I'd like a dynamic signature in Gmail. Possible?

August 7, 2008 6:51 AM

I'd like a dynamic signature in Gmail. Possible?

I'd like my signature to display how long it takes me to respond to the email I'm replying to. Possible? Pipe dream? I'm not a programmer, so a custom solution isn't possible.

posted by wordsmith to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

It's a pipe dream. Gmail doesn't even support nonscripting techs in signatures like graphics, HTML, and formatted rich text. "Dynamic" would most likely require scripting of some type. I'm sure most email providers don't allow scripting for all the security issues it could pose.

Low-tech: Eh, you could just note the time you started replying and time before hitting the send button. There are online elapsed-time calculators too.
posted by Ky at 12:12 PM on August 7, 2008

Along the lines of Ky's low tech fix, set your signature as a timestamp without the variable (time) inserted and fill them in as you start and finish.

i.e. "This message was begun at and finished at "
or "Time spent replying: "
posted by bradly at 2:11 PM on August 7, 2008

Well it is a pipe-dream in the sense that its not a feature out of the box and you aren't a programmer. However, I don't see why a Greasemonkey script couldn't be created to do what you wanted. Things would probably be screwed up if you saved a message as a draft or something along those lines, but the simplest case should be doable by those willing to delve deep into the UI of GMail.
posted by mmascolino at 2:12 PM on August 7, 2008

I doubt there is anything out of the box, but with Greasemonkey it's at least theoretically possible (if you're using Firefox). This would require programming, of course.

As an example, this script does signatures based on the address you're sending from.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 2:17 PM on August 7, 2008

Note that the above Greasemonkey script that I linked is actually obsolote, and a quick scan of the replacement seems to suggest it may have problems. Oh well.

The point remains, though, that it's at least *possible*.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 2:18 PM on August 7, 2008

Check out google labs. There's a 'dynamic signature' option there. The only limitation is that your signatures are limited to a single line.
posted by Arthur Dent at 9:12 PM on August 9, 2008