The latest versions of the Influence Professional database allow users to specify which of their MS Outlook email signature(s) should be used when sending email journals from the database.
| WARNING: Please do NOT use the 'preview' version of Outlook App for Win11 users released in May 2023. You can find more info on the preview here: https://tinyurl.com/2p8x87nd Disable the 'New App' by unticking the toggle at the top right. (Explanation: Microsoft has removed the COMM component in this preview, and using this version will break the Influence integration. "It’s important to note that the app is still a work in progress. If you depend on the current version of the email client for work or school and you have different email services, it’s not recommended to switch versions since the new Outlook preview is still limited, and you can’t add third-party services other than Gmail (limited availability) at this time." |
Please follow the below link to view a step by step visual guide on setting your email signature:
VIDEO: https://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cYhfopBKXS
| NOTE: Microsoft recently changed the way that they 'name' email signatures so a signature that was called Ben Smith might now be Ben Smith (ben.smith@youremail.com) |
| The newest versions of influence (1.00.23.041 or later) include an email signature picker to make this process easier and allow Influence to store multiple email signatures for a user to choose from. Older versions allow the linking of one MS Outlook email signature to your Influence userID. |
Contents (click an item to Jump to the section)
Adding an email signature using the Signature Picker
Adding a Signature using 'User Profiles' (older systems)
Working with Server Side signatures (e.g. Exclaimer)
1. Images not displaying correctly in Outlook
2. Office 365 Outlook to Influence Issue (Cannot find Signature)
3. Outlook Signature stopped showing
4. Outlook Signature recognised but not displaying
5. Finding the correct Email Address
6. Warn if No Email Signature Selected
Adding an email signature using the signature picker
Create your signature in MS Outlook. Make a note of the name of the email signature in MS Outlook.
Login the the Influence database. At the top of the screen you will see a small MS Outlook icon. Click the icon and the system will display a screen where you can add your MS outlook email signature.
| NB: On older systems the icon might be gold rather than blue |
| IMPORTANT: Recently (Jan 2023) Microsoft changed the way they hold the name of email signatures and you may need to add your email in brackets after the signature name e.g. Ben Smith (ben.smith@youremail.com) |
To add a new email signature click on the <Add> and over-type this with the name of your email signature which you noted earlier.
| NOTE: On newer systems (v1.00.22.338 or later) you may be able to type ? to get a suggested list of signatures available in your MS Outlook. |
You can add as many email signatures as you wish using the email signature picker.
Each time you send an email from the influence database the system will choose the signature which you have ticked as the 'default' signature within Influence.
If you wish to change the signature which is used as the default email signature by Influence simply open the email signature picker and choose another of your available email signatures.
NB: If the images do not display correctly in the Outlook then the signature may need to be reformatted, a guide to this can be found here.
Adding a single email signature (older systems)
If you are using an old version of the Influence Professional database you may not have the email signature picker. In this case it is possible to link your userID to a single MS Outlook email signature in the following way.
Login as the user ADM (or another user with suitable privileges)
Choose Maintenance -> Setup -> User Profiles.
Select your userID using the [...] box and then open the Auto Signature page of the record.
At the bottom left of this page enter the name of the MS Outlook signature you wish to use into the Use Outlook Signature field.
Server Side Signatures (Exclaimer)
Sometimes people want to use a signature designer tool such as 'Exclaimer' to create consistent email signatures that are centrally managed. In that case, the email signature is not added in outlook, but gets added to the email 'server side' after it has been sent.
| IMPORTANT: If you wish to use a product such as Exclaimer, then you still need to ensure that there is a 'Signature' in Outlook - If you do not retain an Outlook signature, then none of the formatting (Bold underline italic etc.) will come through when you pass across emails from Influence. |
Preferred Option: Setup a 'Blank' email signature in MS Outlook
Go into MS Outlook and create an email signature that is 'blank' (i.e. has no content, but still exists) - then use the Signature Picker as described above to link your UserID to the signature called 'blank'.
Adding an email signature using the Signature Picker
There may be other ways to achieve this, but by far the easiest is the 'blank Outlook signature' option described above.
Troubleshooting
1. Images not displaying correctly Outlook signature
Occasionally Outlook signatures are not compatible when used with Influence, causing the images to not be displayed correctly when an email is passed from Influence to Outlook.
