A poster on macOSXHints offers a simple script that will create a new message in Mail.app and insert a random “quote of the day” from www.codingtheweb.com’s web service.

Although a comment on the site suggests that it doesn’t work, it worked fine for me.

Compile the script in Mac OS X’s script editor, editing it to add your own sig info if so desired and save it off into your ~/Library/Scripts folder.

When you open your script menu in the menubar (I’m using the excellent FastScripts Lite in this screenshot), it’s there waiting for you:

Run it and the new message appears complete with quote:

Very nice if you like that sort of thing.signatures, random, applescript, mail.app, apple mail, tips

Martin Koistinen has posted some tips on how to manage signatures in Thunderbird.

He offers some code for a CSS signature. It follows the same principles as CCS signatures for Mail.app posted here in the past, but with all the bells and whistles you could ever want.

It won’t appeal to everyone, but people who have made their peace with HTML in email will be delighted at how comprehensive the code is:

Not content with that, he has also created a randomiser for Thunderbird sigs. The shell script he provides will insert a tag line from a user-created list into this CSS signature or any HTML signature file. Full instructions in the post make it easy to craft your own. Nice.thunderbird, signatures, random, CSS, tips, email, not apple mail

A post on the Skype blog describes how to add a dynamic Skype icon to a signature in Mail.app, which lets other know whether you are currently available or not.

It basically follows the same method as you use to insert any HTML signature into Mail.app, or a CSS signature or a rotating FeedBurner signature.skype, html, signatures, css, mail.app, apple mail, tips, email

Bob Monsour has discovered that signatures go better with Textpander.

Textpander is an app that saves time and effort by storing frequently typed text (or snippets), which you can then insert as you type with a user-defined abbreviation.

Bob tried Apple’s built-in signature feature, but “found it dreadful as the signature seleciton is “out of the way” of my focus when typing and requires selection from a drop-down menu.”

Using Textpander for signatures was the answer.

I use Textpander for signatures too. I find it the most elegant solution, especially if you run multiple aliases on the one account and have to manually select the sig you want from the drop-down menu. Textpander is faster and more efficient.

I also find more and more that I am wanting my sigs outside of Apple Mail in email forms, forum posts, webmail interfaces, in Entourage and so on. With Textpander the signatures are at my fingers tips whether I am in Mail.app or not.

Of course, Textpander does much more than this. Get it from Peter Maurer’s web site and start exploring all the efficiency it offers.productivity, signatures, apple mail, mail.app, tips, textpander

FeedBurner , the RSS feed management service, offers site owners a fancy HTML signature that displays a rotating and clickable series of your most recent posts.

A member of the FeedBurner team posted instructions in the FeedBurner forum on how to set this signature up in Outlook Express, Outlook 2003 and Thunderbird.

I am the kind of person who likes to think that whatever Thunderbird can do, Mail can do better.

So here are the instructions for constructing the rotating FeedBurner signature in Mail.app which actually looks quite nice:

After turning the feature on at FeedBurner, you get some HTML code. Copy it to the clipboard.

Then all you have to do is follow Melvin Rivera’s instructions for making a CSS signature, but using the HTML code, pasted into a text editor, as your template.

All done.

I’m not very good at marketing and promotion. If I were, and if I weren’t faintly opposed to HTML in email, I am sure that I would think this was very cool and a useful way to promote one’s site.feedburner, html, signatures, mail.app, apple mail, tips

Melvin Rivera has written an excellent illustrated tutorial on how to create a CSS signature in Mail.app.

He provides detailed instructions and a sample template, from which you can quickly create a signature of your own:

Of course, this will only work if you are happy to operate in Rich Text format. If you are an old-fashioned plain texter (like me), this tip is not for you.

UPDATE: Melvin has updated his post with some extra information on how Gmail handles CSS.

[Via TUAW ]HTML, CSS, signatures, mail.app, apple mail, tips, rich text, howto

James Eagan, the creator of the Missing Attachments plugin, has written a tutorial on how to make a Mail.app plugin.

He writes:

In the course of writing my email un-attachment plugin for Mail.app, I found that Apple has a capable, but entirely undocumented, plugin API. I’m providing this tutorial in the hopes that it may be useful to anyone else considering implementing a plugin for Apple Mail.

Personally, I can’t understand a word of it, but many Hawk Wings readers with Python skills will no doubt find it excellent.

A poster on the macOSXHints forums has already used the tutorial to create a plugin that does something with signatures in Mail.app (adds a random signature to each email from the UNIX program Fortune?).plugins, tutorial, howto, signatures, python, mail.app, apple mail, fortune