[billieJ]

I am clicking on the chat word, which brings down a drop down menu. However, clicking on any of those menu items does nothing. I am also unable to use my smilies in text, but that is a relatively minor problem. I just got my computer back from the shop, so there should be nothing wrong with it. I repeat - SHOULD be nothing wrong with it. There is, however, a lot wrong with me and my computer savy, which is essentially none. However, I am too addicted to this wonderful forum to stop trying! Thanks for any help you can give me. With Gratitude! ~ billieJ

[Naturefreak]

Just click on lobby billie .... And left click your smilies.
Hope this helps.

[FooZe]

I'm going to skip over the Chat part of your question, as I've never bothered to try the chat here. However...

Originally Posted by billieJ

I am also unable to use my smilies in text, but that is a relatively minor problem.

First of all, what you see by way of smilies will depend on what kind of text box you're using. Those little "quick reply" ones offer the fewest features so I usually click the "Go advanced" option.

In the "Go advanced" mode there should be a box at the right showing 15 of the most common smilies. If you click on one (left click, as Babysteps says) it should insert a smiley (or the text that represents it) where you were just typing.

At the bottom of that box of smilies is a link to "More". If you click that, a new window (little at first) opens up in the corner and you can scroll around in it to find more smilies than you can shake a stick at. It's easier to see what-all is available if you maximize that window while making your choice.

In that smilies window there are two representations for each smiley -- its picture to the left, its text to the right. Clicking on the picture inserts the smiley where you're typing -- most of the time. Sometimes nothing happens and I have to click a second time. Clicking on the text string doesn't do anything but if you type (or copy-paste) that text into your post like this :example: you'll also get that smiley. As far as I know, there's no smiley called "example" but if you substitute "hug" (with the same punctuation) you get

Try it and let us know how it works. If you have any difficulty, do let us know exactly what steps you follow to try to get a smiley, what you actually see, and what happens after each step.

[billieJ]

I was afraid of something like that. I do both those things, but nothing happens. billieJ

Originally Posted by Babysteps

Just click on lobby billie .... And left click your smilies.
Hope this helps.

[billieJ]

I am left clicking on smilies like a fool with nothing happening. I will sure try the text and punctuation substitution. I've seen Go Advanced, but can't think where. I'll use it the next time I see it. Thanks Much! billie

Originally Posted by Fool Zero

I'm going to skip over the Chat part of your question, as I've never bothered to try the chat here. However...

First of all, what you see by way of smilies will depend on what kind of text box you're using. Those little "quick reply" ones offer the fewest features so I usually click the "Go advanced" option.

In the "Go advanced" mode there should be a box at the right showing 15 of the most common smilies. If you click on one (left click, as Babysteps says) it should insert a smiley (or the text that represents it) where you were just typing.

At the bottom of that box of smilies is a link to "More". If you click that, a new window (little at first) opens up in the corner and you can scroll around in it to find more smilies than you can shake a stick at. It's easier to see what-all is available if you maximize that window while making your choice.

In that smilies window there are two representations for each smiley -- its picture to the left, its text to the right. Clicking on the picture inserts the smiley where you're typing -- most of the time. Sometimes nothing happens and I have to click a second time. Clicking on the text string doesn't do anything but if you type (or copy-paste) that text into your post like this :example: you'll also get that smiley. As far as I know, there's no smiley called "example" but if you substitute "hug" (with the same punctuation) you get

Try it and let us know how it works. If you have any difficulty, do let us know exactly what steps you follow to try to get a smiley, what you actually see, and what happens after each step.

[billieJ]

Oh, I see! Found Go Advanced. Yay! Thanks so much! bJ

Originally Posted by Fool Zero

I'm going to skip over the Chat part of your question, as I've never bothered to try the chat here. However...

First of all, what you see by way of smilies will depend on what kind of text box you're using. Those little "quick reply" ones offer the fewest features so I usually click the "Go advanced" option.

In the "Go advanced" mode there should be a box at the right showing 15 of the most common smilies. If you click on one (left click, as Babysteps says) it should insert a smiley (or the text that represents it) where you were just typing.

At the bottom of that box of smilies is a link to "More". If you click that, a new window (little at first) opens up in the corner and you can scroll around in it to find more smilies than you can shake a stick at. It's easier to see what-all is available if you maximize that window while making your choice.

