As far as I am aware, RE: is not a topic. Also, there are two approaches to the design of topics: explicit (the "usual" way), and generic. The latter has been used by HEPROC-L (Carl Reimann). He pre-defines generic topics to which he assigns a "temporary" meaning for some length of time. Once that topic is finished, it assumes no meaning until a new conversation thread is assigned it. This allows him to NOT constantly update the headers with the topics du jour. Or something like that. -- co-owner INFOSYS, TQM-L, CPARK-L, ERAPPA-L, JANITORS, LDBASE-L, et -L URL:mailto:[log in to unmask] "I've fallen and can't reach my keyboard" 31 Shields Bldg. -- Penn State -- University Park, PA 16802-1202 USA