Maybe you finally made the big leap and bought a Mac, or maybe you decided you want everyone you email to see your fancy new logo. But, how do you add your logo to your Mac Mail Signature. The following is a short tutorial I wrote for a client to keep on hand as a little cheat sheet when he needed it. Add an image link to Mac Mail.
- How To Use A Signature In Mac Mail Application
- How To Use A Signature In Mac Mail Apple
- How To Add A Signature In Mac Mail App
- How To Use A Signature In Mac Mail App Download
- How To Use A Signature In Mac Mail Apps
How To Use A Signature In Mac Mail Application
Before you begin
You can use S/MIME certificates, also called 'S/MIME Certs' or 'Personal Certificates', with most email clients to digitally sign and/or encrypt email messages. At Indiana University, S/MIME certificates are provided by the InCommon Certificate Service. For instructions on getting a certificate, see Get an S/MIME certificate for digital email signatures at IU.
When you receive your certificate from InCommon, it will be encrypted in the PKCS 12 format (
.p12
or .pfx
), using the strong passphrase ('PIN') you created for it at the time of request. You will need this passphrase to install the certificate.- Use our signature installer or follow our step-by-step guides to install your email signature in Apple Mail for macOS Mojave. It's never been easier to create a new email signature for Apple Mail. Check out our beautiful email signature templates and easy to manage email signature software, that makes creating email signatures for Apple Mail a.
- Download HTML Email Signature - Mail for macOS 10.8 or later and enjoy it on your Mac. Apple Mail does not offer creation of email signatures from HTML. Only a rich-text editing box is provided, without the ability for more customization.
- If you use iCloud Drive, your signatures are available on your other Mac computers that have iCloud Drive turned on. See Use iCloud Drive to store documents. If you need to send a signed PDF document, you can use Markup in Mail to create a handwritten signature and add it to the document. Or use the Preview app. See Fill out and sign PDF forms.
How To Use A Signature In Mac Mail Apple
Also, for details about potential issues with various devices and applications when using digital signatures, be sure to refer to Known issues with digitally signed email at IU.
View a video about using digital signatures in Apple Mail and Outlook for macOS.
Install in macOS
- Double-click the file downloaded from the InCommon Certificate Manager.
- Keychain Access will prompt you for the certificate passphrase; use the second, 'PIN' passphrase, not the first 'request' passphrase.
The certificate will be installed on your Mac and will appear in the 'My Certificates' section of Keychain Access. The certificate is now available for Apple Mail, Outlook, and other applications that can use client certificates.
Your certificate is only available on the computer and user account where you install it. If you want your personal certificate on other computers or devices, you will need to import it on those devices also.
Use your certificate with Apple Mail
Use these instructions to enable Apple Mail to use client certificates to digitally sign and encrypt email.
Enable digital signing and encryption
- If you have just installed your certificate on your Mac, close Mail and then restart it.
- Begin composing an email message. You should see the 'Signed' icon () in the lower right of the message header (this indicates the message will be signed). If you don't see the 'Signed' icon, select Customize (in the lower left of the message header), and add the 'Lock' and 'Signed' icons.
Sign email
To send a signed message, verify that the 'Signed' icon has a checkmark (
✔
) in it . If the 'Signed' icon has an x
instead, your message will not be signed.You may not want to sign messages to mailing lists, because S/MIME digital signatures are attachments, which some lists do not accept.
Encrypt email
If you have the public certificate for the user or users to whom the messages is addressed, you will be able to encrypt the email message: In the lower right of the message header, click the open lock icon to lock it; when the icon is locked, your email message will be encrypted.
If you do not have certificates for everyone to whom the message is addressed, you will be prompted to send the message unencrypted.
Use your certificate with Outlook for macOS
Use these instructions to enable Outlook to use client certificates to digitally sign and encrypt email.
Enable digital signing and encryption
- If you have just installed your certificate on your Mac, close Outlook and then restart it.
- From the Outlook menu, select Preferences > Accounts. Select your IU email account, click Advanced, and then select the Security tab.
- In the 'Digital signing' section, select your certificate from the drop-down menu.
- For 'Signing algorithm', the default value of SHA-256 is appropriate for most situations.
- For the best usability, enable the following options:
- Sign outgoing messages
- Send digitally signed messages as clear text
- Include my certificates in signed messages
- In the 'Encryption' section, select your certificate from the drop-down menu.
- For 'Encryption algorithm', ASE-256 is the best option. It is not necessary to check Encrypt outgoing messages; each email message can be optionally encrypted when you compose it.
- IU does not currently use the 'Certificate authentication' options, so do not set this.
- Click OK to save your changes and exit Outlook Preferences.
Sign email
By default, your email messages will be digitally signed. To indicate signing, a lock icon with the text 'This message will be digitally signed' will appear in the lower left of the message header when you compose an email message:
If you do not want to sign a message, from the Options tab of the mail message, click Sign so that it is not selected.
How To Add A Signature In Mac Mail App
You may not want to sign messages to mailing lists, because S/MIME digital signatures are attachments, which some lists do not accept.
Encrypt email
How To Use A Signature In Mac Mail App Download
Address and compose your email message. From the Options tab of the mail message, click Encrypt so that it is selected.
If Outlook is unable to find certificates for everyone to whom the message is addressed, you will be prompted to search the IU Active Directory for user certificates. If Outlook is still unable to find certificates for all addressees, you will be prompted to send the message unencrypted.
How To Use A Signature In Mac Mail Apps
Use a group account certificate
To use an S/MIME certificate with a group account, install and enable the certificate as you would for a standard account.
- If the profile you are using in your email client is the group account, there should be no issues.
- If the profile you are using in your email client is your personal account and you want to send email from the group account, in your email message, open the 'From' field and enter the group account address. If your personal account has 'send as' rights for the group account, there should be no issues. If you are unsure whether you have 'send as' rights, contact your IT Pro.