How to Make Keyboard Hearts & Hugs

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Emoticons convey emotions in online chat.

Emoticons have been around since before the birth of the Internet. They are the primary way of conveying feelings and emotions through instant messaging programs and Internet chat rooms. There are literally dozens of different types and, while many instant messaging programs have their own selection of emoticons, the basic text-based emoticons are universal and can be entered anywhere where you can enter text. Be aware, however, that hearts and hugs emoticons in basic text form are not known by a great number of people, since graphical emoticons are dominant in most programs these days.

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Step 1

Create a basic "Hug" emoticon simply by using brackets with a space between them or the name of a person between them. If the person to whom you are writing the emoticon does not recognize it, you can follow it up by the well-known "kiss" emoticon :* .

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Step 2

Type "(h)" or "(hug)" into your instant messaging program. In many programs, such as Skype, this will be automatically converted into a graphical emoticon representing a hug.

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Step 3

Enter a heart emoticon by pressing "<3." This is the most common text-based heart emoticon and, in many instant messaging programs, such as Google Chat, it will be automatically turned into a graphical emoticon.

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Step 4

Press and hold "Alt-3" on your keyboard. This will enter the "♥" symbol. Be aware, however, that some programs may not be able to display this symbol properly.

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