This tutorial demonstrates how to open the "emote_user.dat" file, and edit an emote. 

1. Opening the file
 Click on "File" in EmotePad's main menu to display the File menu. Click on the " Open" option from the menu.

The default location for the "emote_user.dat" file is "C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger". Browse to that location by first selecting "Local Disk (C:)" from the "Look in:" drop down list. Then double-click the folder named "Program Files", next double-click the folder named "Yahoo!", and finally double-click the folder named "Messenger".

Select the file named "emote_user.dat" and click the "Open" button. Emotepad will open the file and list all of its emotes. There is only one emote in this file, and it is named "Custom". (This tutorial uses the default version of the "emote_user.dat" file.)

2. Editing an emote
Click on "Custom" from the list of emotes on the left. The content of the emote appears in EmotePad's "Edit View". Like most emotes, this one has two parts. A "Room" emote at the top, and a "User" emote at the bottom. The Room emote begins with "Hey room", whereas the User emote begins with "Hey %s". They both use a tiny purple font, but we are going to change that.

Set the cursor in the Room emote section by clicking on the top edit box. Then click the " Select All" button from the toolbar. EmotePad will highlight all the text in the top box.

Click on the " Font" button from the toolbar to open the font selection dialog window. Select "Arial" from the font list. Select "Bold" from the font styles. Select "12" for the size. Then click the "OK" button.

The font used for the Room emote changes to Arial, Bold, size 12. While the text is still highlighted, change the color of the text to black. Click the small arrow on the " Color" button from the toolbar, and select "Black" from the Color menu.

Move the edit cursor to the end of the emote, and add some text to the end by typing from the keyboard.

Inserting a couple of "Special" characters from a graphic font is easy to do. Click the " Special" button from the toolbar. When the "Insert Special" window appears, right-click on the character selection area to view the popup menu. Select the " Font" option from the popup menu.

Select "Wingdings" from the font list. Select "Bold" from the font style. Set the Size to "12". Click the "OK" button.

The "Insert Special" window will load the Wingdings font. Select a character, and double-click it. It will be added to the smaller copy box on the bottom. I have added two characters from the Wingdings font. Once you have the characters you want, click the "Copy" button.

The two characters are copied to the emote. Select the first of the "Special" characters, and click the "Cut" button from the toolbar. This will remove that character from the emote, and store it in the clipboard (memory).

Move the edit cursor in front of the word "EmotePad", and click the " Paste" button from the toolbar. This will put the "Special" character, that was placed on the clipboard, back into the emote in a new position.

Change the color of the "Special" characters by highlighting one of them, then select "Orange" from the "Color" menu.

Change both of the "Special" characters to orange.

Now highlight the word "EmotePad" from the emote, and change its color to blue.

The edited emote should now look like this.

Move the edit cursor to the Room emote (top) box and click the " Select All" button from the toolbar. Then click the " Copy" button from the toolbar. This will place a copy of the highlighted text into the clipboard.

Move the edit cursor to the User emote (bottom) box, and click the " Select All" button from the toolbar. All of the text in the User emote section will be highlighted. 

Then click the " Paste" button from the toolbar. This will replace the highlighted text with the text that was copied into the clipboard. The User emote (bottom) now looks the same as the Room emote (top). They both begin with "Hey room".

Highlight the word "room" in the User emote (bottom).

Change it back to "%s" by typing from the keyboard. Now the User emote (bottom) begins with "Hey %s" as it did before. When you use this emote in a chat room, the "%s" will be replaced by the user's name you select in the chat room.

3. Saving the file

Save the file by clicking on the " Save File" button from the toolbar. The next time you open a chat room window, your newly edited "Custom" emote will be available.

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