gmail sigs

I’ve been using Google’s Gmail for all my email needs for some time now. I’ve found it easier to centralize all my email into one online solution. This way I can get all my email at once AND have copies of it where ever I go. I could be at work or at home and still have all my incoming and outgoing mail available.

The biggest problem I have with gmail (at the moment) is that you can only setup one signature. If I am sending out an email from work (Tresware), I can’t use the same signature as an email I would send out from home (foyleman). I’ve written before about a great Firefox Extension I found called Gmail Signatures. It might even still be linked in the right column of this site under my list of extensions. However… AND THIS IS BIG… I’ve found it to be the cause of why I sometimes can’t save downloaded files from Firefox. Yeah, I click a file to save it, select the folder to save it in and nothing happens. I end up having to restart Firefox to get my download to save.

So with that new bit of information, I set out to find an alternative. I first came across a Greasemonkey extension that would do the same thing as the extension I just got rid of. However, it hasn’t been updated in some time and I didn’t feel like messing around with a script that might or might not work all the time.

My next find is something I am trying out now and is the reason for writing this post. It’s program called AutoHotKey. This porogram will allow you to create a key combination that automatically causes another action on your computer to happen. That action could be to run a program, open a website, or in this case enter a specific signature into my email.

The instructions for use are this:

• Download and install AutoHotKey
• Create a new plain text file anywhere on your hard drive.
• Rename this text file with an ahk extension. I created one in MyDocuments and named it gmail_sigs.ahk.
• Edit this file by right clicking it and selecting ‘Edit this Script’.
• For each signature you want to create, enter this combination:
  ::short text for gmail::signature to be inserted
  In your case this might be:::/foyle::Thanks,{ENTER}foyleman{ENTER}http://www.foyleman.com
  The entire thing must be entered on a single line, so for line breaks insert {ENTER}
  Note: Make it something you don’t type too often or the signature will start appearing everywhere. For example, I had to shut off the script in order to type this entry without my signature being inserted. lol.
• Save the edited script.
• Double click the edited script to run it. It will show up in your taskbar when running.
  Note: You may need to put a shortcut to this script into Start > All Programs > Startup to ensure it starts up with your computer everyday.
• Then when you want to enter your signature, just type /foyle (in my case) and your signature will automatically appear.

Posted in: Hints »  by: foyleman

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