How to Enter Emoji on Hardware Keyboard with Emoji Panel in Windows 10


Emoji are ideograms and smileys used in electronic messages and Web pages. Emoji are used much like emoticons and exist in various genres, including facial expressions, common objects, places and types of weather, and animals.

Starting with Windows 10 build 16215, a new Emoji Panel has been added to make it easier entering emoji on your hardware keyboard.

Starting with Windows 10 build 16226, the Emoji Panel will now also use the same light or dark theme set for your default app mode. The Emoji Panel now provides a search feature. After opening the panel via the Win + period (.) or semicolon (;) hotkeys, keep typing. The words you type will be used to filter the emoji displayed.

Starting with Windows 10 build 17063, Microsoft has added support for more languages and as of today’s build you can now use the emoji over 190 locals – 152 of which have tooltip support when you hover over each emoji. This includes English (Great Britain), French (France), German (Germany), Spanish (Spain), and more. Currently you can only browse and use mouse/touch/keyboard to pick an emoji in these languages, however Microsoft is working on adding search.

Starting with Windows 10 build 17101, Microsoft is bringing search support to more locales. Now you can find an emoji by keyword in over 150 locales, including English (Great Britain), French (France), German (Germany), Spanish (Spain), and more. This will help you get the emoji you want easily and quickly.

Windows 10 Tip: Emoji Panel overhaul includes more languages, ways to insert multiple emoji - Windows Experience Blog

Starting with Windows 10 build 20206, Microsoft revamped the emoji picker to be a one-stop for expressing yourself while you type on your device. This new experience offers:

• An updated design: We are making the experience more aligned with our Fluent Design principles, including a new acrylic background.
• Emoji search: We are improving discoverability of emoji search in supported languages by having an inline search box.
• Animated GIF support, including search: Going forward, WIN + [.] and WIN + [;] will now enable you to quickly input animated GIFs. The selection of animated gifs will be continuously updated based on current trends and #hashtags. Search is also available for those times where you need to find the perfect reaction gif to succinctly communicate your message.
• Converging our input experiences across emoji and clipboard history: We are bringing input and clipboard history together into a single experience. You can still press WIN + V to go straight to clipboard history, but now you can also access it by switching to the “Clipboard” category after pressing WIN + [.] or WIN + [;].

This tutorial will show you how to open and use the Emoji Panel for entering emoji in a text box on your hardware keyboard in Windows 10.


EXAMPLE: Emoji Panel




Here's How:

1 While focus is in a text box, press the Win + . (period) or Win + ; (semicolon) keys to open the Emoji Panel. (see screenshots below)

Using the period . from the number pad will not work.

2 You can now select and enter an emoji you want from the Emoji Panel.

In the People emoji category, you can change the skin tone of the emoji by clicking the button on the top-right.

In addition to using your mouse to select an emoji, you can also navigate through the panel by using the following keys:

Arrow keys = Navigate among emoji
Tab / Shift + Tab = Switch emoji category
Enter = Select an emoji
Esc = Close the panel

That's it,
Shawn

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