Personalizing Your IM Conversations
| Customizing Message Text | Using Emoticons | Using Audibles | Using Buzz |
Using Emoticons
An emoticon is a small character inserted
in an instant message to
show a contact how
you feel during an IM conversation,
such as happy 
,
sad 
,
or laughing 
.
The concept isn’t new. It’s just better. You’ve probably sent or
received email messages with keyboard characters, such as ;-) or
:-(. Yahoo! Messenger provides these characters in graphic form and lets
you choose from dozens of mood emoticons, many of them animated,
such as rolling on the floor laughing 
!
This task shows you how to:
The following tables show the emoticons that you can select from a palette and those available only by typing the code directly into an instant message. When using an emoticon from either set, however, you can simply type the corresponding code, if desired.
Palette of Emoticons
| Graphic | Code | Description | Graphic | Code | Description | |
| :) | Smile |  | i-) | Sleepy | |
| :( | Sad |  | 8-| | Rolling Eyes | |
 | ;) | Wink |  | l-) | Loser | |
 | :D | Big Grin |  | :-& | Sick | |
 | ;;) | Batting Eyelashes |  | :-$ | Don't Tell | |
 | >:D< | Hugs |  | [-( | Not Talking | |
 | :-/ | Confused |  | :o) | Clown | |
 | :x | Love Struck |  | 8-} | Silly | |
 | :"> | Blushing |  | <:-p | Party | |
 | :p | Tongue |  | (:| | Yawn | |
 | :-* | Kiss |  | =P~ | Drooling | |
 | =(( | Broken Heart |  | :-? | Thinking | |
 | :-o | Surprise |  | #-o | D'oh! | |
 | x( | Angry |  | =D> | Applause | |
 | :> | Smug |  | :-ss | Nail Biting | |
 | b-) | Cool |  | @-) | Hypnotized | |
 | :-s | Worried |  | :^o | Liar | |
 | #:-s | Whew! |  | :-w | Waiting | |
 | >:) | Devil |  | :-< | Sigh | |
 | :(( | Crying |  | >:p | Phbbbt! | |
| :)) | Laughing |  | <):) | Cowboy | |
 | :| | Straight Face |  | :-c | Call me | |
 | /:) | Raised Eyebrow |  | :)] | On the phone | |
 | =)) | Rolling on the Floor Laughing |  | ~X( | At wits' end | |
 | o:-) | Angel |  | :-h | Wave | |
 | :-b | Nerd |  | :-t | Time out | |
 | =; | Talk to the Hand |  | 8-> | Daydreaming |
Code-Only Emoticons
| Graphic | Code | Description | Graphic | Code | Description | |
 | :@) | Pig |  | b-( | Beat Up | |
 | 3:-O | Cow |  | :)>- | Peace | |
 | :(|) | Monkey |  | [-x | Shame on You | |
 | ~:> | Chicken |  | \:d/ | Dancing | |
 | @};- | Rose |  | >:/ | Bring It On | |
 | %%- | Good Luck |  | ;)) | Hee Hee | |
 | **== | Flag |  | o-> | Hiro | |
 | (~~) | Pumpkin |  | o=> | Billy | |
 | ~o) | Coffee |  | o-+ | April | |
 | *-:) | Idea |  | (%) | Ying Yang | |
 | 8-X | Skull |  | :-@ | Talking the Ear Off | |
 | =:) | Bug |  | ^:)^ | I'm Not Worthy | |
 | >-) | Alien |  | :-j | Just Kidding | |
 | :-l | Frustrated |  | (*) | Star | |
 | [-o< | Praying |  | :-?? | I don't know | |
 | $-) | Money Eyes |  | %-( | Not listening | |
 | :-" | Whistling |
When you send an instant message containing an emoticon, both you and your contact see it in the conversation area of your IM windows (assuming you both have emoticons enabled).
(More Details)
Here’s How
Open the Messenger Preferences window by selecting Preferences from the Messenger menu in your Messenger window or from the Conversation menu in your IM window.
On the left side of the window, select the Messages category.
On the right side of the window, under Miscellaneous, check Enable emoticons.
Click the OK button.
Now, when you send or receive emoticons in instant messages, they appear in the conversation area of your IM window.
Tip: To disable emoticons, follow the steps above, but uncheck the Enable emoticons option. When you disable this option, you’re disabling the graphical representation of the code. If a contact sends you an instant message containing an emoticon, you see the emoticon’s code instead of the graphic.
To include an emoticon in your instant message:
Add an emoticon to your instant message in any of the following ways:
Click the emoticon icon, and select an emoticon from the palette that opens.
Tip: To see a descriptive tooltip, hold the cursor over an emoticon.
To use an emoticon that isn’t available on the palette or if you know the emoticon code, type the code directly into your message.
Press the Enter key or click the Send button to send the message with the emoticon.
The conversation area of the IM window displays the emoticon’s graphic. This is how your contact sees the emoticon.
What’s Next
You can get a contact’s attention by using an Audible as an instant message.
Words to Know
- Contact: a person with whom you interact; someone to whom you might want to send an email or instant message.
- Conversation: an exchange of instant messages between you and a contact.
- Instant messaging: the ability to exchange messages in real time with other people over the Internet.
- IM: the acronym for instant message.