FIGURE E


Internal email just gets a simple signature with a phone number. Roll over picture for a larger image.

FIGURE F


External email gets the fancy HTML footer. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Auto conversion of plain text to HTML
Your emailing efficiency may be increased by enabling Outlook to reply to plain-text and rich-text messages in HTML mode. This means that an HTML signature will always be inserted properly, for every reply, not just for replies to HTML email. The Signature-Switch setting for this can be seen in Figure G.

FIGURE G


You can convert messages to HTML automatically. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You can convert messages to HTML automatically, but do be aware doing so comes with its own risks. There are some users out there who don't like getting HTML email, and if they've purposely chosen plain text messaging and you force their message to HTML, you might get some push-back. This isn't a problem as long as you're responsive to your recipients and don't try to force your preferences onto them.

The font settings tell Outlook what font to convert the plain text in the plain text message to when sending the reply back out.

Embedding graphics in signatures
HTML signature users frequently request a means of bypassing image-blocking through the use of "embedded" or "inline" images. This technique, while effective in getting your corporate identity out, can often backfire if your recipients filter against CIDs in the message body.

Even so, we elected to add this functionality as well, as you can see in Figure H.

FIGURE H

You can embed the images, rather than link to them.

Because some receiving domains (Gmail, for example) do not like embedded images, we enabled an option to bypass embedding when sending to those domains.

The development process
The decision to develop this as an Outlook add-on was based on the need. There just was no way within Outlook itself to accomplish the task at hand.

While the design concept was relatively simple -- locate a string of code and replace with different code, depending upon the domains of the intended recipients -- the execution of this within Outlook is not a simple matter. I began working with a freelance developer who gave up after two weeks of work (though he came close, he was unable to achieve reliability).

Nearly giving up myself, I had the good fortune to connect with Sanjay Singh, President of Standss (South Pacific) Ltd., located in the Fiji Islands, of all places. Sanjay directs a small team of Outlook programming experts, and was quickly able to assess the issues surrounding the conceptual design I had developed. Working in conjunction with him, we fine-tuned the design which was then turned it over to his team. The programming was completed in just a couple of weeks.

Other than the time differential between Wisconsin and the Fiji Islands, and a few tricky little debugging issues (me having multiple accounts set up in Outlook but forgetting to configure all of them to use Signature-Switch during testing, and thus confusing myself), the whole development process went extremely smoothly.

Here's a confession of a long-time software developer -- when Sanjay delivered the finished product and I clicked Helo and discovered the presence of fully written user documentation, I just about fell over. In my world, programmers just don't do that! They should, but they don't. So this was an incredibly pleasant surprise.

So in conclusion, if you need to extend the capabilities of Outlook in a manner that seems feasible, but is currently unavailable, don't despair. Working with a competent development professional may get you the result you're seeking.

Rex Weston is a career entrepreneur and software developer. He is the founder of StationeryCentral.com and DigiTechBRANDING.com, providers of email branding solutions for businesses of all sizes. Rex can be reached in Wisconsin at 920-648-5408 or by emailing rex@stationerycentral.com.