OL 2002 SP3
Win XP HE SP1

Follow-up to: microsoft.public.outlook

I am having a really hard time creating proper html signatures in OL
that "stick", i.e. remain the way I designed them using Advanced Edit
(using Word as editor) in OL.

The problems seems to be rather complex and perplexing to me--but
probably a "style" issue:

This is what I do:

I create an html signature using Tools|Options|Mail
Format|Signatures|Edit|Advanced Edit which opens Word as the editor.
I make changes to styles by selecting the signature text and changing
fonts size or color; save the signature.

Then, when I create a new email--I use Word as the html/rich Text
editor--the signature is there but using the default font Times New
Roman 12 pt, for example, not what I had created during edit process.

Example: Let's say I used Verdana as font while creating signature.

When I then create a new message, the signature font comes back as Times
with text apparently being style "Heading1" when I selected style
"normal" or "normal+Verdana" during edit process.

Even if I go back to editing the signature in Word and reselect the text
and re-apply the style, it does not stick and is back to Heading1 upon
creation of new emails--thus looking different than intended (different
font, etc.).

THAT in itself, is frustrating.

I then decided to "be smart" (I was only kidding myself probably) based
on this: perhaps, the style created during design of signature--the
style normal+"modifications"--does not appear in normal.dot And since I
have to come to believe that when one creates a new email message in OL
[when using Word as html and Rich Text editor] OL uses normal.dot; I
added the style to normal.dot; so that it would "stick".

Then came other problems; possibly conflicts of styles based on names, etc.

I then tried deleting the modified style (cascading children) and create
brand NEW styles with a custom name, and build it from scratch, adding
it to normal.dot. (To avoid conflicts with cascading children, etc.).

That seemed to resolve my problem in the signature in question but
created problems in other signatures that undoubtedly use some form of
cascading children of some style I have modified and thus they now look
different and like crap.

Unfortunately, I cannot back track completely what I did.

SO, faced with this mess, I am just about ready to delete my normal.dot
and let it recreate itself, delete all the signatures--there are many of
them unfortunately--and start from scratch.

Before I do that, one of my problems is that I don't have a PROPER and
EXACT procedure for creating html signatures for use with OL2002; so
that they display the way I design them, consistently.

I was wondering if any experts out there can help me by:

1) Confirming that to use custom styles in OL signatures, I HAVE to add
the custom styles to normal.dot as OL uses normal.dot when it creates a
"New Message". True or false?

(I really don't like adding all kinds of styles to normal.dot or making
lots of changes to it as I might screw it up, etc. I'd much rather
create styles in a template called custom.dot, for example; but.....)

2) Tell me an exact and proper procedure to follow to design and create
a properly formatted html signature in OL2002 SP3 so that it WILL
display the way I designed it in Word using the Advanced Edit feature
under Tools|Signatures, etc.?

Thanks a lot!

sat wrote:
OL 2002 SP3
Win XP HE SP1

Follow-up to: microsoft.public.outlook

I am having a really hard time creating proper html signatures in OL
that "stick", i.e. remain the way I designed them using Advanced Edit
(using Word as editor) in OL.

The problems seems to be rather complex and perplexing to me--but
probably a "style" issue:

This is what I do:

I create an html signature using Tools|Options|Mail
Format|Signatures|Edit|Advanced Edit which opens Word as the editor.
I make changes to styles by selecting the signature text and changing
fonts size or color; save the signature.

Then, when I create a new email--I use Word as the html/rich Text
editor--the signature is there but using the default font Times New
Roman 12 pt, for example, not what I had created during edit process.

Example: Let's say I used Verdana as font while creating signature.

When I then create a new message, the signature font comes back as Times
with text apparently being style "Heading1" when I selected style
"normal" or "normal+Verdana" during edit process.

Even if I go back to editing the signature in Word and reselect the text
and re-apply the style, it does not stick and is back to Heading1 upon
creation of new emails--thus looking different than intended (different
font, etc.).

THAT in itself, is frustrating.

I then decided to "be smart" (I was only kidding myself probably) based
on this: perhaps, the style created during design of signature--the
style normal+"modifications"--does not appear in normal.dot And since I
have to come to believe that when one creates a new email message in OL
[when using Word as html and Rich Text editor] OL uses normal.dot; I
added the style to normal.dot; so that it would "stick".

Then came other problems; possibly conflicts of styles based on names, etc.

I then tried deleting the modified style (cascading children) and create
brand NEW styles with a custom name, and build it from scratch, adding
it to normal.dot. (To avoid conflicts with cascading children, etc.).

That seemed to resolve my problem in the signature in question but
created problems in other signatures that undoubtedly use some form of
cascading children of some style I have modified and thus they now look
different and like crap.

Unfortunately, I cannot back track completely what I did.

SO, faced with this mess, I am just about ready to delete my normal.dot
and let it recreate itself, delete all the signatures--there are many of
them unfortunately--and start from scratch.

Before I do that, one of my problems is that I don't have a PROPER and
EXACT procedure for creating html signatures for use with OL2002; so
that they display the way I design them, consistently.

I was wondering if any experts out there can help me by:

1) Confirming that to use custom styles in OL signatures, I HAVE to add
the custom styles to normal.dot as OL uses normal.dot when it creates a
"New Message". True or false?

(I really don't like adding all kinds of styles to normal.dot or making
lots of changes to it as I might screw it up, etc. I'd much rather
create styles in a template called custom.dot, for example; but.....)

2) Tell me an exact and proper procedure to follow to design and create
a properly formatted html signature in OL2002 SP3 so that it WILL
display the way I designed it in Word using the Advanced Edit feature
under Tools|Signatures, etc.?

Thanks a lot!


I was just told that the post got posted 4 times which is totally
unintended.
I canceled previous posts as I had not filled out the proper
newsgroups... and on my machine I only have 1 post........
I can see the the server does not support cancelling posts......
Sorry about that.