PostSmile for Windows

PostSmile is a silly but fun program that allows users to insert emoticons, quotes, and signatures into their e-mail. The program's content is kind of ridiculous, but we really like the way it works.

The program's interface is kind of ingenious. The content--including animated smiley faces, quotes, jokes, and more--is arranged in tabs. Inserting everything into e-mail is a simple matter of dragging and dropping things into the body of the message. Using the program was simple and fun. Whether you'd actually want to use the program's content is another matter entirely. There are five tabs of emoticons, categorized into Happy, Love, Sad, Communication, and Other. If you are a smiley-user, you will find that there is little you can't express with this program. The quotes that come with the program, especially the love quotes, are a bizarre mix, everything from William Faulkner to the Backstreet Boys and Ayn Rand to Roxette. Weird. The proverbs are cliches and the jokes are corny, but the compliments are actually well-written and potentially useful. The online Help page does a good job of explaining how the program works.

Once we had thoroughly investigated the program, we had one question: could we add our own drag-and-drop signatures, quotes, and images? The program does have this capability, but it's only available with the premium version. With this feature the program could be tremendously useful, but without it, you're stuck with the whims of the creator, which may not suit your tastes. PostSmile is free. It installs politely but leaves a folder behind upon removal. We recommend this program to all users.