My company wanted to standardize the email signature for all of the employees.  The signature was to contain images and links.

Problem:

Creating a signature in Microsoft Outlook that contains images and links is not the easiest thing in the world.  Not to mention having everyone in the company try to create their own, they would never end up being standardized and turn into a nightmare for training.

Solution:

The  solution was to create a simple desktop application that helps the user create their Outlook signature.  The basic template for the signature would originate from a central location so that updates would be easy.  The email signature also contains a header that is placed at the top of the email.

Result:

Fig. 1

Fig. 2 

I created a simple desktop application that allows the user to enter their specific signature details (Fig. 1).  When you hit the “Create Signature” several things happen.  First the email template is downloaded from a specified FTP site.  I choose FTP so that the application would work when the user was at home connected to the Internet.  Next the program inserts all of your specific info the template.  Then it saves the signature files in the appropriate folders where signature and theme files are kept.  Yes, THEME files too!  Since my company wanted a header image at the top, I had to use a theme for the template.  If I had kept everything as a signature it would always insert 3 lines at the top (that you would have to delete for every email) and spell check would not work (since Outlook does not spell check your signature).  The final step the program does is set Outlook to use the new theme for new emails and the signature for all forwards and replies.  Why not have the theme set for all emails and not even use a signature?  Outlook only uses the theme for new emails…not sure why, but that’s the way it is (or was at the time).  The program can be ran multiple times incase updates need to be made to the signature.  (For example, we did a Happy Holidays theme that we ran for a few months.