Can I use animated emoticons in mail?

The ability to use animated .gif images in Mail was removed in 10.5, without notice. It's never been explained, justified, or restored, so I assume that means it's not coming back.

Let me rephrase that. Animated .gifs work IF they are stored on a web server and added to the message or signature block as mentioned in my first post. Locally stored files will not work.

You're copying over the image but not the animation.

Click here > http://www.gifs.net/category/351/Nature/

As an example click Flowers

To the right where you see "image preview" drag the flowers to your Desktop.

Now open Mail. From the menu bar click Mail > Preferences then select the Signatures tab.

Drag the .gif file you dragged to the Desktop to the window to the right of: Signature #1 or #2 ...

Now press Command + N to open a new mail message. You should see the animated image there.

scrappinhappy65 wrote:

When you say "open link in Safari or Firefox" am I looking for an animated emoticon website? So confused.

Yes. Or, if you have an animated gif file you can upload it to the web somewhere (like photobucket or some other service) and access it from there.

Animated .gif files do not work in mail if they are "attachments." Don't know why, but they need to be stored in the cloud somewhere. Once you have a link to the animated .gif, open it with your browser. Then you can drag and drop it into your Mac Mail email message. Just remember, not all email clients may display these properly.

Dan

Maybe you're the rule that fits the exception. I've talked to lots of people trying to use animated .gifs and they all tell me it hasn't worked for them since they started using 10.5. I suppose it's possible Apple put it back in 10.6 and didn't bother to tell anyone, but I haven't seen any evidence myself.

You said you have a url link to the animated gif.

1. Open that link in Safari or Firefox or some other browser so that you are actually looking at the animated gif doing its thing.
2. Open Mail and go to Preferences > Signatures
3. Select a signature to edit or create a new one.
4. Edit the text as desired.
5. To add the animated gif drag the actual image from the browser window and drop it in to place in Mail's signature composing frame. Don't worry if it only displays as a [?] icon. When you do this, you aren't actually adding the image but are creating an HTML link to the file on the internet server.
6. Make sure you have added the signature to the account you will be using it with. You can drag the signature name (in the middle column) and drop it on the desired account in the left hand column.

If that is the only signature you have for that account, then when you start a new message it will automatically apear in the message. If you have multiple signatures you can select the one you want (or none) from the message's toolbar.

Dan

I don't know how to store my animated GIF on the web. Can you explain? I have a animated GIF I created as a greeting card and want to send it out. As you saidm when I attach it as an attachment from my computer, it does not work. How do I get started?

No problems with animated gifs here in Mail. 🙂

Animated .gif files work just fine in Mail in OSX 10.6 as I have just tested.

Exactly as I said originally, though I didn't differentiate between files added from a server and local files. But this has been the case ever since 10.5 was released.

Love your signature. I'm not quite sure how to do all that. When you say "open link in Safari or Firefox" am I looking for an animated emoticon website? So confused.

Tried everything you wrote. The GIF is animated in the bosy of the email, but when I send it to myself it is not animated in the received email. Harrumph! :-( Ideas?