Should I use one Arabic and English signature, or two separate ones?
If your contacts are mixed and you cannot tell in advance which language each one reads, a Both languages signature serves everyone in one go, at the cost of extra height. If each conversation clearly runs in one language, two separate signatures, Arabic right to left and English left to right, are shorter and match the direction of the email; you pick one per recipient.
What the Both languages layout does
In this layout the Arabic block comes first, then a thin divider, then the English block, then the shared contact details once: phone, email, website and links. The whole table runs right to left because Arabic is on top, and a logo, if you add one, sits on the right. Phone and email lines stay left to right in every layout.
To put a real number on the length: a signature with name, title and company in Arabic and English, plus a phone and an email, gives a plain-text version of 8 lines. The English-only signature with the same details gives just 5, and so does the Arabic-only one. The difference is three lines: your name and title in the second language and a blank line between the blocks.
When to use each
- One two-language signature: when the same inbox writes to suppliers and customers of many nationalities, or when your emails get forwarded inside a client company to people whose language you do not know.
- A separate Arabic signature: for local customers you write to in Arabic, so the signature follows the email's direction and does not grow for nothing.
- A separate English signature: for a supplier in China or an international courier, where an Arabic block would simply not be read.
The second route depends on your email program: does it let you save more than one signature and choose between them while writing? Check its signature settings before deciding. If it only allows one, the two-language signature is the practical answer.
Making both versions in one sitting
- Open the Email signature builder and fill in the Arabic block, the English block and the contact details once.
- Choose Arabic (RTL), copy or download the signature, and save it in your program under a name like 'Arabic'.
- Switch the layout to English (LTR). What you typed stays in the fields, so copy the English version and save it under another name.
- If you want the third as well, choose Both languages and save it too, then see over time which one you use most.
Note that the English layout only needs the English fields: if name, title and company in English are all empty, the tool asks you to enter at least one of them before it builds the signature.
The language order is fixed
In the two-language layout Arabic always comes first, and the tool has no way to swap the order. If most of your mail is in English and you want it on top, a separate English signature is the better fit, perhaps with your Arabic name in the address line, or two separate signatures as above.
Common questions
Are phone numbers repeated in both blocks?
No. Phone, email, website and links appear once, below both blocks.
Does the divider line show in every program?
It is a plain top border on an element inside the table, a simple approach that usually holds up, but Outlook on Windows may change the spacing around it. Send a test email and check.