Email, Messaging, & Video Calls Email How to Insert Graphical Smileys in Yahoo Mail Messages Emoticons and stationery liven up your emails By Heinz Tschabitscher Writer A former freelance contributor who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997. our editorial process Heinz Tschabitscher Updated September 30, 2019 Hero Images / Getty Images Email Yahoo! Mail Gmail Tweet Share Email Yahoo Mail provides a series of graphical smileys called emoticons in its formatting toolbar. Use them inline in your outgoing emails to attract attention and appear friendly or express another emotion. By default, your Yahoo Mail uses the rich text editor that makes graphical smileys possible. If you switch your email to plain text—also in the formatting toolbar—your emoticons are deleted. Insert Graphical Smileys in Yahoo Mail Messages To insert emoticons in your messages in Yahoo Mail: Click Compose at the top of the email screen to open a new email. Enter the text of your outgoing email. Position the cursor wherever you want an emoticon to appear. Select the Insert emojis option in the formatting toolbar at the bottom of the email. It looks like a smiley face. Select one of the emojis to insert it in your message. If the recipient's email client does not support HTML emails, the emoticons won't display. Additional Uses for the Formatting Toolbar The formatting toolbar can be used in other ways to affect 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. It can be used to insert a list format or an indention, as well as adjust the alignment of the text on the screen. You can insert links and graphics using the toolbar. If you like graphic emoticons, try out the stationery capabilities of Yahoo Mail, also located in the formatting toolbar. These large graphics are seasonal, everyday and birthday background graphics that liven up an email. Just select the icon that looks like a card with a heart on it in the formatting toolbar, and scroll through the thumbnails of the images that are available. To see how one works with your message, just select it to apply the stationery.