---
title: "Email formatting, autocomplete and emoji"
description: "Format email from a bar you open when you need it, finish common phrases with Tab, and type emoji by name in the subject line or the message body."
url: "https://openemail.uk/features/writing-tools"
---

[Writing & sending](https://openemail.uk/features.md#writing)

# Writing tools out of the way until you want them.

The composer keeps its formatting bar shut until you open it, lets Tab finish a common phrase, and turns an emoji's name into the emoji.

[Open mail](https://openemail.uk/mail/inbox) [Get Started](https://openemail.uk/signup.md)[All features](https://openemail.uk/features.md)

In short

## What are writing tools in an email composer?

A composer is a text box with a send button. Writing tools are the helpers around it: formatting within reach, phrases you need not finish, characters you would otherwise hunt for.

14

buttons on the formatting bar

1,933

emoji you can type by name

64

emoticons the body converts

How it works

## The bar opens when you ask

The Formatting options button in the tool row opens it: undo and redo, three heading levels, bold, italic, underline, strike, links, images, lists and quotes.

## Finish the phrase with Tab

Begin a line with a common phrase, such as a greeting or a sign-off, and the rest appears dimmed after the cursor. Tab writes it in.

## Emoji by name, not by picker

Type :tada: in the subject line or the body and it becomes the emoji. Emoticons like :) convert in the body.

## What you can type

Names work in both fields. Emoticons work in the body only.

:tada: Party popper :rocket: Rocket :+1: Thumbs up :) Smiling face ;) Wink <3 Heart

What you get

## In the product today

Formatting on demand

Shut until you press its button. The same button closes it.

A list, not a model

Suggestions come from a fixed list of phrases. Nothing is generated.

More than one name

Many emoji answer to several names: :+1: and :thumbsup: give the same thumbs up.

Good practice

## Getting the most out of it

1. 01
   
   Leave it closed
   
   Most mail reads better plain. Open the bar for the message that needs a list.
2. 02
   
   Start on a new line
   
   Completion reads from the start of the line, so a phrase begun mid-sentence gets nothing.
3. 03
   
   Space after an emoticon
   
   In the body, :) becomes the emoji when you type the space after it.

Where it stands

## Good to know

Questions

## Asked often

Keep going

## Works well with

Templates

A body written once, versioned, and sent many times: from the composer, from your own code, or by an agent.

Signature

One sign-off for every address, and a different one for any address that needs it.

Drafts

Autosaved three seconds after you stop typing, and reopened from the Drafts folder with the recipients, the subject, the body and the From address intact. The attachments stay behind.

Start

## Your domain, your mail.

Point a domain at OpenEmail and read it in a mailbox built around it. The free plan covers one domain.

[Open mail](https://openemail.uk/mail/inbox) [Get Started](https://openemail.uk/signup.md)[Read the reference](https://openemail.uk/docs/knowledge/writing/writing-tools.md)