HOW TO Using the emoji keyboard

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ACCESSING THE EMOJI KEYBOARD There are two keyboard shortcuts you can use to access the emoji keyboard (sometimes also referred to as the emoji panel): press either Win and ; or Win and . to activate it. When you press either of these shortcuts, the keyboard will pop into view ready for you to use – and there are various ways you can navigate and use the emoji that are available.

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TYPING EMOJI Whether you’re typing online or in an application such as Microsoft Word, the process of entering emoji is the same. As you type, press the shortcut to call up the emoji keyboard and browse through the selection of emoji that is on offer. When you’ve found what you need, just click the one you’re interested in and it will be entered into the text. The emoji keyboard will close automatically.

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FINDING EMOJI There are a couple of ways to find the emoji you need. The first is to simply scroll through the varied selection until you find what you want. With so many to choose from, there’s no need to scroll through dozens and dozens to get to one near the end, you can click the icons representing the six categories – including people, food and animals – to home in on what you’re looking for.

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SEARCHING FOR EMOJI When you have been using emoji for a while, you get to know what’s available – and there are probably several that you use far more frequently than others. Right after you have activated the emoji keyboard, start typing your search term – such as “smile”, “car” or “avocado” – and the emoji that match your search term will be displayed ready for you to click on.

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CUSTOMISING EMOJI Some emoji can be customised. Emoji showing people can have various skin tones, and rather than display several versions of the same emoji, the keyboard just shows one of each, and gives you the option of changing skin colour. Call up the emoji keyboard, move to the people section and you’ll see six coloured dots. Click one, and the emoji will all change to this skin tone.

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FREQUENTLY USED EMOJI When you launch the emoji keyboard, the clock icon can be used to access your frequently used emoji. This saves you from searching or scrolling through the lengthy list. You will notice that the order of emoji shown in this section changes over time to reflect your use of emoji – so if you use a laughing smiley a lot, it will appear at the top of the list.

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TYPING SYMBOLS AND KAOMOJI The emoji keyboard is about more than just emoji; it can also be used to enter various commonly used symbols and Japanese punctuation-based kaomoji. When you activate the keyboard, you can access the symbols section by clicking the omega icon and, again, symbols are divided into numerous individual sections.

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EMOJI KEYBOARD OPTIONS There is only one setting relating to the emoji keyboard. By default, after you use the keyboard it will disappear from view. If you regularly need to enter more than one emoji in a row, you can change this. Click the Start button, type “emoji” and click the Emoji panel settings option. Tick the box labelled ‘Don’t close the panel automatically after an emoji has been entered’.