Word as Email Editor / Signatures & templates

M

Malice

I have an irksome problem.

I'm using Word 2003 and Outlook 2003 and I have used the Signature
settings with no problem at all when using Word as my editor.

I have a default Sig which gets auto attached to any new or replied
message. If I want to change the sig to another I just right click on
the sig and choose another sig. Simple.

However, I use a web base application which allows me to create an email
for a contact in the web apps database. When this application launches
the command for a new email message, the new message does not have any
signature at all. As a result I cannot right click to select a sig and
the sig(s) which I defined in the Tools/Options/General/Email Options do
not appear in any of the Insert/AutoText items / sub menus.

As my signature changes regularly with notices of events etc, I do not
want the overhead of managing signatures in both the email options and
in Autotext entries.

How can I gain access to my previously defined (email) signatures when
there is no default signature in my newly (auto) created email launched
from outside Outlook?

TIA
 
M

Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Is the new message that is generated from the Web form a plain-text message?
Do you find the option to Insert->Signature if you use that menu?

--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After furious head scratching, Malice asked:

| I have an irksome problem.
|
| I'm using Word 2003 and Outlook 2003 and I have used the Signature
| settings with no problem at all when using Word as my editor.
|
| I have a default Sig which gets auto attached to any new or replied
| message. If I want to change the sig to another I just right click on
| the sig and choose another sig. Simple.
|
| However, I use a web base application which allows me to create an
| email for a contact in the web apps database. When this application
| launches the command for a new email message, the new message does
| not have any signature at all. As a result I cannot right click to
| select a sig and the sig(s) which I defined in the
| Tools/Options/General/Email Options do not appear in any of the
| Insert/AutoText items / sub menus.
|
| As my signature changes regularly with notices of events etc, I do not
| want the overhead of managing signatures in both the email options and
| in Autotext entries.
|
| How can I gain access to my previously defined (email) signatures when
| there is no default signature in my newly (auto) created email
| launched from outside Outlook?
|
| TIA
 
M

Malice

Milly said:
Is the new message that is generated from the Web form a plain-text message?
Do you find the option to Insert->Signature if you use that menu?
No it is not plain text. There is an insert Signature "menu" but it
does not contain any of my email sigs from the
Tools/Options/General/Email Options set up.
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

Programs which call up your default email program bring up the default
outlook editor, not word, unless it was written to specifically bring up
outlook.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/
 
M

Malice

Diane said:
Programs which call up your default email program bring up the default
outlook editor, not word, unless it was written to specifically bring up
outlook.
My Default outlook editor is Word, hence I can see all the usual "Word"
menus and options when a new message is created.
 
M

Malice

Malice said:
My Default outlook editor is Word, hence I can see all the usual "Word"
menus and options when a new message is created.


...... and it was not written to launch Outlook, rather the default email
program defined in the registry. I know this because I had Mozilla
Thunderbird as my default mail editor at home, and the web app launched
that instead of Outlook (which I needed for Exchange access to my email
server). So I had to change my default Email app back to Outlook for
the application to launch that when connected to my work Email server
over VPN from home.
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

When it uses the default mail handler it should bring up the outlook
editor - are you sure it has the word toolbars?


--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/
 
M

Malice

Diane said:
When it uses the default mail handler it should bring up the outlook
editor - are you sure it has the word toolbars?
Yes, because I have a Word Startup template in my
%userprofile%/Application Data/Microsoft/Word/Startup folder with a
special toolbar which I can see in the "new" message. So it definitely
is WOrd thast is being launched as the default editor within Outlook.
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

then you'll need to speak with the program's developers to see if they are
doing something to remove or prevent sigs from being added to the messages,
such as deleting the message body or rewriting it.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/
 
M

Malice

Diane said:
then you'll need to speak with the program's developers to see if they are
doing something to remove or prevent sigs from being added to the messages,
such as deleting the message body or rewriting it.
As I work for Software company, you don't realise how depressing that
answer is ...... !!!
 
M

Malice

Diane said:
then you'll need to speak with the program's developers to see if they are
doing something to remove or prevent sigs from being added to the messages,
such as deleting the message body or rewriting it.
FWIW, if I amend the email.dot template in %Program Files%\Microsoft
Office\Office11\1033 with my "sig" (but not a sig that you can right
click on and select), so it is just like text, this appears in the "new"
document when it fires up. So if the body is being deleted or
re-written it is before the email.dot gets loaded.

