Emoticons are actually a part of the WordPress installation.

The path to the actual images is wp-includes/images/smilies.

If your text emoticons don’t turn into picture emoticons once your post or page is published that means you don’t have that feature enabled. In order to do so, follow these steps:

1. From the Dashboard, go to Settings > Writing
2. In the Formatting section, check the box for “Convert emoticons like : – ) and : – P to graphics on display”

Icon	Text	Text	Full Text	Icon	Full Text
	: )	: – )	: smile :		: lol :
	: D	: – D	: grin :		: oops :
	: (	: – (	: sad :		: cry :
	: o	: – o	: eek :		: evil :
	8 O	8 – O	: shock :		: twisted :
	: ?	: – ?	: ??? :		: roll :
	8 )	8 – )	: cool :		: ! :
	: x	: – x	: mad :		: ? :
	: P	: – P	: razz :		: idea :
	: |	: – |	: neutral :		: arrow :
	; )	; – )	: wink :		: mrgreen :
There should be no spaces between characters. I put them there, so the text emoticons wouldn’t turn into image emoticons.

There are also WordPress plugins that will allow you to create even more emoticons.

If you really want to be creative, you can replace the emoticons that appear in the wp-includes/images/smilies folder with your own images. Make sure to keep the same name for the emoticon, even if you change the image.

Keep on smilies.

OK, that was corny. Haha.