Zak Bedell has posted a patch for Mail.app that fixes the broken “applescriptability” of signatures in Mail 2.0.

Prior to OS 10.4, it was possible to set signatures by applescript, allowing for dynamically-set sigs containing system information, random quotes and so forth.

This patch restores that ability. In theory, it should allow you to run applescripted apps like Bushisms (random pearls of wisdom from George W. Bush) and possibly even MailTunes (currently playing iTunes track as signature).

I haven’t tried this out, but would be glad to hear reports from anyone who has.

UPDATE: The developer of MailTunes, Tomas Franzén, emails to confirm that MailTunes does work in Mail 2.0 after this patch is applied. Good news!Tiger, mail.app, apple mail, mail 2.0, applescript, signatures, hacks

I like the look of this.

MySync is an app that provides all the benefits of .Mac synchronisation without the need to have a .Mac account.

It allows you to sync your Bookmarks, Calendars, Contacts, Mail Accounts, Rules, Signatures, and Smart Mailboxes between Macs connected on a single local area network.

It uses the Apple Sync engine built-in to Tiger (so requires 10.4+) and configures one computer as the master and the rest as slaves.

The main window shows how it works:

Be default it will only sync with other computers on the network running under the same short user name, although there is an option to “masquerade” as another user if required.

Of course, MySync’s features do not replace all the benefits of a .Mac account. MySync’s developer provides a comparison of the two on its web site:
.

I can read this. If you can’t, a larger table can be found on the developer’s web site.

MySync is currently in public beta, offering time-limited licences for the beta trial.

You can download the beta from the developer’s web site.

“Nerkle” (I think that’s right) has posted a neat trick on his blog for organising the way your email files itself in Apple Mail through a combination of rules and signatures:

Here’s what I did (I use Apple Mail on Tiger):

1. I created a couple of extra signatures, one with my usual sig, plus a tag like [*ABC.wf*] (where ABC is your initials or something unique) which I set to be white text and very tiny so it’s invisible to most people.
2. I also made a sig called “inivisi-wf” with just the tag in white, for less formal emails.
3. I created a Rule like “message content” contains [*ABC.wf*] and have that route the message to your Waiting For folder.
4. BCC myself on WF emails.

This was much easier than setting up a whole other email address, and I don’t really care if someone with a non-HTML capable email client sees my little tag.

It has the added benefit that replies will also go to your “waiting for” folder if the responder doesn’t strip your sig.

Nerkle is using this to keep track of emails that need a response or that he can’t afford to let slip off the radar (bouncing off a post on 43Folders).

You can, of course, modify this approach to do other things by creating the sigs that you need and the rules to move the Bcc’ed emails (and responses) into the mailboxes you use.

Obviously, no self-respecting plain-texter is going to use this tip.

One of the “Mac heads” at Skype has produced a tutorial on how to insert a Skype graphic into an HTML signature for Apple Mail.

This walk-through is more detailed than the tip posted on macOSXHints and is useful even if you want to insert a different graphic into your signature.

UPDATE: You now need a Skype account to view this tip on the Skype site. And one with more privileges than I have.skype, signatures, email, graphic, walk-through, tutorial, howto, mail.app, apple mail, tips, HTML

MailTunes is a free-standing app that provides you with a dynamically changing signature for your emails. By default it contains info about the track currently playing in iTunes, but it can be configured to report uptime or anything else you know how to ring out of its shell script.

This sounds like a great idea, but I can’t get it to work. It reports all sorts of alarming messages in the Console like this,

and this,

Then Mail hangs. As an added bonus it has erased all my existing signatures.

Perhaps it’s my fault. It often is. Perhaps it’s not compatible with Tiger (although there’s no warning about that on the developer’s website).

UPDATE: Mystery solved. The developer Tomas replied to my email with lightning speed (Thanks). He writes,

MailTunes does not work in Tiger yet, unfortunately. This is a bug in Apple Mail that prevents scripts from setting the contents of signatures. I have reported it, and the best I can do at this time is to hope this bug is one of the ones fixed in the upcoming OS X 10.4.3. When it’s fixed, the current version of MailTunes should begin working again. I do have a newer version in the works, but I didn’t see any point in releasing it until this problem is resolved.

So, a plug-in to look forward to. Or to enjoy if you are still on Panther or Jaguar.
Apple Mail, mail.app, signatures, iTunes, Tiger, disaster, plugins

Having described how Apple Mail users can create HTML signatures for their emails, I might as well point out the Gmail signature generator.

The generator is a free web-based utility that will create a graphic signature for you. You can then upload it onto a server and link back to it in your signature.

It features your Gmail user name and some completely pointless, bandwidth-sucking eye-candy, like this:

Oh dear.

(Why you shouldn’t use HTML email)

UPDATE: Advanced Signature Silliness for a further 20 email services including Yahoo!, MSN, SpyMac, AOL, etc, etc, etc.boofheads, bandwidth-sucking eye-candy, Gmail, signatures, graphics, signature generator

Someone has worked out how to add HTML signatures to Apple Mail posts.

As an old-fashioned plain-texter, I can’t bring myself to type out the process here, but you can read all about it on MacOSXHints.signatures, HTML, plain text, mail.app, apple mail, tips