How to Add Social Media Buttons to an Outlook E-mail Signature

I talked in this blog post about adding social media buttons under your e-mail signature, so I thought I'd write another post to show you how to do that. :) You can click on any of the photos on this page to see an enlarged version.

1. Find social media buttons. {They're also sometimes called "social media icons."} This Pinterest board has several pins with free social media buttons for you to choose from, or you can just run a Google search for free ones.

2. Download the social media buttons to your computer. A lot of times, artists will make several different sizes of buttons and let the customer choose which ones to use. If that happens, the social media buttons will probably download in a zipped file. You can read this post to refresh your memory on how to unzip files.

3. Pick which buttons you're going to use. You can pick the size and which icons you need. For instance, in my work e-mail signature, I used a button for my science lab website ("homepage"), Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Since I don't personally use Facebook in the classroom, I linked to our campus's Facebook page.

The buttons I used

You won't typically find a social media icon for a homepage -- I made that one myself. But some button sets will come with a blank template. From there, I just found a picture of a white house and layered it over the blank template. You may also need to re-size buttons if none are to your liking. You can read this post to refresh your memory on editing pictures in PowerPoint.

4. In the Outlook program on your computer, click "file." 

5. Click "options" near the bottom of the list.

6. When the pop-up below shows, click "mail." 

7. Click "signatures." 

8. Type your signature as you normally would. If you want to add a funky font to your signature, you may want to refer to this post and this post.

Some information blocked for privacy reasons -- I don't actually have big green rectangles in my signature. :)

9. Click the picture frame icon (shown below) and insert a picture from your computer. {You can insert your social media button(s), your signature in a special font, our mascot/logo, or any other picture you want.} Keep doing this until all your pictures are in place.

"insert picture" icon

 10. Add link(s) to your picture(s). Select the picture you want to add the link to, as shown below {this example shows my homepage button selected}:

  
 11. While your picture is still selected, click the link button:

12. Make sure "existing file or web page" is selected, and then type the desired URL in the "address" bar. {Make sure to link directly to your profile on social media. For instance, don't link to the Twitter homepage at www.Twitter.com; rather, link to your profile page like this: www.Twitter.com/YourUsernameHere.} You can continue this process of linking individual pictures as much as you want.

 13.  When you're totally finished, click "OK" twice, as shown below:

 

If you're in CISD, shoot me an e-mail so I can see your new signature. :)
  

How to Edit and Save Pictures in PowerPoint

I edit and save pictures in PowerPoint all the time, so I thought I'd share it with you.

The two most useful ways to use this trick:

1. Use in lieu of photo-editing software to quickly crop or adjust pictures and save the new version.
2. Remember in this post when I said that only people who have your font can see it on their device? This goes for e-mail signatures, too. But you can still use a unique handwriting font if you're willing to turn it into a picture file before putting it in your signature {like the signature on my blog posts}.

I work with Microsoft Office 2011 on a Mac at home and with Microsoft Office 2013 on a PC at work. Be aware that the prompts, buttons, or placement of items on your PowerPoint program may look slightly different than mine, depending on which version of PowerPoint you have.

To edit a photo:

1. Open your photo in PowerPoint.

2. Activate the "Format Pictures" or "Picture Tools/Format" bar by double-clicking on the picture.

3.  You should see a bar at the top of the PowerPoint program that has all the photo-formating options. You should see options like crop, rotate, recolor, etc. Sometimes you can also access these options by clicking on the photo, right-clicking, and selecting "format picture." If you're using PowerPoint 2013, it will look something like this:

Click on this picture to enlarge it

4. Click on the option you need in the toolbar above. For instance, if you want to crop, click on "crop" and adjust the borders of the photo by dragging the black bars on the edges to the correct places.

Notice you have the option to "remove background." I find that super-convenient! I use it mostly when I'm trying to make a flipchart for a lesson and need to use a picture I found on Google images or a picture I took myself. I really just want the kids to see the topic of the photo -- not everything around it -- so I remove the background before inserting it into my flipchart.

To save a photo:

1. Open your photo in PowerPoint. If you are trying to create a signature, open PowerPoint and type your signature in the font you want. 

2. Edit or adjust the photo if needed. A lot of times, I add a circle or arrow over a picture to allow students to focus on one specific spot in the image. Be aware that if you add something {like another text box or a clipart icon}, you'll need to select both -- hold down the "shift" key while clicking on each item -- right-click, and "group" the items before saving.
3. Right-click and select "save as picture." Specify where you'd like the picture saved and what you'd like it named. It usually defaults to saving in "my pictures."

If you tried this and a portion of your picture is missing {say, a clipart icon or another text box that you added}, revisit step #2 above and make sure that every component of the picture you want saved is "grouped."

If you're trying to add a signature to your e-mail {as mentioned here}, you'll need to go into your e-mail settings and to the "signature" screen. From there, you can insert the picture or copy/paste it into your signature.