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Remove Email Signature from Message using VBA

Slipstick Systems

› Developer › Code Samples › Remove Email Signature from Message using VBA

Last reviewed on May 24, 2017     18 Comments

This macro shows how to remove a signature from a message using VBA when you are composing a message. While this macro won't save a lot of time as it's almost as easy just to select and delete it, you can add it to macros that do other things. Because it uses the ActiveInspector, it will work best with macros that automate replying, such as "VBA Sample: Do Something When Reply is Clicked".

Sub RemoveSignature()
Dim Item As Outlook.MailItem
Set Item = Application.ActiveInspector.CurrentItem
    Dim objDoc As Word.Document
    Dim oBookmark As Word.Bookmark

    On Error Resume Next
    Set objDoc = Item.GetInspector.WordEditor
    Set oBookmark = objDoc.Bookmarks("_MailAutoSig")

    If Not oBookmark Is Nothing Then
        oBookmark.Select
        objDoc.Windows(1).Selection.Delete
    End If

Set Item = Nothing
End Sub

If you use this macro in a run a script rule, you'll need to use .Display to show the inspector and will see a flash on the screen as the message is opened, the signature removed, and then sent.

Tip: if you don't want to use a signature when a macro creates a new message, you can use item.body = "" or copy the body from a message to send without a signature.

For example, you can combine the macro with one that adds a note to the body and removes the signature:
remove the signature when using a macro to reply

Sub ReplywithNote()
Dim Item As Outlook.MailItem
Set Item = Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)

Dim olInspector As Outlook.Inspector
Dim olDocument As Word.Document
Dim olSelection As Word.Selection

Set myReply = Item.Reply
myReply.Display

Set olInspector = myReply.GetInspector
Set olDocument = olInspector.WordEditor
Set olSelection = olDocument.Application.Selection

olSelection.InsertBefore "This is my note"

Set oBookmark = olDocument.Bookmarks("_MailAutoSig")

If Not oBookmark Is Nothing Then
    oBookmark.Select
    olDocument.Windows(1).Selection.Delete
End If

' uncomment to send
 'myReply.Send

End Sub

Macro samples to insert signatures are available at

Insert or change an Outlook signature using VBA

How to use the Macro

First: You will need macro security set to low during testing.

To check your macro security in Outlook 2010 and newer, go to File, Options, Trust Center and open Trust Center Settings, and change the Macro Settings. In Outlook 2007 and older, it’s at Tools, Macro Security. If Outlook tells you it needs to be restarted, close and reopen Outlook. Note: after you test the macro and see that it works, you can either leave macro security set to low or sign the macro.

Now open the VBA Editor by pressing Alt+F11 on your keyboard.

To put the code in a module:

  1. Right click on Project1 and choose Insert > Module
  2. Copy and paste the macro into the new module.

More information as well as screenshots are at How to use the VBA Editor.

Remove Email Signature from Message using VBA was last modified: May 24th, 2017 by Diane Poremsky
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Related Posts:

  • Insert or change an Outlook signature using VBA
  • Send a Task Status Report
  • Run a script rule: Reply to a message
  • Replicate GTD: Create a task after sending a message

About Diane Poremsky

A Microsoft Outlook Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 1999, Diane is the author of several books, including Outlook 2013 Absolute Beginners Book. She also created video training CDs and online training classes for Microsoft Outlook. You can find her helping people online in Outlook Forums as well as in the Microsoft Answers and TechNet forums.

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David (@guest_217746)
March 11, 2021 4:28 pm
#217746

Hello, running into issues with the Dim assignments. Get error not defines for this step "Dim olDocument As Word.Document" Its for the remove sig and add not sections of the macro

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Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  David
March 12, 2021 12:49 am
#217752

You may need to set a reference to the word object model. In the VB editor: Tools > references.

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0
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David (@guest_217756)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
March 12, 2021 1:46 pm
#217756

First off, you are awesome! It was a prayer responding to this thread given the time of the last post. So glad you are still monitoring this :). So I tried that but the option is grayed out. Just a little background, as I know the OP was very generic. So at work we get hit a lot with spam email. A co-worker created a quick step to reply to the email with the generic labels to opt out, but the email contains his signature info. We can not change our sigs, its an AD restriction. SO I was looking to see if either the quick step could do this step of removing the sig, which I do not believe is able. Or create a macro to reply to the email and remove the sig. I am no programmer, but out of the group of 3, I'm the best bet. TY for your time and advice.

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  David
March 12, 2021 2:19 pm
#217757

>> So I tried that but the option is grayed out.
is the macro is in debug state? The macro can't be running when you go to enable it.

