Email signatures are traditionally used to display the sender's name and contact information at the end of an email. Some people find furhter use for them and use them to give website links, insert logos, or even memorable anecdotes.
If you are using Exchange or the Outlook Connector you could be experiencing sync issues between Outlook and the mail server. Check the Sync Issues folder for any reports or items that experienced issues.
It is much easier if this information is automatically added to the end of every email by default instead of having to add it manually each time you create and send an email. Below are instructions that teach you how to create and add your own custom email signature within your email client for Macs. Creating an email signature in Outlook 2011 for Mac. Open up your Outlook 2011 email client and select Outlook from the menu. Click on Preferences. Next, click on the Signatures icon to continue.
From the Signatures screen, select the + icon in the lower left hand corner of the screen. You will then be able to add your new signature in the right hand panel. In this sample, we have selected both signatures to be edited the same way. You can, however, have each signature formatted differently. Next, click on the Default Signatures button at the bottom right. This brings up the next screen where you will assign a signature to an email account. Use the up and down arrows on the right to select which signature you want to use for the account.
If you have more than one account, they will be listed as well and you will select a signature for each. Click the OK button once you have finished to save your settings.
Jan 27, 2011 In my, I complained that there was no easy way to convert e-mails to tasks in Outlook 2011, which greatly diminished the power of the task system there. I had heard then there were ways to write an AppleScript program to do this, but I did not want to subject my readers to doing that. Well, it turns out, there is a predelivered script already in my current copy of Outlook Mac 2011 that enables this.
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I am not sure if I missed this before or if it turned up in a recent update, but it pretty much solves the problem. May 2015 Update: this script menu is not present in the new Outlook for Mac software. See more information. With a message selected in Outlook Mac 2011, simply open the script menu at the far right end of the menu bar (see left—it looks like a small scroll) and choose Create Task from Message. (See if that script is missing).
A new task opens with the e-mail title as the task name, and the e-mail body in the body of the task. Rename the task to be more action oriented, and then be sure to set the start date, Priority, and other fields, and save it. This is pretty simple and this significantly relaxes my objections to using tasks in Outlook 2011. A couple caveats though. First, since tasks in Outlook 2011 cannot hold attachments, if there are attachments in your email, they will not convey into the new task. But, assuming you save or file your mail, you can easily find that e-mail later to get at those attachments—here’s how. When using the task later, just select and copy a unique phrase out of the body of the task (recall the task body came from the original e-mail) and paste it into the Spotlight search field (with one of your mail folders active); that should allow you to find the original e-mail.
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If it’s filed in a different folder, you may need to select All Mail at the left edge of the Search tab on the Ribbon to get at it. One other thing when using this workaround. If you have converted e-mails to tasks in a Windows version of Outlook, you know that at the top of the body of the task Outlook inserts some useful header info about the source e-mail; this includes the sender, the date of the e-mail, and the original e-mail subject line.
That’s not true on the Mac; using the script above in Outlook 2011 does not insert that information, and so later you may be left confused as to the context of the task. To fix that, here’s another level of the workaround. First create a reply message to the original e-mail (which creates the header), and then run the script with that reply message open. That inserts the header into the body of the new task, giving you the context you need. Then delete the reply without sending it. Also note, unlike Windows, you cannot create one task from multiple selected e-mails; if multiple e-mails are selected in your mail list, the script just fails. And there are a lot of other aspects of tasks in Outlook Mac 2011 that just don’t really work right compared to Windows Outlook.
But this included script is a huge step forward for Outlook 2011 tasks, so try it out. Thomas, thanks for your comments pointing out the advantages of flagged mail tasks; and thanks for showing those keyboard shortcuts–good list. You know, even with those advantages (attachments being the main one to me) I recommend flagging mail only for deferred replies. For tasks that need some management I still recommend using -true- Outlook tasks, (background in case not clear to all: flagging does not create a true task, the item is still mainly an e-mail). Here are the advantages to using true tasks: –As you point out, you cannot change the subject line of a flagged mail to indicate an action, and you can on a true task. I think that’s really important for managed tasks and making sure you take action.
