Do you use MS Outlook for your email?
Do you like to make :) frequently?
Consider this a warning. The people you email might think you are insane.
Some of my friends thought I was insane-but I was able to prove them wrong. Let me explain.
So I have been using Outlook for a few years now and I love it. A few weeks ago a few girlfriends asked ‘what is that J at the end of your emails?’. I was confused, so they forwarded me an email and I DIDN’T SEE ANY damn random J. But they kept insisting I had random J’s showing up in my emails. Of course I thought they were the crazy ones I took their comment seriously. I mean I started to think about all the business emails I had sent out…could it be happening in all of them? Did everyone think I was in love with the letter J? Did they wonder if I was conveying a secret message? Did it stand for Jesus? Or maybe, as my friend suggested ‘I thought it was just close to some other popular key on the keyboard and you just keep hitting it by accident’. Great- so people think I have been drunk typing again I have less than stellar typing skills. Eventually I started to suspect the J was appearing anytime I used a :). And naturally I assumed it was some kind of emoticon revenge for creating this video about my miss-use and abuse of the typed happy face.
But I had to get to the bottom of this issue. I turned to Google. And found THIS. Turns out this hijacking J issue affects ALL OUTLOOK users. Yup. Whenever an Outlook user types a :) it converts it to an actual little happy face. But if the person receiving the email are not using Outlook- guess what they see?
A LETTER J.
I am more than mildly panicked now thinking back to many many emails that would have come off as rude without the :) at the end.
“Yeah cuz you are the fat one :)” has a really different effect than “Yeah cuz you are the fat one j”
Or “I would love to have you come but don’t bring those annoying kids of yours :)”
Oh my god.
This is bad.
Damn Outlook.
Now I am freaking out.
Hey Outlook do you have an emoticon for that?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I thought it was maybe code for “Just Kidding.” I wasn’t sure. I see it a lot, not just with you. So glad you uncovered it issue. Is it okay that I still think you’re insane J (as in Smiley Face)
Suz
AHHH, so THAT’S how those J’s pop up. i have one friend who i get them from – i did kind of wonder, but i figured it was something like that. very funny (and informational)! :)
I’ve been losing sleep over this, totally afraid that I may have been the one responsible for tipping you over the edge. SO glad it wasn’t me.
Love,
j
I actually busted out laughing and then started to panic as I realized how often I used to type the smiley face with my snide & sarcastic comments when I had Outlook!! Not only am I a complete smart ass in real life but I was also using that smiley face as a fall back in web life!! No wonder I don’t get as much email from my friends anymore!! The letter J ddefinitely does not cover your buns the way a colon and parenthesis does!!! Aaaccckkk! :)
This is why i give my smileys a nose – and yes, i use and love outlook, too, as any good business person should.
:0)
Hahaha… Another work-around is the =) smiley in outlook. I think he looks a little more smug, though.
What, really? I noticed the previewer (the little pop up when you get new mail) doing it, but I didn’t realize it happened with non-Outlook users… awkward, considering how often I use the :)…
The way around it is to give the smiley a nose. I use a dash :-) like that. Outlook is fine but I prefer Mail on the Mac. It has fewer calendar problems. :-)