The following steps can be used to reformat the signature, which will usually resolve the compatibility issues:
- Copy your current signature into a blank Word document.
- Ensure the signature displays correctly and then click File > Save As
- Select a temporary location to save the file, such as the desktop, and use the file format 'Web Page, Filtered'.
- Close Word and open the new HTML file from the location it was saved to.
- Highlight and copy the signature from the new HTML file.
- Within Outlook create a new signature and paste the copied signature into it.
- Add this new signature into the Influence signature picker:
Confirm the images display correctly when using the new signature from Influence by hitting the [Test] button.
When working correctly the temporary HTML document can be deleted.
2. Office 365 Outlook to Influence Issue (Cannot find Signature)
The following issue was found and resolved in at some sites, so may be of use:
Go into Outlook > File > Options > Mail >
Hold down the <CTRL> Key and click on [Signatures],
You *may* get an error message such as the one below;
Generally this is due to a Higher level of Office installed and most new computers come with a pre-installed Office or Win 10 office desktop Apps.
All you need to do is Uninstall the Higher Version and install the correct version.
To uninstall:
1) Close all Microsoft applications.
2) Go to Settings - App & Features
3) Look for Microsoft Office Desktop App and Uninstall it
To install the correct version :
1) Go into Office 365
2) Click on the Install Office Applications
3) Follow the set up wizard to complete the installation and allow outlook to re-sync the emails
4) Test the signature folder can be located.
3. Outlook Signature stopped showing
Your Outlook signature has stopped appearing in Outlook when you move you email from Influence into Outlook to send it.
If it used to pull in your signature and it now doesn't, then it could be due to the new change made by Microsoft in the way they name the signature files.
Since August/Sep 2022 there has now been a change with Outlook where it adds your email address into the name of your Signature in Outlook.
e.g. If your signature was previously called Test Signature
Then the name might change (in outlook) to be Test Signature (test@test.com)
[Where test@test.com is your email address, e.g. fsmith@mycompany.com]
To fix the issue what you will need to do is go in and replicate this within your Influence Signature Picker.
| TIP: An easy way to get to the folder location of your Outlook signatures is to open Outlook and navigate to File > Options > Mail. When you see the [Signatures] button, hold Ctrl and click on the button. This will open the folder location of your saved Outlook signature files. Once you look there you can see what the Actual names of the HTML signature files are. See below |
| WARNING: Please do NOT use the 'preview' version of Outlook App for Win11 users released in May 2023. You can find more info on the preview here: https://tinyurl.com/2p8x87nd Disable the 'New App' by unticking the toggle at the top right. (Explanation: Microsoft has removed the COMM component in this preview, and using this version will break the Influence integration. "It’s important to note that the app is still a work in progress. If you depend on the current version of the email client for work or school and you have different email services, it’s not recommended to switch versions since the new Outlook preview is still limited, and you can’t add third-party services other than Gmail (limited availability) at this time." |
4. Outlook Signature found but not displayed
If your Outlook signature contains an ampersand (&) Influence will recognise this Outlook signature in most situations but will interpret this to mean something else.
Example below, the signature 'P&M' exists in Outlook and is recognised in the Influence Signature picker but displays as 'PM'. The solution here is to rename appropriately to 'PANDM'. It is best to avoid the use of symbols in your signature in general and use words instead.
| Basic Rule: Do not use Symbols such as &, $ or ~ in email signature names!! |
5. Finding the correct Email Address
Sometimes you may find that despite carrying out the checks and ensuring everything is matching with the signature picker within Influence, the message:
'This signature is not available in your Microsoft Outlook Signatures'
is still appearing when trying to tick the box. You will need to check whether the correct email address for the email account has been entered within brackets in the signature picker.
Navigate to Outlook, right-click on the email address (above the Inbox folder), select 'Open File Location' and the Outlook Data File displaying the correct email address will be highlighted. Enter this within the brackets of the Signature Picker (within Influence) and test. Please see below.
Back to top
6. Warning if No Email Signature Selected
From v1.00.23.145 (or later) there is a new parameter which can warn if no email signature has been selected. Parameter JNL, Flag(42) controls this.
Graeme Orchard
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