-=PCTechTalk=- Re: Random Signature File
- From: Master NetLord <NetLord@xxxxxxx>
- To: <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2002 20:59:02 -0400
See below............
Regards from the
"Keyboard Cowboy",
Master NetLord
,,,,,,,,
Ô¿Ô¬
Cincinnati, Ohio
Scottsdale, Arizona
«:»¤«:»¤¤¤«:»¤«:»
Thursday
8/1/2002
8:55:08 PM
«:»¤«:»¤¤¤«:»¤«:»
It's a great satisfaction knowing that for a brief point in time you made a
difference.
___________________________________________________________________________
How I got Microsoft Outlook to Append Randomized Signatures (Taglines) to my
Email
and didn?t kill anyone in the process
By Ian Varley
Last Updated: 6/17/02
The Problem: Despite the fact of it being (generally) pretty-much OK software
for managing email, Microsoft Outlook has absolutely no way of appending a
randomly chosen quote from a list of quotes to each email you send. No big
deal, in the big picture, I guess, but I really wanted to do it and was
terribly annoyed that despite its sophistication in many other ways, Outlook
cannot do this one simple thing. Nor has anyone bothered to write a plug in
for it, apparently.
The Solution:
1) I searched EVERYWHERE for a suitable plug in, without much luck. After
an hour of searching, I was ready to sit down with the Microsoft documentation
and write one myself.
2) I figured, well, maybe there are some generic products that can do it by
just replacing a text file. Here's what I found:
§ B-Original, a freeware utility that's supposed to do this but 1) only
works in the directory in which the program is running and b) seems to append a
whole bunch of other text as well, and c) is not supported
§ Hoch Industries (HI) Signature Control, a shareware utility that
claimed to work with MS Outlook but didn't (I think because of the extra spaces
it prepends, but I'm not really sure why)
§ QuipSig, a program that seemed pretty close to what I was looking
for, but which was extremely hard to manage and didn't let me control the
actual formatting at all (it inserted these carats ? << >>).
3) Finally I stumbled upon "SigMan", a very nice shareware utility (it's
postcard-ware, actually: you send them a postcard with your name and a picture
of somewhere nice, and they send you the registration code) that did EXACTLY
what I was looking for; it kept a set of "base" signatures and then a whole
bunch of taglines (quotes, quips, whatever) that it would randomly substitute
in for the phrase "<tagline>" in the body of the signature.
4) Next, I had to find the area that the text files for signatures are kept
in; for some reason, Microsoft Outlook doesn't let you choose this and picks
its own diabolically hidden directory. For me this was:
§ C:\WINNT\Profiles\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures
5) The final gotcha: SigMan was randomly re-writing the text file, and that
was all fine and dandy ? Outlook would load up whatever was in that text file,
assuming that I had previously told it what filename to be looking for (through
the "Formatting Options : Signature Picker"). BUT: Outlook would also
immediately write another copy of my txt file, with an RTF extension, which it
would then use in subsequent messages (essentially, it would cache the current
sig). So to get it to work, I had to fool it.
6) I wanted to delete these nasty .rtf files as soon as they were created.
So, I went hunting for a utility to do this. At first I stumbled upon one
called KillFile, which was close but no cigar ? it could only delete the files
daily. So I kept looking, and eventually found a lovely program called
"LogMonitor" which did exactly what I wanted and more, for the low-low price of
FREE. I set it up to delete the offending RTF file (and incidentally, the HTM
file, which also must be purged) and had it run every 10 seconds (the same
frequency with which SigMan changes my sigs) to delete both files if they had
changed since the last run.
So far, it works like a charm. I figured this whole process would eat up a
bunch of CPU, but SETI is still chugging along at full tilt, so all's well that
ends well.
Any better experiences with this? Did my explanation help you out? Either
way, let me know.
Ian Varley
ivarley@xxxxxxxxxxx
Recent Updates:
Scott Wilson writes:
?I, too, wanted a way to append random signatures to Outlook. But, since I'm
somewhat of freak of nature when it comes to programming anyway, I decided to
do it myself. You're gonna smack your head when you see how I did it.
I wrote a very simple program that simply opens a text file, finds how many
taglines are in it, randomly picks one, and then copies it to the Clipboard.
That takes care of finding one. It doesn't handle the automatic part though.
