHow Contributing Writer

Article Rating: (6 Ratings)

MOZILLA THUNDERBIRD

Email signatures have a long tradition on the net. Back in the dark days when images were too large to send easily, signatures, or sig files, gave people a way to individualize their emails in a very simple format. The use of sig files continues to this day, with every email program having a different way of handling them.Mozilla Thunderbird is just one of many email programs out there, and it is no exception to the custom. It takes a bit of adjustment to make it work, but you can use a sig file with Thunderbird quite easily. It will take a few steps, but it's easily accomplished.Thunderbird also allows you to create more complex signatures if you are familiar with HTML. This will allow you to add special fonts and colors, even images to your signatures. It's not traditional, but it's certainly being done. And with many more people on broadband connections these days, it's not a problem downloading these larger signature files. It's your choice.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Step 1

Open Notepad or Wordpad, or some other text editor that will allow you to save a file in .txt format.
Step 2

Design your signature file. There are some conventions to keep in mind. Many people have elaborate signatures, with images and animation effects, but that is still considered impolite with some users. The classic rule is no images and three lines or less of text. That gives you room for your name, some additional information like your web site, and a tag line of some sort.
Step 3

Save this signature file as a .txt document. Make sure you know where it is located on your computer!
Step 4

Click on Tools on the menu bar, then go to Account Settings. On the first page you will find a box that says "Attach this signature." Make sure that box is checked, then click on "Choose." Browse to the signature file you saved earlier and select it. Now, click "Open" and your file name should appear in the window.
Step 5

Click OK on the "Account Settings" box and you're done! Repeat this for every mail account you want to have a signature file.

Tips & Warnings

You can set up multiple email accounts with Thunderbird, and each one can have it's own signature.
Mozilla maintains an extensive Help file for Thunderbird, so if you have a problem with this it should be easy to find a solution.
Keep all of your signature files in one folder so that they don't get scattered around your computer. It's nice to know where they are when you need them!

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