How to Use Different Signatures in Outlook Desktop

An email signature is a convenient way to let the recipient know about your social media presence, contact information, or role in a business. Email providers like Outlook and Gmail allow users to create a unique signature with every email they send. The problem arises when you want to use multiple signatures for different purposes. Here’s how you can use different signatures on the Outlook desktop.

Let’s say you’re sending a personal email to your friends and family, and in this case, you won’t want to attach a signature with business information. Likewise, when you want to reply to a business email, you won’t use a signature with personal social media profiles.

You can still use different email IDs for different purposes, but it’s not a viable solution to use different signatures. Fortunately, Outlook allows you to create different signatures for use depending on the recipient and the context of the email. Here’s how to set them up.

Use different signatures in Outlook app on Windows

The ability to use different Outlook signatures in a single Outlook account is limited to desktop applications only. This means that you cannot create and use multiple Outlook signatures from Outlook mobile apps or the web.

In the example below, we’ll be using the Microsoft 365 Outlook app to use different signatures. Follow the steps below.

Step 1: Open Outlook on a Windows computer.

2nd step: Click on File in the menu bar.

Step 3: Select Options from the left sidebar.

Step 4: Go to Mail and select Signatures.

Step 5: You will see your current signatures to modify.

Step 6: You can make changes to the existing signature and use the New button to create a new one.

Step 7: Type a name for this signature and click OK.

Step 8: Create a new signature using the rich text editor and hit the save button at the bottom.

In the Choose default signature menu, you can select your default signature for new messages as well as for replies / transfers. Don’t worry, you can always use a different signature when composing a new email. Here’s how.

When composing a new email, you can select the Signature menu at the top. Then, from the drop-down menu, select a relevant signature and start composing your email. If you don’t use the signature menu, Outlook will continue to use the default signature that you set in the Settings menu.

Even when you reply or forward an email, you have the option to use a different signature on Outlook.

Let’s move on to Outlook for Mac and discuss how to use different signatures in the email.

Use different signatures in Outlook Mac App

Microsoft recently redesigned a completely redesigned application on the Mac. In the future, Microsoft plans to release a single Outlook application on all operating systems. But it’s far from over, and the current Outlook app is what we’re getting for now.

So that this one is clear. Outlook will not synchronize your electronic signatures on different operating systems. This means that your Outlook signatures created on Windows will remain on Windows. Same case with the Mac application and the Outlook mobile applications.

We will not consider this to be a fault. It’s an understandable decision to separate email signatures based on the device / operating system you’re using.

With this in our own way, let’s learn how to use different email signatures in Outlook on Mac.

Step 1: Open the Outlook app on Mac.

2nd step: Click on Outlook in the menu bar and open the Preferences menu.

Step 3: Go to Email> Signatures.

Step 4: In the Signatures menu, you will see all of your current signatures on the left side. Click the + icon.

Step 5: It will open a small dialog with a rich text editor.

Step 6: Give the signature a relevant name and create a signature for the email.

Step 7: Close the dialog box and click the Save button.

In the Choose your default signature menu, you can select your preferred account and an email signature to use with new emails and replies / forwardings.

Select your frequently used electronic signature and close the menu.

Click the New Message button in the upper left corner and compose a new email from the Outlook home page. You can select Signature menu at the top and select a relevant signature to use in Outlook email on the right side.

Use the right signature in the right place

You should use a signature that is relevant with the context of the email and the recipient, as we mentioned earlier. It makes a better impression on the person receiving. We mainly use 3-4 different email signatures with Outlook on Windows depending on the subject of the email. How do you plan to use different signatures in Outlook? Share your views in the comments section below.