BOXER RELEASE + Linked Graphics in Yr Gmail Sig

Hello friends,

Today is day! We’re excited to offer everyone a free copy of “Boxer,” our new short film. Please take a few minutes out of your busy schedules and download it on our website.

Look for the new blogging project on film festivals, info to follow over the next few days. Until then, check out this tutorial I wrote on adding graphics to your Gmail signature. Hopefully some will find it useful – I figured 4 hours worth of research/writing was a decent trade for the 15 minutes it will take you to download our film.

When you click the tab on our website, we’ll prompt you for your email. Within a few minutes you’ll receive everything you need: download links to HD and lo-res versions of Boxer, as well as our digital press kit.

You can opt out of our mailing list, but if you choose to join, we promise to stay relevant and spam-free. My post today is part of our commitment to give you worthwhile information when you check out our work. Thanks for following us so far – more to come in the future. Hope you enjoy the film!

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Adding Linked Graphics in Your Gmail Signature

I love Google (you know this already) and we use Google business apps for our email and other organizational tools. It’s a lot like Gmail, but on steroids and more secure. And it’s only $50/yr per email address – a whole lot less than other custom webmail/email clients.

But my one persistent frustration with this has been the inability to add graphics in my signature. My friends and colleagues from larger companies – i.e., ones that don’t have 4 members and operate from a small home studio – always have handy graphics in their email. I wanted to figure out a way to do this, and I thought would be especially useful for those who use Google business apps/Gmail for their business or organization.

I wanted to add a linked button in my email so that when you clicked on it, it took you to the Atassi Productions Twitter. And I know nothing about code or programming, so if I can do it, anyone can. It’s pretty simple.

The solution has four major steps.

1) Download the Blank Canvas extension for Chrome or Firefox

2) Find an image, or find a way to put an image you’ve created on the web

3) Use a WYSIWYG editor to produce HTML code for this the linked web image

4) Paste this code into Blank Canvas. Adjust and enjoy.

Now for each step in detail:

1) DL Blank Canvas Extension for Chrome or Firefox

Click link above and follow download instructions. Restart your browser and open Gmail. Notice that your “compose mail” window now has a new addition:

If you click the “create/edit signature” button you’ll see that the extension requires HTML code. So what we need to do now is find a way to get the image we want in HTML.

2) Get your image

The easiest way to get an HTML code for an image is to put it on the internet. I already had my image, a free Twitter button that we customized:

So to put it on the web, I just uploaded it to a blog and published it. I have an old blog that I don’t post on but have kept around for this purpose. If your image is already on the web – i.e. your company logo on your website – this step is even easier.

3) Use a WYSIWYG Editor to convert the image to HTML.

The basic idea behind a “What You See is What You Get” editor is: you type what you want to see on a webpage, the WYSIWYG editor converts this to HTML, then you can either:

• Publish your material on the internet, if you’re using a WYSIWYG editor that most blogs (like WordPress) now offer.
• Convert your material to HTML code and use it in another application. That’s what we’re going to do here.

Since we just need an HTML converter, and many people use different blogs, I’m using Reall Graphics’ editor. It’s free and simple, as familiar as most email interfaces:

So, copy the link URL of your image. Use the insert image button (circled above). Then, if you want your signature button to link to a website, use the link button. Finally, use “<>” to convert the image. Now you have your HTML code and can move on to: 

4) Pasting Your Code Into Blank Canvas

This step is pretty self-explanatory. Put your email cursor wherever you want the image to be in your signature, then click on the “Create Signature” button (see diagram in step one) in Gmail. Paste your HTML code, save signature, and you’re done! Now you can tweak how the image appears in the signature using the “Blank Canvas Options” button right next to the signature creator.

This modification will probably require a little bit of tweaking in the options, and it’s worth testing this a few times before you start sending it out. But I’ve been using it for over a week now with no real problems. Good luck!

-Rami