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By adding your Electronic Business Card (Electronic Business Card: A view of specific information about a contact, in a format similar to a paper-based business card, that can be inserted into messages.) to your e-mail signature, you can include your contact information in each message that you send. Recipients can right-click the card in the signature (or right-click the .vcf file attachment) to save it directly to their contacts list.

The first step is to create a signature or choose an existing signature to modify; the second step is to include the business card in the signature. Later, you can manually insert the signature in each message, or you can designate a default signature to be automatically inserted into every message that you send.

• Step 1: Create or modify a signature and include an Electronic Business Card

• Step 2: Insert a signature in a message

• Learn more about Electronic Business Cards in signatures

Step 1: Create or modify a signature and include an Electronic Business Card in it

1. In a new message, on the Message tab, in the Include group, click Signature, and then click Signatures.
   
   
2. On the E-mail Signature tab, click New.
3. Type a name for the signature, and then click OK.
4. In the Edit signature box, type the text that you want to include in the signature.

5. To format the text, select the text, and then use the style and formatting buttons to select the options that you want.

     Notes  

   • You can no longer create HTML-based signatures. For more information, see Using Outlook 2007 with and without Word 2007 installed.
   • These options are not available if you use plain text as your default message format.

   More on the different message formats

   Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 supports three message formats:

   • Plain text   This is a format that all e-mail applications support. You can set Outlook to open messages that you receive in plain text format only. Plain text doesn't support bold, italic, colored fonts, or other text formatting. It also doesn't support pictures that are displayed directly in the message body, although you can include the pictures as attachments.
   • Outlook Rich Text format (RTF)   You can use RTF when sending messages within an organization that uses Microsoft Exchange; however, we recommend that you use the HTML format. RTF supports text formatting, including bullets, alignment, and linked objects. Outlook automatically converts RTF formatted messages to HTML by default when you send them to an Internet recipient, so that the message formatting is maintained and attachments are received. Outlook also automatically formats meeting and task requests and messages with voting buttons so that these items can be sent intact across the Internet to other Outlook users, regardless of the default format of the message.
   • HTML   This is the default message format in Outlook. It is also the best format to use when you want to create messages that are similar to traditional documents, with various fonts, colors, and bullet lists. By default, when you select either of the options that allow formatting (HTML or Rich Text), the message is sent in HTML format. So when you use HTML, you know that what you send is what the recipient will see.

    Note   When you reply to a message, Outlook preserves the format of the original message. However, if you select the Read all standard mail in plain text option, Outlook formats your reply in plain text. Or you can click the InfoBar, change the format of the message to HTML or Rich Text, and then reply. If you change the format of the message, the reply is formatted with the new display format.

   For information on changing message formats, see Change the message format to HTML, Rich Text, or plain text.

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6. To add an Electronic Business Card, place your insertion point where you want the card to appear in the signature text, click Business Card, and then click a contact name on the Filed As list. Then click OK.

7. After you finish creating the signature, click OK.

    Note   The signature that you just created or modified won't appear in the currently open message; it must be inserted into the message. See Step 2, the next section, for more.

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Step 2: Insert a signature in a message

You can set a default signature to be inserted into all your outgoing messages, or you can insert a signature manually into outgoing messages on an individual basis.

• Insert a signature automatically

  1. In a new message, on the Message tab, in the Include group, click Signature, and then click Signatures.
     
     
  2. On the E-mail Signature tab, in the Select signature to edit list, select the signature that you want.
  3. Under Choose default signature, in the E-mail Account list, click an e-mail account with which you want to associate the signature.
  4. In the New messages list, select the signature that you want.
  
  5. If you want a signature to be included in message replies and in forwarded messages, in the Replies/forwards list, select the signature. If not, select none.
  6. Click OK.

• Insert a signature manually

  1. In a new message, on the Message tab, in the Include group, click Signature, and then select the signature that you want.
     
     
  2. If you don't see the signature that you want, click E-mail Signature, select the signature name in the Select signature to edit list, and then click OK.
  3. In the message, click Signature, and then select the name of the signature.

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Learn more about Electronic Business Cards in signatures

You can have as many signatures and as many Electronic Business Cards as you want, so you can create multiple signatures for a variety of purposes, such as business, family communications, and more. You can also have a signature that consists of only an Electronic Business Card.

For example, perhaps your company policy states that all employees must include their basic contact information in company e-mail correspondence. After the company designates a card design, employees can fill in their contact information, include the card in their official company signatures, and have the signatures automatically added to each message they send from their business e-mail account.

 When you send a message with a signature that includes an Electronic Business Card, a .vcf file is attached that contains all the contact information. This enables recipients with other e-mail applications to view and save the contact information.

 The card is displayed in the signature.

 When you receive a message with a card in the signature, right-click the card image in the signature and click Add to Contacts, the contact form opens for that contact. Then you can view it or save it.

Download free electronic business card templates  Use the professionally designed card templates on Office Online or get ideas for designing your own.  You can also find printable and Community-submitted card designs.

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