Geek Goddess

<p>As of the release of 4.3, WordPress removed the “Formatting” section from the Writing settings.  Included in there was the option to turn off WordPress’s default action to convert text emoticons to image smilies.  This plugin does the same thing as unchecking the “convert to smilies” box that used to be available via the settings.</p>


Keep Emoticons as Text

Disables the default WordPress option of converting emoticons to image smilies

CodeAndReload

<p>This plugin provides the option to enable/disable the usage of shortcodes in the default text widget provided by WordPress along with smilies if enabled for the blog.</p>
<h3>Support</h3>
<p>Technical support for this plugin will be provided via the WordPress plugin forum.  Additional support may be<br />
available at <a href="http://www.codeandreload.com/wp-plugins/allow-shortcodes-in-text-widgets/" title="Allow Shortcodes in Text Widgets at Code
and Reload">plugin’s homepage</a>.</p>


Allow Shortcodes in Text Widgets

This plugin provides the option to enable/disable the shortcodes in the default text widgets along with smilies.

Keep Emoticons as Text vs Allow Shortcodes in Text Widgets