NOTE: This article is targeted at "non-Admin" community users. It provides information on how to self-manage some aspects of their community account.

You can create a custom Discussion Signature that will be added to your post when you:

• create a discussion thread and
• reply to other users' threads.

The default Signature

It's very likely that an Admin of your community site has created a "default" signature for user discussions and replies; this is called the Discussion Signature.

TIP: The Discussion Signature is like an email signature; it contains the "author's" name and some additional contact information.

Admins create default signatures in order to ensure that community users can readily determine who has created the content.

The contents of a site's default signature are controlled by a series of variables, which are managed by the Admins of the site. The Admins enable the variables that they want to be available for users' signatures.

As a community user:

• you're free to use the default signature layout; just do nothing and it'll be included in your discussion posts and replies, or
• you can customize you own signature (with the variables that have been made available) as described in the next section.

Benefit of variables

Variables are an easy way to ensure that information is current in users' signatures. For example:

• If your Profile has your job title as Administrator, the [JobTitle] variable will populate the signature (and other instances in the community) with "Administrator."

• If you then become Treasurer, you have to update only the Job Title field in your Contact Information because the system will automatically populate the [JobTitle] variable with "Treasurer" in your signature and elsewhere in the community.

Access the Signature page

You can manage your personal Discussion signature right in your user Profile.

To access the Signature page of your user Profile:

1. Click your user portal at the top-right, and then click Profile in the box that drops down.

NOTE: The appearance and dropdown options in your community might be different than what is shown below.

2. Click the My Account tab and select Discussion Signature.

On the Discussion Signature page, the default Signature that has been created by an Admin displays in the Default Signature field.

You can customize your signature as described below.

Plan your Signature

Before you start adding variables to create your signature, it's a good idea to consider:

• which variables you want to include,
• the layout of the signature, and
• spacing, line breaks, and punctuation (e.g., commas, hyphens, etc.).

The system automatically adds each new variable to the right of its predecessor. You can either:

• add the variables that you want and then click into the field to arrange them and manage the spacing, line breaks, and punctuation; or
• click into the field after each variable is added to manage the placement and punctuation.

NOTE: Discussion Signatures are plain text only; you cannot format them with features such as bold, italic, and bullets.

Customize your Signature

TIP: You can type and/or paste text into the field instead of using variables. Refer to Create a 'plain-text' signature, below.

To customize your Signature:

1. Click a variable under Available Variables on the right to add it to the Default Signature field.
2. Continue adding variables to create your custom signature.
3. If there is a variable in the default Signature that you do not want, highlight it and press Delete.
4. Review the arrangement of the variables and add any necessary spacing, line breaks, and punctuation.
5. Click Save to preserve your custom Signature.

Your personal default Signature will be added to all Discussion threads and replies that you post in the community.

Create a 'plain-text' signature

Yo do have the option to not use variables for your signature.

1. Simply delete all of the variables from the Default Signature field.
2. Type or paste the text that you want and customize the spacing, line breaks, and punctuation.
3. Click Save.

Your personal default Signature will be added to all Discussion threads and replies that you post in the community.

Use Default Template button

Regardless of whether you customize the default signature with your preferred variables or you create a text-based signature, you can:

• click the Use Default Template button to automatically restore the default signature that was created by an Admin. The Admin-defined variables and layout display in the Default Signature field.

Other articles for community users

Be sure to check out other articles about how to manage your Profile.

• Manage your Profile Preferences describes a number of important settings and preferences.
• Manage your Community Notifications describes how to manage the notifications for each community that you belong to.
• Manage your Profile Image describes how to add a personal image or avatar.