Mac How-to: Adding a Skype Me Button to your signature file in Apple Mail
As one of Skype's resident Mac heads, it is my duty to share the little tips and tricks that we uncover in our own quest to have the ultimate Skype on Mac experience. With the launch of our new Skype Me buttons and the coming launch of SkypeWeb (you can show your Skype online status in near real-time on your blog or email) I wanted to share a few tricks to adding Skype Me buttons to your email signature in Mac OS X 10.4's Mail application. I love Mail.app because it is simple, has an elegant UI, and most importantly supports Apple's Spotlight technology which gives you instant search results across your email almost instantly. Its like having Google in your inbox.
It turns out that Mail.app's signature editor isn't all that HTML friendly and just pasting in HTML to the signature editor will not achieve the desired effect, in fact it will just plain not work. Here is a quick crash course to get you up an running with a Skype Me button in your signature in Apple Mail so your friends can Skype you back instead of replying in email. The following steps require a little tech savvy, but if you follow the steps below you will be up an running in minutes with a Skype Me button in your sig file.
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findraj1 commented Monday, Sep 26
Hi Iam Exiting About this
Where is Link for this
Its good for me...
sea7spray commented Thursday, Oct 6
The "custom button" failed but otherwise this worked exactly as you said !
tele1943 commented Thursday, Oct 6
This article is fine - but who and how do I communicate with Skype - I have a question to Skype -I´d like to change my skype-name - how?
swissairwalker commented Thursday, Oct 6
Excellent! I have just added a Skype button to my signature in Mail on my Mac OS X 10.4.2 and everything works perfectly fine. Thanks for antoher great tool! Let's get Skype rolling!
teller commented Friday, Oct 7
tele1943 - it is not possible to change your Skype name (the one you use to log in). Only possibility is to create new account and then add all your existing contacts there. It's tedious and annoying but that's the way it is. If you want to change the name that other people see in their contact list then just edit your profile.
alablo commented Friday, Oct 7
Hello, it's great and many thanks ! But we have to compose the message in RTF format,isnt it ?
chrisbreslin commented Saturday, Oct 8
Hi. Thanks for this information. I get the icon perfectly in my email, but when I click on it I get this error message: Mail was unable to open the URL “skype:chrisbreslin?call”. No associated application could be found. Any advice on how I can fix it? Thanks.
benedictbueno commented Sunday, Oct 9
Worked like a charm. Do you know on how to do it with Entourage as well? I tried pasting the signature html to my Yahoo Mail but it doesn't work.
christopherharley commented Monday, Oct 10
Does this work in my Gmail signature? All I see is html code. Can anyone help?
chrisgd commented Friday, Oct 14
Have I missed something? How do you set this up correctly in MS Outlook 2003 on a MS WinXP based machine? I have tried adjusting a HTM file using MS Word as the editor from... Tools/Options/Mail Format/Signature
All I get is HTML code in my signature
stefankubler commented Friday, Oct 14
It works! I just added the Skype button to my EMail signature on my MAC OS 10.4.2. The marketing machine goes on.
luckie8 commented Sunday, Oct 16
It does not work on me. Skype button shows up but does not link to generate Skype.
Are you suppose to replace the whole webarchive codes with the ones from Skype email HTML?
emmanuelnekic commented Tuesday, Oct 18
I don't ave a signature folder but just this : Signatures.plist
and I can not open it. What am I supposed to do?
thanks
silron1 commented Wednesday, Oct 19
I have tried exactly as you have set out but cannot get a clean button into Mail. I have OS 10.4 (Tiger) The button and signature appear in Safari when I open Signature.HTML but there are 3 short lines of HTML which do not go away. Can you please advise - I have tried both buttons without success. Many thanks
princessdan commented Thursday, Oct 20
What about entourage, anyone have any ideas, must be as simple as mail. Where is our Mac geek? to the rescue..... Thanks
orangemechanic commented Thursday, Oct 20
I don't have file starting with 3 numbers in Home. I only have either 2 digits and alphabet..... Is there any other easier way to do this?
kencameron1971 commented Sunday, Oct 23
Can someone who got this working share the html that they put in to bbedit that did the trick. I created the file with bbedit, but there was a bunch of extra chacters that were added. Granted I am not an html pro or a wiz with bbedit. I was able to get the signature to render properly in safari after guessing which stuff to remove from the signature.html file, complete with little graphic of the skype button. However like chrisbreslin the button did not launch in to skype, just has safari opening an error page with the following message:
Safari can’t open the specified address.
Safari can’t open “skype:kencameron1971?call” because Mac OS X doesn’t recognize Internet addresses starting with “skype:”.
Also when I added the signature to Mail the button graphic would not render, and was completely missing from the test email I sent my self.
I would post the code that I used in the bbedit file but it will not show up in the source format when used in this web interface. The interface wants to render the html.
Can some one post their working code else where and link to it from their responce?