I decided that for ease of use, I wasn't going to try to get the sig to work in
conjunction with Outlook, so instead I just compiled the program above to an
EXE file, and placed it somewhere with my tagline file. After that, I added a
shortcut to it on my StartMenu. Next step: Add a Shortcut key. Simply right
click the Shortcut and choose properties, click on the Shortcut Key edit box,
and press the keystroke combo you want. Now, when I'm in Outlook (or Word, or
Excel, or Notepad, etc), I just press <ctrl>+<shift>+v to select a sig, and
then <ctrl>+v to paste it. Cool thing about this is that if I'm in an
especially picky mood, I can do it over and over until I find one I like :-)?
Zac Gowen Writes:
?I use a Tag Line program called Kookie Jar which can be found at the General
Frenetics website http://www.lodz.pdi.net/~eristic/free/. This is a great full
featured program with many extras. It is in version 6.12 but he is looking for
someone to take over any further devlopment. The source code is freely
available on his site as well as the program.
Beware this site can be a little slow so you might want to go to their Yahoo
groups page which also has most of their software listed under the files
section. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/general-frenetics/.
I have also collected many taglines which are available at
http://www.cyber-wizards.net/tags.htm
Zac Gowen
Fiber Optic Network Administrator
Fort Valley Utilitys Commission?
Tim Boswell Writes:
?If you select Plain Text as your default mail format in Tools > Options > Mail
Format, it always uses the text version, so you don?t need to purge the HTM or
RTF files. This also applies to the HTM and RTF, as long as SigMan is set to
update that file (mine?s set to update the .htm) ? but it only works on new
mails ? replies still get cached.?
Tim Boswell
Call Centers and Technical Support
Fujitsu Services
New, 4/4/02 - Alan VanArt Writes:
If you use Outlook 2000 you can add this macro. I attached it to a custom
toolbar button. Then when I want to add a tagline I just click it.
________________________________________
On Thu, 1 Aug 2002 19:16:57 -0400, Donald J. Briggs wrote:
>
>Hi MNL, I am using OE 6.00.2600.0000. I am also running Win98SE on a
>350MH OS.
>Rocky de Dragon ----- Original Message -----
>From: "Master NetLord" <NetLord@xxxxxxx> To:
><pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 3:01 PM
>Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Re: Random Signature File
>
>
>Ummm What E-mail program are you using??
>
>Regards from the "Keyboard Cowboy",
>
>Master NetLord ,,,,,,,, Ô¿Ô¬ Cincinnati, Ohio Scottsdale, Arizona
>«:»¤«:»¤¤¤«:»¤«:» Thursday 8/1/2002 3:01:25 PM «:»¤«:»¤¤¤«:»¤«:»
>
>What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.
>
>-- Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche 1844-1900
>
>
>________________________________________ On Thu, 1 Aug 2002 11:50:26
>-0400, Donald J. Briggs wrote:
>>
>>Hi MN, I have downloaded, Installed and think I have Status3
>>configured but nothing is added to my outgoing emails, What am I
>>missing. BTW I am a real novice.
>>Have a Super Day, Rocky de Dragon ----- Original Message -----
>>From: "Master NetLord" <NetLord@xxxxxxx> To: "PCTechTalk
>>- Freelists" <pctechtalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, July 28, 2002
>>3:10 AM Subject: -=PCTechTalk=- Random Signature File
>>
>>
>>I got a chance to set up my random signature file tonight. Since
>>I'd had so much trouble last time, I decided to try a new program
>>someone posted recently. The program is called "random Tagline
>>Manager" and can be found at:
>>
>>http://programs.fbrower.com/
>>
>>The program GUI is well written, but after trying it out and
>>speaking to the programmer, I cannot recommend it. The reason is
>>that it will not truly "randomize" the taglines. To get it to work,
>>you have to manually change it, or set it to change automatically
>>in one hour increments. I think one hour increments is much to
>>large a time segment.
>>
>>I decided to try using my old program called Sigman from:
>>
>>http://status3.i-r.co.uk/
>>
>>This time, instead of modifying the signature files in Poco, I
>>simply changed the directory path to Sigman.....dang! Works really
>>nifty!!
>>Additionally, it can be set to randomly change the signature every
>>second so each new E-Mail I send has a new signature file. Bottom
>>line, now that I know how it works, it really is a well written
>>program and quite powerful.
>>It now has the coveted "Master NetLord Seal of Approval" <G>
>>
>>Regards from the "Keyboard Cowboy",
>>
>>Master NetLord ,,,,,,,, Ô¿Ô¬ Cincinnati, Ohio Scottsdale, Arizona
>>«:»¤«:»¤¤¤«:»¤«:» Sunday 07/28/2002 2:59:32 AM «:»¤«:»¤¤¤«:»¤«:»
>>
>>Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it
>>by killing all those who opposed them.
>>
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