Figure B shows the view of HTML templates and the view of Text templates look pretty much the same -- those among you who actually look at the figures in detail will see that Figure B was snapped when I was an Administrator.

FIGURE B


You can see the list of HTML templates. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You can browse the templates from here, but to be honest, they don't look much at this point. Wait a while.

Figure C shows what happens when you hit My Signature for the first time. You get an empty form.

FIGURE C


Here's the empty form, which you'll fill in. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Now we start to fill it in. At the top, there are click hotspots to pull stuff from the Domino Directory and from the Site locations documents. Click the Domino directory one first. What this does is run a piece of LotusScript that finds the current location document in your local Notes address book.

If you are not LAN-connected it goes no further, because it can't get at the domain Domino Directory. If you are LAN-connected, it will then go to the mail server described in the location, find you in the ($Users) view, and pull back some field values.

Then hit "Click to get your site details". This gives you a selection list of site locations from the Locations view in this database, shown in Figure D.

FIGURE D


You can now choose your site details. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Select one of the sites, and more fields get filled in, as you can see in Figure E.

FIGURE E


The signature generator is nice enough to fill in site details. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You can now hand-edit any more values that you want -- say your own direct-dial phone and mobile (cellphone) numbers, for example. Here's another thing you can adjust: if your Notes common name derived from your Notes ID isn't quite what you want in your signature block, change it.

Now, in the item marked Step 2, select a template type, either HTML or text. For now, we'll select an HTML template. Note that if you switch back and forth between text and HTML, the form re-displays via a bunch of HideWhens. In Step 3, select a template name. Figure F shows me selecting one called "No Box".

FIGURE F


I'm selecting the "No Box" template. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Now it starts to get fun!

In Step 4, you get to click the Render HTML button. If (as I hope you are), you are using a Notes 6 or above client, it will render the HTML right below the button.

Notes R5 clients can't natively render HTML, so instead we start a separate instance of your browser to display it. Later I'll show you how that's done.

Whether you're running Notes R6 or above or R5, you' get to see results like that shown in Figure G.

FIGURE G


Now you can see how your signature will look. Ooh. Ah. Roll over picture for a larger image.

You can go back, edit the fields, select new templates, text or HTML, select another company site, and play to your hearts content. Each time, hit the Render HTML button. Alternatively, try a text template, which doesn't need anything special to show you the text. If you do try a text template, you'll still need to click on Format the Text.

When you are creating an HTML signature, you can get a bit clever and put HTML the fields. Look at Figure H, at what I have placed in the Job Title field, and how that makes a clickable entry in the signature.