Creating a placeholder signature in Mail
If you plan to deploy signatures on multiple computers, iCloud must not be active. Turning iCloud off can have unintended consequences. Work around this by creating a temporary user account, then copy your signature files to a shared folder or drive. Log in as the temporary user and follow the steps in the next two sections.
- Open System Preferences and click iCloud. Make a note of whether or not iCloud is signed in.
- Open the Mail app, click the Mail menu and choose Preferences.
- Click Signatures and click the + to create a new signature.
- Name it Signature 1 or something similar.
- Close the window and quit Mail.
- Click the Finder, then the Go menu and choose Go to Folder…
- If iCloud is signed in, type or paste ~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~mail/Data/MailData/ and click Go. If the folder can’t be found, iCloud is not signed in.
- If iCloud is not signed in, type or paste ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Signatures/ and click Go.
- Look for the .mailsignature with the most-recent date modified and drag it to TextEdit or another editor.
Replacing with your custom signature code
- Open your custom signature HTML file. Select the HTML code and copy.
- Open or navigate to the signature with the long hex file name.
- Select the tag <body style= and everything after it. Delete.
- Paste the code from the clipboard.
- Save the signature. Keep the long hex name exactly the same, replacing the old version. Close the file.
- Open the Mail app, click the Mail menu and choose Preferences.
- Click Signatures and select the new signature. It should display correctly except for linked images — they show as a question mark. (The images will display when you use the signature.)
- Make any final edits to the signature. Be careful not to change any elements that destroy the look or function of the signature. Close the window.
Learn more about custom signatures.
