Has Google missed the tree because of the forest? Gmail has done a lot for unwrapping email from the staid “click and send”.  It enables us to do many things such as collect our mails from several POP3 accounts, configure some custom addresses with a dot here and there…but it just plain ‘forgot’ to put in a box to add multiple HTML Gmail signatures.

If you are like me, who has multifaceted web avatars and duly has his Gmail configured to handle different accounts, personal and professional, you would love to sign off with custom signatures for each. So this handicap of not having multiple signatures built in seems to have found a universal protesting echo around the web. Faced with the vexing problem, I fired up Google to search for ways to put my stamp within Gmail.

Here are some of them for those who like to send emails from within Gmail.

1. Blank Canvas Gmail Signature

The Firefox add-ons page is showing 1,500 downloads per week for this experimental add-on and a five star rating. This Firefox add-on supports four HTML signatures for each address you have set up. A drop down gives you access to the signature options. You can manage your signature within Gmail using the available editor which lets you also see a preview of the custom signature.

You need to download and install the plug-in. (you will have to create a Mozilla log-in account as this is an experimental add-on). Next, write your HTML signature. You can upload any image file to any photo-sharing website and use the source URL in your signature. For those not versed with HTML, a few templates are provided here. Also, the plug-in itself includes a tutorial.

Before creating it, you will see a “˜Create Signature’ button next to the “˜From’ field in the compose window. Copy-paste your HTML signature into the create signature box and save. You are now ready with your own sign.

2. WiseStamp – Email Signature

An add-on that is still in beta. This Firefox extension enables you to create personalized multiple signatures for any web based email service.

With its rich text editor you can set up personal and business signatures (text or HTML).  You can also include your IM identities and social profiles. The WiseStamp interface automatically adds the signature at the end of your email. Of course, it can also be added manually at a choice mouse cursor location and if you don’t want to sign off, just switch it off.

3. Clippings

If you can make do with plain text signatures, then this Firefox add-on should be in your download queue. Clippings saves and manages often used texts for later pasting into any text entry field. More commonly used for entering text into Web page forms in Firefox or email and newsgroup messages in Thunderbird, it comes in handy for email signatures too.

Pasting a clipping is accomplished with just two right mouse clicks within the body of the email, doing away with the hassle of retyping or repetitive copying and pasting. Also, shortcuts keys can be configured to make it a one step action. Clippings allows you to store as many signature texts as you want in designated folders.

4. Bookmarklets

You guessed it”¦bookmarklet is a portmanteau of “˜bookmark’ and “˜applet’! Bookmarklets are small Javascript applets which are stored as a URL bookmark in a browser. You can simply create a signature in a bookmarklet creator and organize it on the Firefox bookmarks toolbar. I found an easy to use bookmarklet (Gmail signature generator) here.

Create a HTML or text signature and then drag and drop in onto the browser toolbar. Once you are in the Gmail compose window, click on the bookmarklet and it gets inserted at the cursor location. Create as many signatures you want and organize them in your Firefox Bookmarks.

5. Texter – A Text Substitution application

With Texter (an open source text substitution app) we are moving away from the browser environment. Texter lets you define small text strings which work like shortcut keys for larger pieces of text. So you save many a keystroke by not having to type in the same block of text again and again. Using Texter, you can define a series of shortcut text strings that would be replaced by different text-only signatures in the email body.

You can add a new signature on the fly by hitting Ctrl-Shift-H, typing in your shortcut string and the replacement text, selecting the trigger you want to execute the replacement with (Enter, Tab, and/or Space, Instant), After that it’s a simple matter of composing your mail, writing the shortcut string and clicking the trigger key. If you had enabled “˜Instant’ as the trigger then you can save on the last click too.

I hope these five ways will help you to sign off your mail in style. Do you have your own workarounds for using multiple signatures in Gmail?

Gmail Photo from Basajaun