What is a smiley or emoticon?
Very simple really
It's a little smiley face designed to add a bit of emotion, character or attitude to what you're writing 
There are hundreds to choose from on the web but basically any gif, jpg or png file will do.
How do I add new ones to my forum?
Firstly, you need to be able to upload/FTP the new images to the forum folder. If you're on a free forum host you will not be able to do this.
Assuming you can, they need to go into the forum/images/smiles folder.
Now go to the Administration Control Panel > General Admin > Smilies section.
You will now see all of the smilies you currently have installed and have the ability to delete or edit them.
At the bottom of the page you have 3 useful options.
- Add a new smiley
- Import smiley pack
- Create smiley pack
Add a new smiley
This allows you to add individual new smiley graphics.
The Smiley Code is the typed 'shortcut' for the image eg :big-grin:
The Smiley Image File you are creating is selectable from the drop down list.
The Smiley Emotion is the text that appears if you hover over the image explaining what it is.
Import smiley pack
Now, adding smilies like that can be a bit tedious if you have several to install so there is a way to import a batch of them using something called a smiley pack (or .pak) file.
Some smilies can be downloaded with a .pak included but some do not, which means you might want to make one. You can do this in two ways. One is to make the file by hand following this KB article or there is a pak file generator here.
Upload the smiley images and the .pak file to the images/smiles folder and choose Import smiley pack.
Select the .pak file from the drop box at the top.
'Delete existing smileys before import' does what it says if you want to replace the current ones, otherwise the new ones will be added to the end of the list.
'What should be done in case of conflicts' allows you to decide whether to replace a same-named smilie with the new one you're importing or to keep the original.
Create a smilie pack
The third option on the main smiley page allows you to create a smilie pack from what you already have installed.
However, there's a bug in the smiley maker in 2.0.22.
To fix it, first do this....
Open admin/admin_smilies.php
Find:
- Code: Select all
$no_page_header = $cancel;
Replace With:
- Code: Select all
//$no_page_header = $cancel;
Remember though that you may have to undo that to correctly install a subsequent version upgrade.
Can I change the order of the smilies in the list?
Yes.
A very easy way to do this is to make a pack file, reorder the list in it and then reinstall it selecting the option to delete the smilies first.
Make the pack file as explained above.
Open the file in wordpad (or other simple text editor) and simply use copy/paste or drag/drop to move the order around in the list. The first 20 on the list will be the ones that display to the left of the posting window, in order, from top left to bottom right.
Save and upload the .pak file.
Import smiley pack. NB ensure that you tick the box to 'Delete existing smileys before import'.
This will delete all the current smilies and reload them based on the order in your new pack file.
Can I change the number of smilies next to the post window?
Yes, very easily.
OPEN
includes/functions_post.php
FIND
- Code: Select all
$inline_columns = 4;
$inline_rows = 5;
$window_columns = 8;
The $inline_ numbers determine the number of columns and rows displayed to the left of the post window (in this case 4 columns and 5 rows giving a total of 20 smilies visible) and the $window_columns parameter is the number of columns in the 'show more emoticons' window.