I observe this because when I then create a new message in Outlook
directly I get two "sigs": the top most one id the sig inserted by
Outlook (can right click and select other sigs), and the lower one is
the "sig" (read default text) from the email.dot

This sounds like a "feature", aka a bug that developers wont admit is a
bug. ;)
 
M

Malice

.....or as you suggest the Auto insertion of the default Sig is being
prevented for some reason.
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

I've never seen a 3rd party app call the default email client and use word
as the editor, so it has to be something with how they coded the app and
they may have coded it call word as the editor and blocked the sig. You'll
have to ask them to know for sure.

There is a bug in Outlook that was fixed in 2003 that applies to sigs -
http://www.outlookcode.com/codedetail.aspx?id=162 but it requires a custom
outlook form but it's highly unlikely they programmed it to use a custom
form when they use the default mail handler.

--
 
M

Malice

Diane said:
I've never seen a 3rd party app call the default email client and use word
as the editor, so it has to be something with how they coded the app and
they may have coded it call word as the editor and blocked the sig. You'll
have to ask them to know for sure.
I doubt it. As I mentioned in a previous post, if my default Mail
Client is Thunderbird that gets used. All the app appears to be doing
is calling the default mail program. It just happens that my Outlook is
configured to us Word as the Default Editor.

To test this I deselected Word as the Email Editor in Outlook Tools,
Options, Mail Format tab. The normal "new" command creates an email
with my default Sig.

I then ran the application and "created" an email from there. Outlook's
default editor fired up fine...... with a blank email body. No signature.

If, however, I create an email from a web page with the "normal" mailto:
type of link, I get an email with the default signature. So the
inference is that the web app I use does not use the "mailto:" type of
link. It perhaps calls another template to be used as the default email
message, one which supersedes or overwrites either Outlook's default or
Word's default "stationery" for new emails.

I'll now fire a question to the authors of the web application with this
"feature".

Thanks for responding.
 
M

Malice

Diane said:
When it uses the default mail handler it should bring up the outlook
editor - are you sure it has the word toolbars?
Hi (again).

I have just for the first used the "send as attachment" feature from the
File menu in Excel. Sure enough, although Outlook is to use word, Excel
fired up the normal Outlook email editor.........

With no default signature.

In this instance because the editor is Outlook (not Word) the Insert
Signature correctly has the signatures which are in the options for
Sigs. So at least I can insert the sig fine.

But it does raise the question, why would excel call up Outlook in a way
such that the default sig is not used in the new message? Curious and odd.

Mal
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

But it does raise the question, why would excel call up Outlook in a way
such that the default sig is not used in the new message? Curious and
odd.

It's always worked this way with all versions - this is why I suspected the
app called up outlook in the same way Excel did. It has to do with how the
call that Excel (and any program that uses a File, Send email command)
brings up the mapi client (outlook) and how outlook handles that call.
 
M

Malice

Diane said:
It's always worked this way with all versions - this is why I suspected the
app called up outlook in the same way Excel did. It has to do with how the
call that Excel (and any program that uses a File, Send email command)
brings up the mapi client (outlook) and how outlook handles that call.
Mmmm, I would have thought an Outlook default Signature would exactly
have been just that:- default, irrespective of how Outlook was called.

It as if a different template is being called/used if Outlook mapi
client is invoked from an application.

Whatever it is, IMO this behaviour is inconsistent and illogical!
 
D

Diane Poremsky [MVP]

It as if a different template is being called/used if Outlook mapi client
is invoked from an application.

It's actually a different editor (the internal outlook editor)- and it
doesn't use templates. :) The call bypasses the one that ads the signature,
which isn't all that surprising to me since the original outlook didn't
support signatures and they were cobbled in later.
 
M

Malice

Diane said:
It's actually a different editor (the internal outlook editor)- and it
doesn't use templates. :) The call bypasses the one that ads the signature,
which isn't all that surprising to me since the original outlook didn't
support signatures and they were cobbled in later.
"Ah, I see," said the blind man, "that well known Microsoft strategy of
cobbling."

Cobblers.

;-)
 

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