How to Set up Your Hotmail Signature in Outlook.com

Email & Messaging

Updated May 10, 2019

No email is complete without a signature that contains a few lines of contact information, a witty quote, and other information. If you have a Hotmail email account, set up your signature at Outlook.com and automatically add it to all the emails you write.

Instructions in this article apply to Outlook.com and Outlook Online.

How to Set up Your Hotmail Signature in Outlook.com

In early 2016, Microsoft phased out Windows Live Hotmail and moved Hotmail email accounts to Outlook.com, the free web interface. Outlook.com email users with Hotmail addresses can set up and format an email signature the same way as everyone else who uses Outlook.com.

To create a signature for your Hotmail email address:

Sign in at Outlook.com.
Go to Settings and select View all Outlook settings.
In the Settings dialog box, select Mail.
Select Compose and Reply.
In the Email signature text box, enter your signature.

Use the formatting tools to change the look of the text, format quotes, add pictures, and insert hyperlinks.
Select the Automatically include my signature on the new messages that I compose check box.
If you want to include your signature in replies and forwarded messages, select the Automatically include my signature on messages I forward or reply to check box.
Select Save when you're finished.

Outlook.com includes your signature automatically when you compose a message. If you don't want to add your email signature to a particular message, delete it as you would delete regular text.

Tips for an Effective Hotmail Signature

Each email that you send is an opportunity to market yourself or your business. Here's how to create a useful Hotmail email signature:

Limit your email signature to five lines of text.
Include your contact information.
Use dividers to minimize lines. For example, Address | City | Phone.
Keep the use of color simple.
Insert live links to your website or business.
Include social icons that link to your social profiles.
Format the signature to make it mobile friendly. Add space between icons and choose a font size that can be read on small screens.

Email signatures make it easy for people to reach you and give them a place to go when they want to find out more about you or your business.