Winking at you, Trace! ;) Many people, if not most, don't really bother with the "-" signs in smiley faces any more. Quicker to type them up that way. Have you tried pressing number 1 twice when you're typing a text message on your Nokia phone and while predictive mode is on? Smileys that are used in emails and instant messaging etc are used in text messages too. A couple more of frequently used smiley faces: :p smiley with tongue out :D open mouth smiley; same as LOL I suppose. Oh yeah, spelling out LOL would look really cool :P Cheers, Amro ----- Original Message ----- From: Spring.flower To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Saturday, November 15, 2008 6:21 PM Subject: [access-uk] Re: An observation and a curiosity Hi Amro, OK, I can do the smily faces and the sad faces, :-) etc but what's the sign for a wink please? I also use LOL a lot but I too have noticed that some people on some lists, usually for the blind spell out the words, sometimes with a * in front and behind. Interesting topic actually!! Trace ----- Original Message ----- From: Amro Bilal To: Access-UK Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2008 9:24 PM Subject: [access-uk] An observation and a curiosity Hi all, This might be OT, not really sure but here goes. I noticed on this list that people don't use smileys and winks such as :) ;) etc. People rather write smile, wink and what have you. I've never come across this practise on any other emailing list or internet forum. It struck me that even literate computer users on this list do that. So I wander, is there a reason for this practise? Do Braille users find wink signs confusing for instance? Excuse my ignorance, but I rely on my screen reader's speech output and I've never had any problems with reading winks. I started doing what everyone else does on this list and the Jaws list but never asked why! If there's a good reason behind this I'd be glad to learn it. If there isn't, then IMHO this is a bad habit. What applies to other internet forums I believe should apply here too unless there's a justification for doing otherwise. Am I being pedantic? Would love to here other people opinions! Cheers, Amro ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.549 / Virus Database: 270.9.1/1781 - Release Date: 11/11/2008 08:59