The Entourage Help Blog

Why can’t I just use a rule to change my signature?

In my examples below I use rules to accomplish part of the process but keep in mind that rules are only applied when mail is Sent or Received. Entourage can apply rules to an Outgoing message but it will apply them only after it has been sent, not before. Therefore, you can’t use an Outgoing rule to set your signature. And that’s a good thing, Martha!

You want to maintain control of your message up to the point that you send it. If Entourage allowed Outgoing rules to change your message then a faulty rule could easily send your message to the wrong person (an ex-girlfriend, for example, instead of your current girlfriend) or apply an inappropriate signature (“Go Jets!” instead of “We aim to please everyone!”)

Create signatures

For my one E-mail address I create three signatures using Tools --> Signatures... To easily identify them I prepend the name of my Gmail account to each one.

• talkingmoose - family & friends

  --

  bill
  Forever frozen in Minneapolis!
  (612) 555-5555



• talkingmoose - business
  

  --

  William Smith
  GladCo Corporation
  “We’re here to help. We aim to please.”
  work: (651) 577-7775
  mobile: (612) 555-5555



• talkingmoose - mailing lists
  

  --

  William Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
  http://entourage.mvps.org
  http://blog.entourage.mvps.org

Set up an account

Next, I create one account using Tools --> Accounts... Because I use this account mostly for family and friends I append that designation to the end of the account name in the Account Settings pane to more easily identify it later. Take note that by default Include this account in my “Send & Receive All” schedule is selected.

I also set the default signature for this account to my talkingmoose - family & friends signature in the Options pane.

Set up additional dummy accounts

For each additional signature I create a new dummy account. These accounts will be similar to the first except for a couple of differences:

1. These accounts will have the Include this account in my “Send & Receive All” schedule option disabled.

   That means it can still send E-mail but it won’t receive new E-mail. The first account is already doing that and we don’t need to duplicate efforts.

2. Each dummy account will be dedicated to one of the secondary signatures.

Using Tools --> Accounts... I create two new POP accounts with identical settings as my first account. In the Account Settings pane I append my secondary designation to the end of the account name to more easily identify it later. I disable Include this account in my “Send & Receive All” schedule.

And I set the appropriate signature for the account in the Options pane.

The glue that binds everything together — Rules

I now have my signatures and my accounts created.

When a specific account is used to reply to someone then its signature is automatically used in the message. The final task is to get Entourage to know when to use each account.

Remember, only the first account is receiving mail but any of these three accounts can send mail.

Using rules on incoming messages, we can make Entourage think it’s receiving “friends & family” mail from the first account, receiving “business” mail on the second account and receiving “mailing list” mail on the third account.

Since I have three signatures and three accounts then I’ll also create three rules, right? Nope, just two—one for each of my dummy accounts. I do this using Tools --> Rules...

Under the Mail (POP) tab of the Rules window I make a new rule. To easily identify my rules I’m using the same account names as my dummy accounts.

For my business mail I identify three possible criteria that tell me a message is a business message and I set the rule to fire if any of these three criteria are met:

• From Contains acme.com
• Category is Work
• Specific header X-MimeOLE contains Exchange

Then I set an action to:

• Change account Talking Moose (Gmail) - business

Because I have my business contacts already listed in my Address Book and labeled with the Work category and I have my preferences set to Automatically match message categories to senders’ categories under Entourage menu --> Preferences... --> General Preferences --> Address Book --> Messages, new messages from my business contacts will be correctly identified.

I added the Exchange header to identify mail from users who would be sending from Exchange accounts, which are typically used more for business.

My mailing list rule is simpler. Because I have Mailing List Manger rules already set up to manage my mailing lists, I set my rule to identify messages from a mailing list as well as include the address of a mailing list that I don’t manage with a Mailing List Manager rule. Again, it will fire if any of these criteria is met.

• Is from a mailing list
• From Contains Entourage-Talk@lists.letterrip.com

I set an action to:

• Change account Talking Moose (Gmail) - mailing lists

The criteria you use to identify incoming mail as either business, family, friend, mailing list or something else will be unique to you.

Now what happens?

Let’s assume I now receive a message from my friend Diane (diane@example.org) through my Gmail account. I have her address in my Address Book and her contact record is in my "Friends" category. Her message will trigger neither the business rule nor the mailing list rule. Her message will appear to have come through my Talking Moose (Gmail) - friends & family account.

When I reply to Diane’s message I will reply with my friends & family account, which uses my friends & family signature. She will see:

bill Forever frozen in Minneapolis!
(612) 555-5555

Next, I have a business client with whom I exchange several messages a day. He is in my Address Book and his contact record is in my "Work" category. All messages from him will trigger my Talking Moose (Gmail) - business rule and they will appear to have come through my Talking Moose (Gmail) - business account.

When I reply to him my business signature will appear in my message. He will see:

William Smith
GladCo Corporation
“We’re here to help. We aim to please.”
work: (651) 577-7775
mobile: (612) 555-5555

Finally, I have subscribed to a mailing list and I have a mailing list manager rule set to manage all E-mail messages and put them into certain folders. These messages will also be identified by my new rule as mailing list messages and will trigger my Talking Moose (Gmail) - mailing lists rule. They will appear to have come through my Talking Moose (Gmail) - mailing lists account.

When I reply to any of those messages my mailing lists signature will appear in my message and other subscribers will see:

William Smith, Microsoft Interop MVP - Mac/Windows
http://entourage.mvps.org
http://blog.entourage.mvps.org

A quick tip for sending new messages with the appropriate signatures

Again, new messages can not trigger Outgoing rules to apply the signature you wish. However, because you have your three accounts created and each account can send mail, you can use them to quickly change your signature in new messages.

Because my default account is Talking Moose (Gmail) - family & friends, my friends & family signature will always appear in new messages. But if I want to send my new messages to either a business contact or a mailing list then all I need to do is select that account in the From drop-down menu at the top of my new message.

And my signature changes automatically!

For more information about using signatures in Entourage have a look at:
Signatures on The Entourage Help Page
Signature Blocks and Netiquette on The Entourage Help Blog
Don’t waste time with unbusinesslike signatures on The Entourage Help Blog