See those three little dots to the right?
I hate them.
Those are the dots that Gmail uses to indicate “trimmed content.” And you know what trimmed content usually contains? My signature.
Gmail offers a signature line function which automatically puts a standard signature at the end of your emails. Mine is supposed to look like this:
But then, do you know what? After allowing you to automatically tack a signature line on the ends of your emails, Gmail then proceeds to clip them and replace them with the three little dots. Even on emails to people I have never contacted before! I am not 100% sure, but I think this only happens when I email people who also have Gmail. But I don’t see why it’s acceptable at all. Why offer a signature line function if you’re just going to cut it?
The problem has been discussed on multiple forums, but in spite of numerous requests, Gmail refuses to address the issue. In fact, it got worse. Now Gmail also clips typed-in signatures at the end of most emails. If I sign my message Dianne, D., or whatever, my name is clipped along with the sig line below. Gmail will even clip closing phrases such as Thank You, and Sincerely — sending an email that ends abruptly and rudely.
What the heck, Gmail????
The forums I have searched suggest work-around solutions, none of which have been successful for me. The only thing I have ever found that works is going beneath my sig line and typing something there. Sometimes I type a tagline for my upcoming book: Family ties can be deadly. Or a protest: Gmail, you better not clip this! Or sometimes just a row of smiley faces: 🙂 🙂 🙂
Extra effort so I don’t send a rude, unsigned email.
If I’m writing to a person I know and don’t care if the sig line is attached — just a polite signature — I try to get my name in at the end of my final paragraph, a sideways signature of sorts.
Looking forward to see you Monday! ~ Dianne
Are there any other Gmail users who hate those three dots, or is it just me? And if I regularly email you and you were wondering what was up with the smiley faces? This is why.
Finally, Tyrean is the winner of a critique from Sharon Mayhew at the Manuscript Maven! Tyrean, I will contact you — or you can contact me, and I’ll set you up!
We use gmail for the IWSG email, but I hadn’t noticed the dots. (But I will look for them now.) Why would it cut off your email? That’s just rude.
Hi Dianne .. it happens on some of my emails in … but I’d never looked at it from your point of view .. I thought it was too many emails tagged together – or whatever the phrase is …
… are my favourite words!!! But I can quite see what you’re getting at – we are polite and want to encourage our addressees to realise we’re nice guys – now I’ll look in general and see what happens …
Congratulations to Tyrean winning Sharon’s critique .. excellent news for her …
Cheers Hilary
I haven’t really noticed. lol. Guess I should look.
I haven’t even noticed. I know it does that when you respond to an email, but I thought that first initial one would keep it. Guess not.
It don’t realize it cut off signatures. I don’t like the conversation style reply they have going on – those are always … something the whole message is … annoying.
OH MY GOSH, I hate this too. It makes me SO angry. Why is it necessary? What’s funny is that I used to type in my ‘signature’ every time I sent a business email but I found it was clipping it off if I responded more than once to the same person. That’s why I went and created a real signature. But it still does it! It makes me seem very unprofessional when sending business emails. I’m trying to find ways around it too.
OH MY GOSH, I hate this too. It makes me SO angry. Why is it necessary? What’s funny is that I used to type in my ‘signature’ every time I sent a business email but I found it was clipping it off if I responded more than once to the same person. That’s why I went and created a real signature. But it still does it! It makes me seem very unprofessional when sending business emails. I’m trying to find ways around it too.
(Also, I apologize if this comment comes up 12 times. I seem to be having issues with my computer.)
I hate those three dots too. If it’s any consolation, in your last email to me your full signature line was there. Maybe it has to do with the length of the email? Is Gmail trying to tell us something?
Guess we can’t complain too vociferously since it’s free…
I was just looking at my emails from you. It shows your signature, but only on the first email of the thread. So if we email back and forth a few times on the same thread, then it stops showing it, but I bet if you were to email me right now with a fresh subject, it’d show it. At least, I think so… I think it hides it from you though (on your own end of the email) maybe because it’s expecting you to already know it? I dunno. If I look at my emails, it always hides it, but I think others might see it? I feel like we need to do an experiment 🙂 Cuz if it hides it all the time, that’d be super annoying, especially since I’m querying right now and all my contact information is at the bottom…
I’ve seen this before. I haven’t seen it from your emails though. I will have to check this out. Thanks for pointing it out. Good to know.
Ah, so this is your “inspiration” for a blog post :). I actually went to check one of my old emails to you and sure enough, it hides your signature! That is clearly a stupid move on their part, and really does negate the whole point of having one.
I hadn’t noticed it before. I’m just about to add another website to my signature, so I guess I need to pay attention to it. I wonder if it has to do with how many lines you can use?
Congratulations to Tyrean! I look forward to hearing from you.
It’s ONE of the reasons I went back to using my hotmail. I had done a lot of business emails from my Gmail account and no signature or polite business closure isn’t cool or professional. Now, I rarely use my gmail. I hate Yahoo (even more reasons so I’m back with the reliable. I also did the signature with a ~ after the last sentence.
I believe it only cuts off your signature from your view. When it arrives at its destination, the person will see the whole thing. 😉
I hadn’t noticed, but I will be now. Ugghh.
I apologize for reading/commenting on several posts at a time. Blogger still won’t let me manage my reading list so that I can delete defunct blogs. Now, I have too many to add any WordPress blogs because I have to copy/paste the URL… and I have exceeded my blog limit. Going back in the circle, I can’t delete any to rectify the matter since the Manage My Blogs seems to be permanently down. Please bear with me as I remember to go to your old blog to find your new one. Bah.