emojiiosmacosunicode
Where can I find an explained list of emoji (emoticons) used in iOS for use on Mac OS X?
Some of them are not quite clear and I would like to see their base meaning (I know that you are free to use them, still as the glyphs they should have an Unicode name).
The only workaround I've found is to use accessibility zoom; old man style.
The problem persists in Yosemite 10.10.3 with the new Emoji picker.
Ctrl+Option+Space in 10.9.x brings up a quick access to special characters in line where you're typing —throughout most every app.
The search algorithm is the same of course, which it seems relies on how the charicter is tagged rather than a smart search throughout.
Still, in general, I have found the quick access shortcut and search to work well for most things. If you start typing while the special char fly out is open it will run a search.
Interestingly, While it seems that some older special characters like π have names that need to be entered exactly to search for them "small greek letter pi = π", emoji will display if just part of the name is searched. "Person with blond hair=?" can be searched just by typing in blond.
Best Answer
First, in System Preferences, under the Keyboard tab of the Keyboard Preference Pane, be sure Show Keyboard and Character Viewers in menu bar is checked.
Then, from the Keyboard menu in the menu bar, select Show Character Viewer. In the Character viewer pane, select Emoji. When you select an Emoji, on the right side of the pane, you get a large graphic of the Emoji and a text explanation of the shape.