image in html signature doesn't appear

Question

Jiggy1965 Author

Level 1

27 points

image in html signature doesn't appear

I've tried this tutorial to put together an html signature including images.
http://allforces.com/2006/04/14/css-signatures/
As you can see at Step 6, the image shows when the signature is selected. When I compose an email however, I always get a 'blue question mark icon' as if the link to the image can't be found. I'm using images which are online, saved the html file as a webarchive file in safari etc. When I send the email anyway to for example my gmail address, the signature is ok and the image shows in the signature.

Why does the image doesn't show when I am writing the email and include the signature? Why do I get a blue question mark icon when writing the email? Perhaps I should point out that we're using IMAP should that matter.

The image should appear as it does in Step 6 in that tutorial. What could be wrong?

Mac Intel (Tiger), Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Oct 18, 2010 6:55 AM

Reply

Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

245,417 points

Oct 18, 2010 12:03 PM in response to Jiggy1965

Hi Jiggy, I'm not on 10.4.11 right now, but it did work in 10.5.8 after a few tries.

Was Mail Quit while replacing the webarchive? It's still shows the blue question mark, which means the pic cannot be found while in Preferences>Signatures, but after a few quits & retries it does show the pic in New Message composing now.

The reason prefs is showing the little blue ? is that it needs a local/included copy, that part of Mail isn't looking out on the internet for it. When it did finally work in compose, little snitch asked me if mail could go out & look for it, said yes & it then showed in Composing.

Will try to get time to try 10.4.1 later.

Reply

Answer 2

Jiggy1965 Author

Level 1

27 points

Oct 18, 2010 12:22 PM in response to BDAqua

Yes, I made a default signature in Mail first, then quite mail. I then made the html signature in dreamweaver opened it in Safari and save it as a webarchive file. Then overwrote the one Mail made. Started up Mail and composed a new email. I understand that perhaps the signatures part of preferences doesn't show the image and instead displays a blue question mark icon. But the image doesn't display in while composing the email also.

Don't know if it matters that our company is using imap?

I note that in the viewing tab of Mail preferences, the option display images in html says:

"Display remote images in HTML messages
Remote images require additional network access to display"

Don't know what that network access mean or whether it has something to do with it? When I open the webarchive file in safari it displays just fine.

Reply

Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

245,417 points

Oct 18, 2010 1:22 PM in response to Jiggy1965

Don't know if it matters that our company is using imap?

I don't think that matters, I did it for IMAP on mine, but in 10.5.8 as I mentioned.

Don't know what that network access mean or whether it has something to do with it?

That should be checked, but means if you were working Offline they wouldn't show.

Takes me an hour or two to get back online after a reboot, so have to hold off on trying it in 10.411 for a while yet.

Oh, did you try the sample one as is for a test?

Reply

Answer 4

Jiggy1965 Author

Level 1

27 points

Oct 18, 2010 1:30 PM in response to BDAqua

I used both samples (also the revised sample), but in both case, when I compose the email, the image turns into the question mark icon. It arrives at one of my own email inboxes just fine, including the image. But while composing the image turns into the question mark. Thought perhaps this is standard, but this site shows the same method and while composing the email shows the image in the signature. So it should be there when I compose it too?
http://gatheringinlight.com/2007/12/03/how-to-make-an-html-email-signature-for-a pple-mail/

Message was edited by: Jiggy1965

Reply

Answer 5

Jiggy1965 Author

Level 1

27 points

Oct 19, 2010 12:00 AM in response to Jiggy1965

So I've tested it with this simple file:

(div)
(img src="http://www.mywebsite.nl/logo.gif" width="283" height="34" /)
(/div)

(with normal html tags off course but writing html tags in a dicussions post turns it into normal html I just discovered)

This should just display the logo. I've saved this through safari as a Web Archive file and saved in onto the Web Archive file of Apple Mail in the Signatures folder. Then opened Apple Mail again. As you can see, while composing the mail the icon turns into the blue question mark icon. I've later sent it to my private email address and it arrived as an image.

Why won't it appear in the email while composing? The various tutorials about html signatures display any image already there while composing the email. So I wonder why it doesn't on my Mac.

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/9782/iconam.png

Message was edited by: Jiggy1965

Reply

Answer 6

BDAqua

Level 10

245,417 points

Oct 19, 2010 6:32 PM in response to Jiggy1965

WOO HOO, this worked for me in Tiger...

New Message>Save as Draft, close, Open Draft, mine asked it it could go out to allforces.com, (because I use Little Snitch), I said yes, image loaded in the blue question mark, closed message, clicked New Message, image was there! 😀

Reply

Answer 7

Oct 24, 2010 11:47 AM in response to BDAqua

Hi there,

I had a similar problem with my .mac (mobileme) mail account. Followed basically same approach: I created the html signature in TextEdit and saved as a webarchive when opened in Safari. Then renamed it to have same name as existing non-html signature file in Home > Library > Signatures

(So, for those who are new to this, it basically replaces the one your mac created when you create a signature within Mail Prefs > Signatures; but even though you replace it, it needs to have the same name so it knows which mail account it applies to; I have 4 mail accounts in my program, with 4 sigs I created via the Prefs, so there were 4 of those sig files in Library).

Then I uploaded the image to an external server. Made sure I reselected the signature in the middle pane of the Prefs > Signatures area and dragged it over to the mail account.

Composed mail using .mac account, new signature DID appear (but it doesn't when looking at Prefs > Sig pane; that shows the ? mark because it doesn't go get the image at the external server, I guess). *Problem: when I sent mail as a test, it wouldn't show up in the mail that I sent.*

I just figured that Apple was stripping out the html sig. But today I tested again and it's there.

Somewhere in this thread, one of the guys mentioned giving it some time. That seems to have worked for me.

Just wanted to share because more and more people are starting to add html sigs.

(P.S. Also created these html sigs for my other, non-mobileme mail accounts and they appeared in the sent mail as soon as I sent the mail. No delay.)

Reply

Answer 8

BDAqua

Level 10

245,417 points

Oct 24, 2010 11:55 AM in response to cestchouette

Thanks for the report! 🙂

Reply

Answer 9

Jan 14, 2011 8:37 AM in response to Jiggy1965

Hello Guys. I am trying to locate an HTML signature and images are not appearing in the email. Anyone has solved this issue? or has any clue? Thanks

Reply