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David (@guest_217764)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
March 15, 2021 3:19 pm
#217764

Almost got this to be exactly what I am looking for. I modified the code just a bit to line up with my objective. I just have another question regarding the subject. So when I respond to a piece of spam mail, I want to be able to change the subject line with "Unsubscribe". I added an If / Then thinking it would handle the requirement, which it does...sort of. In the initial reply, the subject stays the same as the original. But if I close the message and run the macro again, it will then replace the original subject, with the "Unsubscribe" verbiage. I have included what I did so far. Any idea what I might be doing wrong? Sub ReplytoSpam() Dim Item As Outlook.MailItem Set Item = Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1) Dim olInspector As Outlook.Inspector Dim olDocument As Word.Document Dim olSelection As Word.Selection 'Begin reply to active email routein Set myReply = Item.Reply myReply.Display If Item.Subject <> "Unsubscribe" Then Item.Subject = "Unsubscribe" End If Set olInspector = myReply.GetInspector Set olDocument = olInspector.WordEditor Set olSelection = olDocument.Application.Selection olSelection.InsertBefore "Unsubscribe, Opt-Out, Leave Out, Stop, Can Spam"                                                ' Begin signature removal routein Set oBookmark = olDocument.Bookmarks("_MailAutoSig") If Not oBookmark Is Nothing Then    oBookmark.Select… Read more »

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Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  David
March 16, 2021 12:28 am
#217773

does it work better to move the display line below the new subject line.

Set myReply = Item.Reply
If Item.Subject <> "Unsubscribe" Then
Item.Subject = "Unsubscribe"
myReply.Display
End if

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0
Reply
David (@guest_217778)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
March 16, 2021 12:15 pm
#217778

no, it actually changes the original subject of the email, rather then to the reply of the email.

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0
Reply
David (@guest_217758)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
March 12, 2021 2:41 pm
#217758

Did a little more digging, and looks like when I ran my code, the editor was still "engaged" after clicking ok to the error message. Clicked the stop button, saved the code and going back into the editor the reference section was now available. I assumed the MS Office selection was all that was needed to make the reference, but doing a little more research, I found out I needed the MS Word reference selected as well. Got that, and bam, script ran and outputted what I was expecting. Thank you so much for your time. Going to keep this site book marked. Something tells me I'm going to be expected to learn to code.

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Mark (@guest_214010)
September 26, 2019 1:16 pm
#214010

Thanks for this code. Was wondering how you would go about deleting an image that is in the signature. The code above works to delete the signature but it leaves the image that is in the signature.

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0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Mark
September 26, 2019 2:10 pm
#214011

You need to remove the attachment

Set oAttachments = oReply.Attachments
        
        lngAttachmentCount = oAttachments.Count
        
    ' Loop through attachments until attachment count = 0.
        While lngAttachmentCount &gt; 0
            oAttachments(1).Delete
            lngAttachmentCount = oAttachments.Count
        Wend
       
    Next

If there are other attachments, you need to check the file size or file type too.
if oAttachments(1).size < 5012 then or if right( oAttachments(1).name, 3) = "png") then

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Mark (@guest_214012)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
September 26, 2019 4:47 pm
#214012

Thanks for the quick reply.

The doesn't really delete the image in the signature. It removes the attached image so now in the email body the image is still there but instead of the actual image that was in my signature it is now the red x box saying the picture can't be displayed.

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0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Mark
September 26, 2019 4:54 pm
#214014

So the signature code is not being removed. Is this a signature in quoted parts of the message or the signature add to the new message?

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0
Reply
Mark (@guest_214015)
Reply to  Diane Poremsky
September 26, 2019 6:51 pm
#214015

When I run the code, it removes the text portion of the signature, and the image, but into the image tag. See the attached screen shot.

email signature.jpg
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0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Mark
October 1, 2019 12:07 pm
#214038

i will need to test the macro and see why its failing. It should remove everything in the auto sig style, including the image.

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0
Reply
Thomas (@guest_210502)
February 28, 2018 10:48 pm
#210502

Hi, I am trying to run the code in Excel, however, I would get the error message "Object doesn't support this property"?

is there any reference or library I should add to make this work?

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0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Thomas
February 28, 2018 11:47 pm
#210503

you need to reference the word object model.

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-1
Reply
Rahul (@guest_206725)
May 24, 2017 6:37 am
#206725

Hi Daine

Please help me to get signature through VBA code as i m using default signature in mail.

Please provide that code line

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0
Reply
Diane Poremsky(@diane-poremsky)
Author
Reply to  Rahul
May 24, 2017 9:53 am
#206729

Do you need to add a signature or remove it? The code on this page will remove your signature. The macros at https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/email/create-new-message-using-html-file-stationery/ can also be used to insert a signature in a new message.

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