Question about Mail.app

Mail.app is simple, useful, and suits my needs. There's just one thing about it that's always annoyed me. When I click Reply or use the keyboard command, the reply window pops up just fine. The problem is that the cursor is on the first line, and the message I'm replying to is on the next line, with no space between. Is there a way to set it so that there's always one blank line under the cursor when I reply to a message? As it is now, when I reply, the first thing I have to do is press Enter to get that gap, then arrow up to start typing the reply.

I attached two images to try to illustrate what I'm talking about, with picture 2 being the desired default for when I click Reply.

 

Thanks. That's simple, and effective.

[Edit: Didn't seem to work. It won't recognize one or two empty lines as a signature, even if it's selected. It just does it's normal bit.]

 

Ah, thought it wasn't working but figured it out. Was as simple as putting a checkmark in the box to show the signature above the quoted text.

Thanks again!