This explains how you add a signature to your account settings in the open source e-mail client Mozilla Thunderbird v.16 for Macintosh.
If you have earlier or later versions of Thunderbird, or if you run Thunderbird under Windows or Linux, details of the signature settings in the program may vary.
Create a Text Signature
- Open Thunderbird
- From the "Tools" menu, select "Account Settings"
- This opens a dialog window where you should see all the parameters defining your default e-mail account, with your name, e-mail address and selected outgoing server
Note: Many people have several e-mail accounts, for instance one at work and one or more private. You can use Thunderbird to read incoming mails and write mails for more than one such account. Each e-mail account is defined as an "account" inside Thunderbird. In the screendump below you see two such Thunderbird accounts, one connected to an e-mail account with address "hvzm@nordita.org", and the other connected to an account with e-mail address "hvzm@kth.se". For each Thunderbird account you define not only the mail address but also incoming mail servers and other settings unique to that account. And you can define an independent signature for each Thunderbird account.
- If you have defined several Thunderbird accounts, select the Thunderbird account you want to work with by clicking on the account name in the lefthand-side list
- In the panel to the right it should say "Account Name" and "Default Identity" at the top, and there should be a section "Signature text" in the middle
- Now open a web browser and go to the signature creation page on the Nordita intranet
- After selecting your name in the menu you get a page with several signature templates; scroll down to a text signature template that you want to use
- Select the whole signature text within the box (click-and-drag with the mouse pointer from top-left to bottom-right within the box)
- Copy your selection (use Cmd-C or Ctrl-C)
- Switch back to Thunderbird
- Click once inside the editing field in the "Signature text" section; the field should now have a blue frame to show it has been selected
- Paste the copied code into the editing field (use Cmd-V or Ctrl-V)
- Now the signature text is shown in the editing field; you can edit it if you want to
- Make sure the option "Use HTML" over the editing field is not checked
- Confirm by pressing "Save"
This setting is optional: If you are using a text-only signature, you might also want to make sure that your message is not accidentally sent with HTML formatting. Proceed as follows:
- Open the "Account Settings" dialog window as described above
- In the list to the left, under the Thunderbird account you are working with, select the settings option "Composition & Addressing"
- Make sure that the option "Compose messages in HTML format" is not checked
- In order to avoid sending unnecessary data over the net it is to be recommended that signatures are not attached to replies or forwarded messages, so make sure the corresponding checkboxes are not checked
- Confirm by pressing "Save"
- Check that the signature automatically appears when you start creating a new message (with Cmd-N or Ctrl-N)
- You can edit or remove this copy of the signature in the message body without changing the signature definition in the account settings
Create a HTML Formatted Signature
- Open the "Account Settings" dialog window from the "Tools" menu in Thunderbird, as described above
- Select the Thunderbird account you want to define a signature for
- Now open a web browser and go to the signature creation page on the Nordita intranet
- After selecting your name in the menu you get a page with several signature templates; scroll down to a graphical (HTML formatted) signature template that you want to use
- Thunderbird expects HTML code input, so go to the box with the code, and select the whole signature code within the box (click-and-drag with the mouse pointer from top-left to bottom-right within the box)
- Copy your selection (use Cmd-C or Ctrl-C)
- Switch back to Thunderbird
- Click once inside the editing field in the "Signature text" section; the field should now have a blue frame to show it has been selected
- Paste the copied code into the editing field (use Cmd-V or Ctrl-V)
- Now the HTML code is shown in the editing field; you can edit it if you want to, and if you are familiar with HTML coding
- Make sure the option "Use HTML" over the editing field is checked
- In order to avoid sending unnecessary data over the net it is to be recommended that signatures are not attached to replies or forwarded messages, so make sure the corresponding checkboxes are not checked
- Confirm by pressing "Save"
Since you are using a HTML formatted signature, you must make sure that your message is also sent with HTML formatting. Proceed as follows:
- Open the "Account Settings" dialog window as described above
- In the list to the left, under the Thunderbird account you are working with, select the settings option "Composition & Addressing"
- Make sure that the option "Compose messages in HTML format" is checked
- Confirm by pressing "Save"
- Check that the signature automatically appears when you start creating a new message (with Cmd-N or Ctrl-N)
- You can edit or remove this copy of the signature in the message body without changing the signature definition in the account settings
Define Default Placement of Signatures
A signature, if defined, is always placed at the bottom of the message body. When replying to an e-mail you might want to include a quote from the original message in your reply, and then the question is where your signature should be inserted: before or after the quote. This is how you make that setting:
- Open the "Account Settings" dialog window as described above
- In the list to the left, under the Thunderbird account you are working with, select the settings option "Composition & Addressing"
- If you want to insert a quote you should make sure the option "Automatically quote the original message when replying" is checked
- Then click the drop-down menu next to the text "and place my signature" and make your selection
- From the drop-down menu next to the text "Then" you can also decide where your reply text is placed in relation to the quote
- Confirm by pressing "Save"
Create Alternative Signatures
Thunderbird does not provide any tools for defining more than one signature for each Thunderbird account. There may however be Thunderbird add-ons which extend the capabilities of the program to define multiple signatures, see addons.mozilla.com/thunderbird.
If you want to be able to switch between signatures but don't trust third-party add-ons, you should create new identities for your account, each with the same e-mail address but with different signatures. Look for the button "Manage Identities" in the default account panel in the Account Settings dialog window and follow the instructions there.
