Add signature to outlook email with python using win32com

Question

Does anyone know how to add an email signature to an email using win32com?

import win32com.client as win32
outlook = win32.Dispatch('outlook.application')
mail = outlook.CreateItem(0)
mail.To = 'TO'
mail.Subject = 'SUBJECT'
mail.HTMLbody = 'BODY'
mail.send

Answer 1

Outlook signatures are not exposed through the Outlook Object Model. The best you can do is read the signature from the file system and add its contents to the HTML body appropriately. Keep in mind that two HTML strings must be merged, not just concatenated. You would also need to merge the styles from two HTML documents and take care of the embedded images used by the signature.

Note that Outlook adds a signature when an unmodified message is displayed or its inspector is touched

import win32com.client as win32
outlook = win32.Dispatch('outlook.application')
mail = outlook.CreateItem(0)
mail.To = 'TO'
mail.Subject = 'SUBJECT'
mail.GetInspector 

mail.HTMLBody now contains the message signature that you will need to merger (not just concatenate!) with your own HTML

UPDATE: as of the latest (Summer 2016) builds of Outlook, GetInspector trick no longer works. Now Only MailItem.Display adds the signature to an unmodified message.
If you want to programmatically insert a signature, Redemption exposes RDOSignature object which implements ApplyTo method (it handles the signature image files and merges HTML styles appropriately).

Answer 2

A fully functional e-mailer function with signature included, using code from the answer above:

def Emailer(message, subject, recipient):
    import win32com.client as win32   

    outlook = win32.Dispatch('outlook.application')
    mail = outlook.CreateItem(0)
    mail.To = recipient
    mail.Subject = subject
    mail.GetInspector 

    index = mail.HTMLbody.find('>', mail.HTMLbody.find('<body')) 
    mail.HTMLbody = mail.HTMLbody[:index + 1] + message + mail.HTMLbody[index + 1:] 

    mail.Display(True)
    #mail.send #uncomment if you want to send instead of displaying

then call

Emailer("Hi there, how are you?", "Subject", "[email protected]")

Answer 3

you should be able to do this if your signature is set as default.

>>> signature = message.body
>>> message.body = "ahoj\n" + signature

You acan also use message.HTMLbody if your signature contains picture.

Your signature should always apear in the message if you set it as default. You will save current content of the body to signature variable and then add it to the end of the message. Works for me at least.

Answer 4

You can find the signature in Outlook stored as an HTML file in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Signatures and I used the following code to copy the file contents and add them to my email body

import win32com.client
import os 

     
    
signature_path = os.path.join((os.environ['USERPROFILE']),'AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures\Work_files\\') # Finds the path to Outlook signature files with signature name "Work"
html_doc = os.path.join((os.environ['USERPROFILE']),'AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures\Work.htm')     #Specifies the name of the HTML version of the stored signature
html_doc = html_doc.replace('\\\\', '\\') #Removes escape backslashes from path string


html_file = codecs.open(html_doc, 'r', 'utf-8', errors='ignore') #Opens HTML file and ignores errors
signature_code = html_file.read()               #Writes contents of HTML signature file to a string
signature_code = signature_code.replace('Work_files/', signature_path)      #Replaces local directory with full directory path
html_file.close()


olMailItem = 0x0
outlook = win32com.client.Dispatch("Outlook.Application")
newMail = outlook.CreateItem(olMailItem)

newMail.CC = "[email protected]"
newMail.Subject = subject
newMail.BodyFormat = 2 # olFormatHTML https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/aa219371(v=office.11).aspx
newMail.HTMLBody = "Email Message" + signature_code
newMail.display()