Q. I see the icon to add emoji to iMessages on Mac, but how do you add the characters to documents and email messages?
A. Many desktop programs like iMessages and the Mac Twitter app include a convenient icon for switching to emoji symbols — those colorful pictographs of smiley faces, hearts and now bacon. Keep in mind that not every program works with emoji.
For Mac applications like Mail, Notes, TextEdit and other programs that support the Unicode standard (the global character set that works with most languages and includes emoji), put the cursor in the place you want to add the symbol, hold down the Control and Command keys on the keyboard and press the space bar. When the Characters palette appears, click Emoji on the left, locate the character you want to use and double-click its icon to insert it into the text. Some apps may have an Emoji & Symbols option under the File menu, too.
You can also get to the emoji and symbols in the Character Viewer palette. If you do not see the square Character Viewer icon in the Mac’s top menu bar, click the System Preferences icon in the desktop dock (or go to the Apple menu in the top-left corner of the screen and select System Preferences) and click the Keyboard icon.
In the Keyboard preferences box, select the Keyboard tab and turn on the checkbox next to “Show keyboard and emoji viewers in menu bar.” Once you have enabled it, click the menu icon and choose “Show Emoji & Symbols” to see the collection.
Windows 10 users can see available emoji with the system’s onscreen keyboard. If you do not see the keyboard icon on the right side of the taskbar, right-click the taskbar and select “Show touch keyboard button.” When you click or tap the keyboard icon, the virtual keyboard appears on screen. Select the smiley-face icon to see the available emoji you can use.
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