AIM Emoticons

AOL Instant Messenger has built-in emoticons, or graphical smileys. JAWS can be told how to properly read them so you can more easily understand the context of a message.

Disabling Graphical Smileys

You'll need to disable the graphical smileys, so that way AIM will print the actual text instead of the small image that you normally see.

These instructions were developed using AIM 5.2

  1. Open the Preferences dialogue by pressing F3 (located under the My AIM > Edit Options submenu).
  2. From the column list press I to switch to the IM/Chat tab.
  3. Press Alt+D to toggle the Disable Graphical Smileys checkbox (or tab until you find the option and then use SPACEBAR to toggle it).
  4. Press the ENTER key to save and exit Preferences (or tab to the OK button and use SPACEBAR to activate it).

Get the Dictionary

View the Dictionary

Download the Dictionary

Notes

Disabling graphical smileys will make the Smiley submenu under the Insert menu disappear. Additionally the shortcut keys CTRL+1 through CTRL+8 and CTRL+SHIFT+1 through CTRL+SHIFT+8 will stop functioning. Consider using the enhanced AIM script to reenable their functionality. The script will also announce which emoticon you have inserted after pressing the hotkey.

When creating this dictionary I made two discoveries about the JAWS' dictionary handling.

  1. The asterisk (*) is considered to be a wildcard character. It is necessary to use two of them when you actually want JAWS to look for an asterisk.
  2. The equals sign (=) will not be recognized by the JAWS Dictionary Manager. To incorperate its use, I loaded the dictionary file in Notepad and typed the equals sign in the appropriate place.

To return your settings to their previous state, simply follow the instructions again.

I have used JAWS 5.0 and later to develop these instructions; if you have an older version these instructions may or may not be accurate.

Websites

Freedom Scientific: www.FreedomScientific.com

Author Contact

Please direct any questions, comments, thoughts, suggestions or corrections to the author at Jake@JBrownell.com

Disclaimer

All information including, but not limited to, Dictionaries, Scripts, Tips and Tricks are provided on an "AS IS" basis without any implied garrentee. User assumes all responsibility for management of his or her software and its associated components.

All trademarks, brands, product names, etc. mentioned belong to either Freedom Scientific or their respective owners, no claim of ownership is made.

Copyright 2005 J. A. Brownell

Last Updated July 31, 2005

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