Outlook HTML signature

Here's how that works in each version of Outlook, and how to make HTML that Outlook keeps.

Why pasting code doesn't work

The signature boxes in new Outlook, classic Outlook, Outlook on the web and Outlook for Mac are all formatting editors: you type text, change fonts and colours, and add links and pictures. Paste HTML source into one and you get the tags as text.

What you need on your clipboard is the formatted signature, the way it looks in a browser. That's what the generator's Copy signature button gives you.

What HTML Outlook keeps

Microsoft's own advice for a signature with a photo is to build it as a table: one row, two columns, the picture in one cell and your details in the other, with the borders set to None. Classic Outlook says the same for anything more complex than text: make it with bullets, tables or borders in Word, then copy and paste it in.

So keep your HTML to:

• a table for the layout, not CSS layout;
• styles written on each tag, with no style sheet;
• common fonts such as Arial;
• images linked by their full https address, with the width and height set.

Microsoft also warns that VML tags can turn signature pictures into attachments, so leave them out.

Make the signature

Fill in your details below. The tool writes exactly that kind of HTML: one table, inline styles, Arial, and https-only images. Press Copy signature for the formatted version, or copy the HTML source under the preview if you want the code.

Paste it into Outlook

New Outlook and Outlook on the web: select Settings > Accounts > Signatures, select Add signature, name it, paste into the editing box and select Save. Choose whether it goes on new messages and on replies and forwards.

Classic Outlook for Windows: open a new email, select Signature > Signatures, choose the email account, select New, name it and paste under Edit signature. Set New messages and Replies/forwards under Choose default signature, then select OK.

Outlook for Mac: on the Outlook menu, select Settings, then Signatures under Mail. Select +, name the signature and paste into the Signature editor.

Then send yourself a test email and open it on your computer and your phone.

Keep a copy

Copy the HTML source into a text file and save it. If you move to a new computer or to new Outlook, open the file in a browser, copy the signature and paste it in again. Classic Outlook keeps signatures on the device where you made them, Microsoft says, so this saves you rebuilding it.

For more on the menus, see how to change your Outlook signature. To work with the code on its own, try the HTML email signature code page.