Signature files in Microsoft Outlook can pick up an aggravating ActiveX error, which I have associated with editing the signature file in MS Word but may also have other causes. A little edit to HTML source file will chase the message away without compromising the formatting of your signature file. Here's the Error Message:
One or more ActiveX controls could not be displayed because either:
1) Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page, or
2) You have blocked a publisher of one of the controls.
As a result, the page may not display correctly.
Â
The Solution:
Start by opening the folder that contains your signature files.
- For Vista:
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Signatures
- For XP and Windows 2003:
%userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures
Copy the appropriate line, click Start > Run, then Ctrl–V or otherwise paste the text onto the Run line and press Enter.
You'll see 3 versions of your signature file (in .htm, .txt and .rtf formats). Open the .htm signature file in Notepad or your preferred text editor (never in a Word Processor such as MS Word.) Then go to Edit > Find and type in “<objectâ€.
You're looking for a line of code that resembles the following:
<OBJECT id=ieooui classid=clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D></OBJECT> |
Just remove that <OBJECT tag, everything from <OBJECT to /OBJECT> and save the file.
Optionally, to make sure that the ActiveX object doesn’t come back you can make the file read only (In Windows Explorer select the file and Right-Click > Properties > Read Only), but this might limit your ability to edit your signature block from within Outlook, so I'd wait and see if this fix holds before I do that.