Emoticons, those funny colorful faces and icons that appear in text messages and emails, are a great way to add some personality and, well, ‘emotion’ to your in-meeting communications.

So here’s how you can leverage these emoticons inside Adobe Connect.

Some programs will automatically convert the ‘smiley’ faces created by typing a ‘colon-dash-right parenthesis’ more commonly seen like this  :-)  into their chat.  In those applications it will automatically be converted into this  .

And though Adobe Connect supports these icons, it will not convert these for you. Fear not, you just need to know ‘how’ to type them in – and it’s easy!

On Windows

If you are using a Windows computer, you just need to hold the Windows key and press the period key to access the Emoticon dialog box. From an Adobe Connect meeting, just type in the chat window as you would normally, then type those activation keys.

This will pop open an ‘emoticon picker’ letting you search a wide range of emoticons.

I find the easiest way to use this is to find the icon you want, then click on it to select it, then close the dialog by clicking the ‘x’ in the upper right corner of the dialog box. You’ll be back in the chat entry field with the emoticon in place. Then when you press ‘Enter’ or click the 'Send’ button, it will appear in the chat window. Make sure that you close the Emoticon dialog before typing back in the Adobe Connect chat window, otherwise it will try to search for an icon based on what you are typing.

It will take some practice to figure out which icons look best. Not all icons are supported, and they will look a little different in the Application or Flash than they do in the HTML meeting window. They will be in black and white in Flash or the Application, but in color in the HTML meeting.

On Mac OS

Unfortunately on the Mac this does not work inside the Adobe Connect application or from Flash in a browser. You will need to be in the Adobe Connect HTML client on the Mac to be able to type in emoticons directly. But there’s a work around I’ll cover shortly.

If you are in the HTML client on a Mac, the process is very similar to using Windows, just the key combination is different. On the Mac you need to hold the Control and Command keys, and then press the Spacebar. Aka CTRL+CMD+Space.

From an Adobe Connect meeting, just type in the chat window as you would normally, then type those activation keys. You will see the Mac Emoticon dialog.

Just click on the icon you want which should take you back to the chat field with the emoticon in place, then when you press ‘Enter’ or click the 'Send’ button, it will appear in the chat.

Here’s the work around. If you are using the meeting application or Flash, you will need to use another application to type in your emoticon, then copy and paste it into your chat message in Adobe Connect. You could use TextEdit, or almost any other application – even the search bar in a browser will work. Just type in your emoticon, select and copy, then paste into the chat in the Adobe Connect chat window.

The results will be seen by everyone.

Unfortunately, not all the emoticons are supported across both Mac and Windows, and not all are supported in the Adobe Connect meeting application or within Flash, but if you do some testing you will find the ones that work for you. Have fun!