Thanks in advance.
gemini1959 commented Monday, Oct 24
To all that use MS Outlook. This is how to get a skype button in your e-mail. Go first to the wizard and create the button you want. Then,in the box, right click and copy. Then open NotePad, it is best to have NotePad open and minimized to the taskbar before you start because it get you easy acsess. Ok, open NotePad and choose edit and paste or just right click and paste. Now comes the important thing that get the button to show up. After you have paste, choose File and Save as. Now you must give the button a name to be able to create a html document, so in the File name, call the button f. eks. Big Blue.html The extension must be html or you will not be able to create a html document, then click Save. It usually gets saved in My documents. Now you can go to your e-mail editor. Go to signatur and click on new and then click on use this file as a template. Now you can browse through your documents to find the html document you created. Just be sure that you switch from Plain text to HTML. If Plain text is switched on you will not see the HTML document in the folder you choosed to save it in. So, make sure the editor is in HTML mode. When you find the html document click ok, you should no be able to see the button in the box. Click ok, and remember to choose the button for outgoing and incoming mail. That´s it, folks. Hope this will work for someone.
gnwilliams commented Tuesday, Oct 25
This doesn't work. Mac OSX/Mac OSX version of Skype does not recognise skype: but will fire up skype if you use callto:. The problem with that is that in Windows, callto: fires up NetMeeting, not Skype. Does anyone have any bright ideas to enable a signature to work across both major platforms?
fwelvaert commented Friday, Nov 18
this is not about this article but i have been trying to get an answer for weeks, i have what is called "sure call" what is that and how do i get rid of it
marijnhsmit commented Monday, Nov 21
For Thunderbird users that struggle like I did:
Create the button with the wizzard, then compose new mail and select insert and HTML, a new window opens, paste the normal HTML from the wizzard into this window and OK. Now the button appears in the new mail. Save this mail with save file as... and choose file. Name it .html Now follow the rest of the procedure of how to attach a signature and use this file instead.
azizid commented Thursday, Dec 1
Is this a trick only available with OS X 10.4 and higher? 'Cos in 10.3.9, which I have, it doesn't work. I don't have the .webarchive file in my Mail Preferences file. Can someone please help? I'm going mad!
clairewaddi commented Friday, Feb 17
Hi everyone, for those who found it worked but they get extra text I finally figured it doesn't matter because you can take it off in Mail Preferences, just take off extra text from your signature!
tomlinsonnick commented Thursday, Mar 2
Does anyone know how to add a skype me button to a homepage created with Apple's new iWeb app and posted to .mac? I have tried using the obvious approaches of insert text, insert file etc. but no success.
inegundersveen commented Sunday, Mar 12
Ok, but as I use Entourage as my e-mail programme... how do I do it there?
flintbarn commented Wednesday, Mar 15
There are many references above to 'can you add the call me button' in Entourage. Has anybody workrd it out yet?
naatsw commented Thursday, Apr 13
I'm trying to add a Skype me button to my Gmail account. Can anyone help?
scidrvr commented Sunday, May 21
I give up...I tried following the directions three times and everytime the image icon was broken. And yes, I'm online.
jvd-nl commented Wednesday, May 24
I am very eager to have a 'skype me' in my signature but .......
so far no way to find the option to implement the skype me buton in mail for Mac OS 3.9. Anybody any idea?
imac3g5 commented Sunday, Jul 2
Could you give me the file modified cause,i'm failed to modified the code html.....
euromikeym commented Tuesday, Jul 25
It seems to work but the balloon button is always saying im not telling if i'm online even though my privacy is wide open and the button button is always saying i'm online whether I am logged in or not. Also when you insert the signature and open a new email the link for the image is missing, just a question mark. Does this guy know what the hell he is talking about? 'Mac Tech Head'? You are having a laugh aren't you.
I must admit the Mac support from Skype is absolutely crap. What is wrong you with you?
greetlieve commented Friday, Aug 25
I have tried this over and over.
I get my signature + call me button and a lot of nonsense in the signature.
Can't delete the nonsense.
Do I do something wrong with the BBEdit programme (try-out version)?
Any other way to do it?
mokapur commented Monday, Feb 19
i have the Mac OS X Version 10.4.8 and a Gmail account. I tried pasting the code onto my signaturehtml in BBEdit but when i open the saved file in safari i only see the code and not the icon. i do not know how to proceed, what am i doing wrong?
dumlplaya commented Saturday, Apr 19
i use only Entourage. how can i use this skype button on it ? thank you
hbdginc commented Monday, Oct 6
Following your instructions does not work in 10.5 Leopard and Mail.
Is there a newer set of instructions?
Thanks.
annadroeghoff commented Tuesday, Jul 7
Ok, everything works till I paste in the Skype me button HTML into my open signature file HTML in the HTML-friendly text editor of my choice (SMULTRON) . As soon I want to save it I get the error message " This document can no longer be saved using its original Western (ISO Latin 1) encoding. Please choose another encoding (such as UTF-8)."
What did I do? How can I still get my Skype button into my signature?
THANKS
peterparkes commented Wednesday, Jul 8
@annadroeghoff I don’t know Smultron very well, but you should be able to choose the file format when opening/saving a file. Check the Save dialog, perhaps?
tomdemelo commented Tuesday, Sep 8
these instructions do not work an 10.5 mac osx does anybody have a solution?
rjgolder commented Monday, Feb 1
Please help for OS 10.5. I get the signature to work fine in Safari or Mozilla. Everything works there. But in Mail it renders a question mark and none of the links work. I need help.
hessin.cherif commented Wednesday, Apr 14
Hi Guys... maybe I'm silly but from the step "When you have the HTML source in front of you" all things goes wrong. I tried to open the source with BBEDIT but the webarchive opens in another code and it is different than the code of the Skype button. So how can I do to edit in a the good language? And where I have to insert the Skype button email HTML in the webarchive? someone can help me please?