In that smilies window there are two representations for each smiley -- its picture to the left, its text to the right. Clicking on the picture inserts the smiley where you're typing -- most of the time. Sometimes nothing happens and I have to click a second time. Clicking on the text string doesn't do anything but if you type (or copy-paste) that text into your post like this :example: you'll also get that smiley. As far as I know, there's no smiley called "example" but if you substitute "hug" (with the same punctuation) you get

Try it and let us know how it works. If you have any difficulty, do let us know exactly what steps you follow to try to get a smiley, what you actually see, and what happens after each step.

[billieJ]

Okay, I clicked Go Advanced, and a message box appeared for me to use. At the end of my text, where I wanted the smilie, I placed my curser there, left clicked on the smilie, and all that happened was that the curser disappeared. When I tried for more smilies, things went haywire, there was a brief message that said I now had 116 smilies or something, but I couldn't see any of them. As in car problems, it must be the nut behind the wheel! bJ

Originally Posted by Fool Zero

I'm going to skip over the Chat part of your question, as I've never bothered to try the chat here. However...

First of all, what you see by way of smilies will depend on what kind of text box you're using. Those little "quick reply" ones offer the fewest features so I usually click the "Go advanced" option.

In the "Go advanced" mode there should be a box at the right showing 15 of the most common smilies. If you click on one (left click, as Babysteps says) it should insert a smiley (or the text that represents it) where you were just typing.

At the bottom of that box of smilies is a link to "More". If you click that, a new window (little at first) opens up in the corner and you can scroll around in it to find more smilies than you can shake a stick at. It's easier to see what-all is available if you maximize that window while making your choice.

In that smilies window there are two representations for each smiley -- its picture to the left, its text to the right. Clicking on the picture inserts the smiley where you're typing -- most of the time. Sometimes nothing happens and I have to click a second time. Clicking on the text string doesn't do anything but if you type (or copy-paste) that text into your post like this :example: you'll also get that smiley. As far as I know, there's no smiley called "example" but if you substitute "hug" (with the same punctuation) you get

Try it and let us know how it works. If you have any difficulty, do let us know exactly what steps you follow to try to get a smiley, what you actually see, and what happens after each step.

[FooZe]

Originally Posted by Fool Zero

Sometimes nothing happens and I have to click [on the smiley] a second time.

Originally Posted by billieJ

At the end of my text, where I wanted the smilie, I placed my curser there, left clicked on the smilie, and all that happened was that the curser disappeared. When I tried for more smilies, things went haywire, there was a brief message that said I now had 116 smilies or something, but I couldn't see any of them.

That's a bit weirder than anything I've dealt with. It sounds to me vaguely like a disabled feature somewhere, but I don't know whether to look first at your browser settings or at your Psych Central ones. If I were troubleshooting it I'd want to start by figuring out whether the smilies truly weren't being inserted in your post, or whether they were actually there for others to see but your browser wasn't showing them for some reason.

-- Since you're able to see those smilies that you click on, it sounds as if where they're specifically not showing up is in your posts. By the way, do you see a smiley ---> <--- here or not, and if you do is it a picture or text characters, a [ : ] and a [ ) ]?

-- Check your PC settings. Most PC pages have a blue bar across the top with "My Profile" at the far left. Click on that link (preferably in another window or tab, so you can keep this open to refer to). In the Settings & Options section, click Edit Options. About halfway down the resulting page, under Thread Display Options, see what's checked and unchecked. I have in mine:

[ ] Show Signatures
[x] Show Avatars
[x] Show Images (including attached images and images in [IMG] code)

-- Two boxes down from Thread Display Options is Miscellaneous Options. For Message Editor Interface you might want to try, at least while you're troubleshooting this problem, the "Standard Editor -- Extra formatting controls" option. I've found it a great way to learn how the formatting codes here actually work. More often than not, WYSIWYG editors drive me crazy when I can't figure out why something that I want isn't showing up or something that I don't want, is.

-- Try typing the codes for a few smilies into a post, previewing it, and seeing what you get. I'm going to insert spaces into these examples to keep them from turning into actual smilies here:

: )
: D
: P
: hug :
: love :
: confused :

Good luck, and keep letting us know what you find. I notice you describe yourself on your profile as "computer-illiterate," but with the persistence and willingness to try stuff that you're showing, you're not going to be that way for long.

-----------------------------------

By the way, if any serious techies happen to be reading this, I notice that the little pictures in the Smilies box are coded like this:

<img style="cursor: pointer;" src="/images/smilies/smile.gif" id="vB_Editor_001_smilie_1" alt=":)" title="Smile" class="inlineimg" border="0">

With my extremely limited knowledge of vBCode editors, I can't make out how clicking on them results (or doesn't, in billieJ's case) in a smiley in the composer window.