Otherwise, you have to keep opening the items in your task list and reading the body to figure out why you put it there. –You can’t easily edit or add additional text to the body of the flagged mail, say for describing thoughts about how to execute the task, or other info you may need at action time. –You won’t see date fields, a priority field, or the reminder field when you open a flagged-mail task as you do in a true task; it’s still an e-mail (though you can find e-mail equivalents by searching the e-mail Ribbon menus and the flag shortcut menu). True tasks are easier to manage because of this. –If you connect handheld devices to your Exchange server, flagged mail on nearly all devices does not show up in their task lists. Same with synchronizing with non Exchange Outlook. (update: there now is one app that does if you use Exchange; the software called TaskTask for the iPhone and iPad can show flagged-mail tasks in it’s task list).
–A flagged-mail task is a Search Folder item; so if you delete it, you delete the original e-mail as well. Awareness of that is needed as you handle these items. I do really like that flagged mail can carry an attachment. But I still think all the other advantages of true tasks outweigh those of flagged mail tasks. Obviously it is up to you to decide, but I think you will end up liking the true tasks better for anything that sits around longer than a day or so.
Hope that helps, Michael. THanks for the post. I nabbed the script, put it in the right spot, and still do not get the option to create task from message in the dropdown menu. I know it is there, because I can highlight am email, click the scroll, select ‘about this folder’, open the folder, open the script, and click to run it (which does then convert the email contents to a task). I have tried getting it to automatically run a couple different ways, but nothing works. Do you have advice?
Also, this is making me hate macs. I’ve never looked for others with Outlook expertise online and usually never leave comments. However, what a wonderful feeling to end up in a site with someone who actually “gets it” and uses Outlook in the same manner I do. I just converted from a PC to a Mac, installed Office 2011 and nearly fell off my Chair to see how “Task” (oxygen for Outlook Users) was released.
The one main tip of using script to create a “real” Task, as opposed to a “flag” (not a true Task) has made my day. I was about to return the Mac and this single tip has changed that decision.
THANKS and I’ll try to start spending some more time with valuable people to Outlook like you. You truly made a difference and it’s sincerely appreciated. Michael, Thanks a lot for this article. Actually I was looking for an “email to appointment solution” and it was fairly easy to modify a copy of the script to exactly do that. When digging a little deeper, I figured out that it is also possible to modify the provided ’email to task’ script to either add some information from the originally mail into the note (like ‘karl ([email protected]) sent a mail on ’) or even the complete mail header, which is more or less not convenient to read – but could be beautified for sure. If interested I can provide my solutions. Anyway, thanks a lot for the food to thought that now solved my problem.
Merry Christmas and a happy new year, Carsten. Michael and all, These post were really helpful. Just to clarify, it is not really possible in Mac Outlook to: 1. Just attach the email to the task and respond to email using the imbedded attached email–(i am rather confident about this one).
So email strings need to be pasted back into a new email in order to respond? Categories cannon be set to disappear once all the tasks are complete in a category / project? Categories / projects can not be moved up and down the task list, like in PC Outlook, making it easier to focus on the projects that are top priority, and then promoting other categories / projects as needed? Outlook 2011 can run and sync if using mail for apple iCloud email?
Thank you for all your assistance. The tips in these blogs and newsletters are just that, small tips and lessons to make you more productive. If instead you’d like to significantly transform your team or department by learning an over-arching e-mail and task management approach using Outlook or other approaches, contact Michael Linenberger to schedule a hands-on seminar on-site, in your company (or a custom webinar). In those classes, the entire Master Your Now! System can be learned, greatly boosting the productivity of your team. The material can be directed for any existing capability level. Call 1-888-216-7041 or check out the page for more information.
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