Creating a new signature isn’t a big deal if it’s simple. Most of us just add a few lines of text. If yours contains special formatting, graphic files, or you have several signatures, creating them from scratch is a nuisance. Whether you work with more one computer (and who doesn’t?) or you setting up a new one, you can quickly copy your signatures from one computer to another – you don’t need to recreate any of them.

This technique is handy because you don’t need to know the location of the signature files; Outlook will take you right to them! Have a thumb drive or CD ready and do the following:

  1. In Outlook, click the File tab and click Options under Help in the left pane. In Outlook 2003 and 2007, choose Options from the Tools menu and click the Mail Format tab.
  2. Hold down the [Ctrl] key and click Signatures. Outlook will launch Windows Explorer and display the signature files.
  3. Press [Ctrl]+A to select all the files and folders.
  4. Copy the selected files to your thumb drive or other storage medium.

To copy the signature files to the new computer, repeat steps 1 through 3 at your new system. Then, copy the signature files from your thumb drive to the appropriate folder on the new computer!

It’s a simple procedure, but not very intuitive. If you don’t know the [Ctrl] shortcut is available, you’ll totally miss this handy technique.

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From the hottest programming languages to commentary on the Linux OS, get the developer and open source news and tips you need to know. Delivered Tuesdays and Thursdays