MacMail Lion Email Signature Installation Instructions

Note: Any previous instructions you’ve used that use the COPY/PASTE (pressing “Command-A” and then “Command-C” ) method of email signature installation will not work in Mac Mail.

Notes about Mac Mail signatures:
Apple does not provide an easy way to install custom HTML email signatures into Mac Mail. This may not be the simplest process to do this; a web search will yeild a number of different methods. We have, however, found this to be the most reliable and fool-proof method so far. If you follow these steps exactly (especially steps 2 and 8, small but critical), this method will do the job.

If you have an Apple one-button mouse, click while holding the option or alt key and you get the same result as a right-click.

The terms “directory” and “folder” both mean the same thing.

Mac Mail (Lion Users) - Email Signature Installation Instructions

Before you begin, configure your signature in the Dynasend form provided. Save and click through to display your signature. It should be the only thing showing on the Safari browser page.

  

STEP 1: Set up a new, temporary signature in Mail Preferences>Signatures. Note:This is just a temporary “dummy” signature, so don’t worry about what it says - just create and save it. This temporary signature will be saved in the mail “Signature” folder and you will be replacing this signature with your final Dynasend in STEP 5.

STEP 2: IMPORTANT! Quit Mac Mail. Don’t just close the window, make sure you quit the app.

STEP 3: In Safari, Click your Dynasend signature link to display your new signature.

STEP 4: Under the FILE menu, SAVE the page as a web archive. You may save it on the desktop or any convenient directory/folder. Call it “signature.webarchive”. Have this folder open to access later.

STEP 5: Open the Library folder under the GO menu. (If the Library folder is not displayed there, hold down the OPTION key with the GO menu open and the Library folder will appear.) Navigate to the email “Signature” directory:

~/ Library / Mail / V2 / MailData / Signatures /

In this “Signature” folder, find and select the temporary signature you made in STEP 1. The file name will be a long string of random numbers and letters and will have a .mailsignature extension, looking something like this: B2C756H5-FGH5-4F67-876GE733R233.mailsignature. (Make sure to select the newest .mailsignature file, if you see more than one.) Highlight and COPY (Command-C) this entire file name including the .mailsignature extension.

After copying the file name, **DELETE this file**, but keep this folder open.

STEP 6: Return to the folder where you saved your “signature.webarchive” file ( STEP 4). You are now going to rename this file with the exact name you copied from the mail Signature folder in the last step. Highlight this entire “signature.webarchive” file name including the .webarchive. extension. Hit COMMAND-V to paste the new .mailsignature file name to replace your .webarchive file name. Your webarchive file is now a mailsignature file and should now have a name that looks something (but not exactly) like this: B2C756H5-FGH5-4F67-876GE733R233.mailsignature.

STEP 7: You are now going to copy this file into the mail “Signature” folder. Click your file once to select it and then right-click on your signature file and select COPY from the drop-down menu (or just hit Command-C).

Go to the mail "Signature" folder from STEP 5. Right-click in any open area of the window and select PASTE from the drop-down menu (or hit Command-V). Your mailsignature should now appear in the "Signatures" folder. You can now delete the original mailsignature file you made from the webarchive.

STEP 8: IMPORTANT! Select your mailsignature file and hit COMMAND-I (or rightclick and select “Get Info”) In the information window under the General heading, check the Lock box. This will keep the mail app from overwriting this file.

STEP 9: Re-launch Mac Mail to begin using your signature. Your signature will now appear when opening a new email window. If it doesn’t, check your email signature default settings.

ADDITIONAL NOTES: If the signature appears with some misalignments or gaps, there is nothing wrong. This sometimes happens when composing a new email. Your signature will appear perfectly when delivered to your recipient.

Hyperlinks in email will not work while you are composing or responding to a message.  To test your links, click while holding down the Command key.