Add Color to Your E-mails in Outlook 2007

Written by: Meryl K Evans • Edited by: Ronda Roberts
Updated Jul 5, 2011 • Related Guides: Microsoft | Microsoft Office 2007 | Microsoft Office Applications

Learn how to format text, create signatures, use stationery and include internet links.

Themes

Microsoft Office 2007 introduces themes, which appear in all of the Office applications. You might find a theme represents you or your organization and wish to apply it in all documents including e-mail. Themes do little for a new e-mail message.

To see how a theme works, copy and paste contents from PowerPoint, Word or another application into an e-mail message. From within the e-mail, click "Options" tab and select a theme from "Themes." The theme changes the look-and-feel of the contents in message.

Creating a Signature

Options also lets you create a signature to appear in every e-mail. You can create a signature for all new e-mail messages and another for replies/forwards. Here are the steps to create a new signature:

Select Options from the Tools menu
Select the Mail Format tab.
Click Signatures button.
Click New and enter a name for the signature for easy recognition.
Enter your signature into the text box under Edit signature.
Select the name of the signature from the drop-down next to New messages and Replies/forwards to have the signature appear in all e-mail messages.
Click OK.

Note: If you created an Electronic Business Card, you can apply that to your signature. Click "Business Card" and select the one you wish to use. Click "OK."

Using Stationery

You can brighten your e-mails with stationery. However, some business people find e-mail stationery unprofessional or won't be able to view your stationery because they use a different e-mail application.

Add or change stationery themes:

Select Options from the Tools menu
Select the Mail Format tab.
Click Stationery and Fonts button.
Click Theme from the Personal Stationery tab.
Preview and select a theme and click OK.

You can override the theme's font by clicking the arrow next "Use theme's font" and selecting one of the other options that let you use your default fonts. Even if you use the theme's font, you can change it while writing the e-mail. Remember the text formatting from within the e-mail overrides the default settings.

You may have occasions when you don't want to use stationery in sending a message. To get rid of the stationery background, select "None" from "Page Color" under the "Options" tab in an e-mail.