Set up your email signature
Four plain lines, set once, and the one step everybody misses on their phone.
A signature saves you typing your details at the bottom of every message, and it tells the person reading it who you are and how to reach you. Set it once and it follows you.
Do this first: set it in the web version
- Go to outlook.office.com and sign in with your work email address.
- Click the gear icon at the top right, then Mail, then Compose and reply.
- Type your signature in the box, four short lines as plain text: your name, your role, your company, your phone and website.
- Underneath, choose your signature for new messages.
- Click Save, then send one message to yourself to see how it arrives.
That is the whole thing. No logo, no photo, no quote, no social icons. The web version and the Outlook app on your computer save to the same account, so you only do this once.
Why plain text. Most email programs hide pictures from outside senders until the reader clicks to allow them, so a signature built out of a logo is invisible to a lot of the people you send to. Plain text arrives looking the way you sent it on every phone and every email program, and long threads stay readable.
In the Outlook app on your computer
In classic Outlook: File, Options, Mail, Signatures. In the newer Outlook: Settings, Accounts, Signatures. Same four lines either way.
Type it, do not paste it
Pasting from Word, a web page or an old email brings hidden formatting with it. That is how a signature ends up in the wrong font, a different size, or with a stray background color that only shows up on somebody else's screen. Typing it takes twenty seconds longer and always matches.
Your phone is separate
This is the one everybody misses. The Outlook app on a phone keeps its own signature, and out of the box it says something like "Get Outlook for iOS". It will not pick up the signature you just made on your computer.
- In the phone app, open the menu, then Settings, then Signature.
- Type the same four lines.
What about replies?
Your full signature belongs on new messages. On replies, either turn it off or use a shorter version with just your name and phone number. You can set a different signature for replies on the same screen where you set the first one.
If something looks wrong
The signature is not appearing on new messages. Go back to the same settings screen and check the dropdown underneath the signature box. Creating a signature and choosing when to use it are two separate steps.
It looks fine to you but wrong to other people. Almost always pasted formatting. Delete it, type it fresh, and save.
It is missing on a new computer. Give it a few minutes after signing in for the first time. If it still has not arrived, set it once in the web version and it will come across.
It is missing on your phone. Expected. See the phone section above.
Did this not sort it out?
Tell Michael which step you got to and what the screen says. A photo of the screen from your phone is perfect.