Creating signatures in thunderbird

A signature is a block of text that is added automatically when you compose a new message or a reply.

Thunderbird allows you to have a signature for each of your identities. Each signature can be plain text or HTML. An HTML signature can specify fonts, colors, formatting, images, etc. Each signature is stored in a separate file on your computer, and any signature file can be used by more than one identity.

Creating a text based signature

To make a plain text signature, write a plain text message in Thunderbird. Type the text you want for your signature. Choose File – Save As – File... and save the text file. Discard the message.

Alternatively, use a text editor to create a plain text file. Name the file with the extension .txt, for example: signature.txt

Note:  If the editor you use to create your signature file can save files in various formats, ensure that you save the file as plain text in your operating system's default character set. Do not save the file using any tag language, or in any form of Unicode.

Creating an HTML based signature

To make an HTML signature, write an HTML message in Thunderbird. Type the text you want for your signature, with whatever formatting and colors you want. Choose File – Save As – File... and save the HTML file. Discard the message.

Alternatively, use some other program to create an HTML file. Name the file with the extension .html, for example: signature.html   An HTML signature file only needs to contain an HTML fragment, not a complete HTML document. You can create the file using a plain text editor by typing the HTML tags yourself. Or you can create the file using a special editor that supports HTML.

An HTML signature file uses your operating system's default character set (which might not be the default character set that you specify for messages in Thunderbird). You can encode special characters using HTML in the normal ways—for example, you can encode a euro currency symbol (€) as € or as &#8364.

Note:  Some word processors and HTML editors create HTML documents containing a lot of unnecessary HTML code. You can use a plain text editor to check the file and remove the parts that you do not need.

Including an image in your signature

To include an image in your signature, include the image in the message in the normal way.

If the image file is on your computer, then Thunderbird attaches the file in each message that you send, so that people who receive your message can see the image.

If the image is on a web server, then you can choose not to attach the file. However, in this case people who receive your message might not see the image if they choose to block remote images for privacy reasons.

If you create a signature file using some other program, ensure that the image tag contains the complete URL of the image file, not just the file name. Thunderbird requires a complete URL so that it can attach the image.

Note: There have been reports that Thunderbird 2.0 stalls in the "Attaching" phase if a message is sent with the image signature just created (i.e., using it in the same session in which it was specified). Restarting Thunderbird has reportedly fixed those issues.

Extensions for multiple signatures

Thunderbird is designed to allow one signature for each of your identities. Some extensions provide different ways to manage multiple signatures:

• If you want to have more than one signature per e-mail account or choose from a variety of signatures when composing mail, one option is to use the Signature Switch extension. It will allow you to easily select from multiple signatures in the Compose window by using a toolbar button or via the context menu (right-click).
• The Quicktext extension: adds a menu in the Compose window from which you can select your own pre-defined text to insert at the current cursor location. Morever, the extension allows you include variables such as sender's/recipient's e-mail address, message subject, and date. See the Quicktext extension homepage for further information.
• The Signature extension: similar to but simpler than the Quicktext extension, the Signature extension lets you insert pre-defined text wherever the cursor is located in the message body. Inserts plain-text only and does not allow variables to be used.
• The Tagzilla extension: can be used to insert "taglines" or signatures in e-mail messages. Note that you must also install the JSLib extension before installing Tagzilla. See this thread for a few comments on Tagzilla limitations with regard to e-mail signatures.

External links

• A good tutorial on how to create a signature file and use it in Thunderbird is available here.