Insert your email signature with a trigger

Keep several email signatures ready as snippets, switch between formal and short versions, and stop copying the signature from old messages.

Þessi síða hefur verið þýdd af vél frá ensku. Engleska og kóreska textirnar eru heimskulegar.

Most mail programs let you set one default signature. That is fine until you need a short one for quick replies, a formal one for new contacts, and a different one when you write on behalf of a project. People then copy a signature out of an old email, paste it, and hope the formatting survives. A signature stored as a snippet solves this: you choose the version when you need it.

Why a snippet instead of the built-in signature

The built-in signature is attached automatically to every new message, including the ones where you do not want it. With a snippet, you decide each time. It also works in places that have no signature feature at all: web forms, support tools, chat messages, comments on a document, a message sent from a phone-linked app on your PC.

A snippet also keeps your wording in one place. When your phone number or job title changes, you edit one snippet instead of hunting through three mail accounts.

Write the signature as plain text

Snippets insert text. Images, logos and fancy fonts are best left to your mail program's own signature feature. A plain-text signature is also the safest choice for people reading on a phone or in a text-only client. Keep it to four or five lines and avoid decoration made of repeated symbols, which looks messy when a mail client changes the font.

Best regards,
Yuna Park
Operations Manager, Example Studio
Tel. +82 10 0000 0000 | yuna@example.com

Replace the sample details with your own. The line breaks in the snippet are kept when it is inserted.

Build a small family of signatures

Most people need three versions. Give them related triggers so you remember them without effort.

• /sig: the standard signature with name, role and contact details.
• /sigs: a short version, just a closing and your first name, for quick replies in an ongoing thread.
• /sigf: a formal version with company name, address and registration details, for first contact and official letters.

Thanks,
Yuna

Yours sincerely,
Yuna Park
Operations Manager
Example Studio Co., Ltd.
12 Sample-ro, Gangneung, Republic of Korea
Tel. +82 10 0000 0000 | www.example.com

Add a greeting and closing in one go

If your emails always start and end the same way, you can save the whole frame, with a greeting at the top and the signature at the bottom, and add the body between. Many people prefer separate snippets for the greeting and the closing instead, because the body of a message changes while the frame does not.

Hello,

Thank you for contacting us.

Using it in practice

Write the body of your message, move to the end, type /sig and press Space. The trigger disappears and the signature appears. If the wrong version expands, press Ctrl+Z once and the text you typed returns, so you can correct it. For occasions when you do not remember which trigger you used, open the picker with Ctrl+Shift+Space, search for "regards" and press the number of the right result.

If you write in more than one language, make a signature for each one and name them alike, for example /sig and /sig-ko. Customers then see a closing in their own language, and you never have to translate a title on the fly. The same applies to different roles: a person who is both a shop owner and a volunteer coordinator can keep one signature for each hat and choose the right one in a second.

Finally, test the whole chain once. Send yourself an email using each signature, open it on your phone and on a second computer, and check line breaks, links and the font. Fixing a broken phone number now is far cheaper than discovering it after fifty customers have received it. Do this again whenever you change your mail program or switch to a new device.

A few cautions

• Check the signature once in each program you use. A mail editor may add extra spacing or change the font.
• Do not include anything private, such as a personal mobile number you do not want customers to have.
• Review the signature every few months. Outdated job titles and old phone numbers are the most common mistakes.
• If you reply on behalf of a team, agree on one standard so that customers see the same format every time.

A signature is a small thing, but it is typed more often than almost any other text in your day. Saving it as a snippet takes about two minutes and pays that time back within the first week.