Place Gmail HTML Signature Above Reply (Bookmarklet Method)
chrome, email, google
UPDATE: The script referred to below, email signature generator has been surpassed by a new Chrome Extension… Read more here
After I finished writing my previous post on HTML signatures I went to reply to an email and realized the email signature was being placed at the very end of the quoted email. I personally can’t stand this and have always preferred to have my email signature appear directly after my reply, not at the bottom of the email. After spending a little time looking at the javascript produced by the GeekFG bookmarklet generator, I found a way to make the email signature appear above the quoted email and after my reply text.
NOTE: This post deals with placing an HTML signature above your reply in Gmail. Please read HTML Email Signature in Gmail Using Google Chrome before proceeding.
Step 1
Go back to the HTML that you created originally for the bookmarklet generator and place two <br/> tags at the very start of your HTML. This is going to provide space at the top to allow you to write your email.
Step 2
Follow steps 2 and 3 from my previous post.
Step 3
Take the javascript code that you copied in step 3 of the previous post and place it in a note pad (or any HTML editor). Perform a search for:
append%
You are going to change that section to:
prepend%
Step 4
Using the modified javascript code, create the bookmarklet like I did in Step 4 of the previous post.
Step 5
Navigate over to Gmail and try replying to a message. Before you begin writing your reply, click the button that you just created. This will place the email signature above the quoted email text. Because of the break tags that you placed at the start of your HTML block, you should have enough space to begin writing your reply above your signature.
If you followed all of my steps correctly, you now have an HTML email signature that appears above quoted text in Gmail, and all of this using Google Chrome!
Thanks to GeekFG for updating the editor to support Chrome users, and thanks for the shout out on your website
Does this process require you to click on the bookmarklet, or will the signature be inserted when I hit reply / compose?
Comment by Mark Matsusaki — February 25, 2009 @ 8:12 pm
This method (and currently all methods) with Google Chrome will require that you click the bookmarklet each time you write an email. Hopefully in the future Gmail will support HTML email signatures, but for now I think they are avoiding the bandwidth that would be used if everyone added an HTML signature at once.
Comment by zacheos — February 26, 2009 @ 7:50 am
I’ve never been able to get the signature generated from this script to be inserted above the reply – below, yes, above, no.
Comment by Carla Lewis — July 30, 2009 @ 7:33 am
I actually think the current version of the script has the check box backwards. It says to check if you want sig posted above reply, but I think it should say, check if you want sig posted below reply. Either way, if you follow the instructions that I have struck out in this post, you should be able to see where the issue is in the bookmarklet code.
Comment by zacheos — July 30, 2009 @ 7:38 am
I think this is the good way to place Gmail HTML signature above reply by using Google Chrome. Thanks. I will try it.
Programmierung Leonberg
Comment by beli — August 10, 2009 @ 9:04 am
FANTASTIC job, and it work great. How did you add the link buttons for LinkedIn, Flickr etc?
Comment by Jay — December 10, 2009 @ 3:43 pm
Yes, you are correct. The check box is backwards. DO NOT check it if you want the sig above the reply. Works like a charm. I have several signatures and will create one for each. Thank you!
Comment by Brynn-Marie Kloster — December 14, 2009 @ 8:19 pm