That sounds a bit convoluted Shell
I just launch the smiley pallette and choose one witha click
It will drop in where the cursor was last flashing
Then hover the mouse cursor over the smiley and it turns into a cross with points on the ends
Just click and a lot of little white squares form a "bounding box"
and if you left click and drag one of these it streeeches the sides of the box
Shimples
Big as you like