I'm not griping about the way it's done now, just think it can be enhanced on the AdminCP side of things.

#1 - Hidden emoticons
You can already select to make them clickable (ie, show up next to the post box). How about viewable (on by default)? That way if you want to add an emoticon but you want it to be hidden for some reason, then you can do it. Have them as either little easter eggs, or perhaps only a few people would know of them because they shouldn't be available for the general publics common knowledge for some reason.

#2 - Update the emoticon manager
Show the emoticon, have a little menu button (like with the member management search results). In the menu, be able to enable/disable, viewable/hidden, assign/edit names for it. Yes, "names". Like using :-P and :P could both be assigned to the same file, for example.

Also being able to have 3 tabs. [Assigned] [Unassigned] [All]
Default view would be the Assigned, which would be emoticon files that have been assigned a value and are available for use. Those that are assigned but disabled could have a different colored background, much like queued/hidden posts.

same here YES on both

Sounds like a touch too much bloat to me - though the idea of hidden emoticons is nice, and I can think of a use for it already...

At the very least, I'd like to be able to have it only show active emoticons and be able to tab to the inactive/all, and be able to have multiple codes per file. (You at least in enough for that Antony?) :D

At the very least, I'd like to be able to have it only show active emoticons and be able to tab to the inactive/all, and be able to have multiple codes per file. (You at least in enough for that Antony?) :D

I certianly agree with those. Multiple codes per file especially - Uploading emoticons more than once is stupid.

Reason I'm so much for the tabbing is that it would reduce load time if you want to edit an existing emoticon, or if you want to add more.

I guess it'd be going overboard to be able to rename/delete the files of the emoticons, especially in mass quantities.