How to Insert Graphical Smileys in Yahoo Mail Messages

Emoticons and stationery liven up your emails

What to Know

  • Select Compose > enter email text > select Insert Emojis (smiley face icon) > choose an emoji.
  • Also use the Formatting toolbar to bold/italicize text and change text color.

This article explains how to use emoticons in outgoing Yahoo emails to attract attention or express emotion. This option will not appear if you use plain text for your emails.

Insert Graphical Smileys in Yahoo Mail Messages

To insert emoticons in your messages in Yahoo Mail:

  1. Select Compose at the top of the email screen to open a new email.

    The Yahoo Mail inbox.
  2. Enter the text of your outgoing email.

    Composing an email in Yahoo Mail.
  3. Position the cursor wherever you want an emoticon to appear.

    An insertion point in Yahoo Mail.
  4. Select Insert emojis in the formatting toolbar at the bottom of the email. It looks like a smiley face.

    The Insert emojis option in Yahoo Mail.
  5. Select one of the emojis to insert it in your message.

    The insert emojis menu in Yahoo Mail.

If the recipient's email client doesn't support HTML emails, the emoticons won't display.

Additional Uses for the Formatting Toolbar

You can use the formatting toolbar in other ways to change the appearance of your outgoing messages. You can use it to change part of the text to bold or italic type or apply a color to the text. You can use it to insert a list format, add an indention, or adjust the text's alignment on the screen. You can also insert links and graphics using the toolbar.

Additional options in the formatting toolbar in Yahoo Mail.

If you like graphic emoticons, try out the stationery capabilities of Yahoo Mail, also located in the formatting toolbar. These large graphics are seasonal, birthday, and other background graphics that liven up an email. Select the icon that looks like a card with a heart on it in the formatting toolbar and scroll through the thumbnails of the available images. To see how one works with your message, select it to apply the stationery.

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