Help needed on changing homescreens

[carlheizer]

Can somebody help me here. These screen shots look great. But I have no idea how to do this. Are these being done on a PC and then copied to the phone? Or done on the phone? Do I need a plug in? How do I get a plug in? I particularly like Kris Kumar's screen on post 1498 where the icons are smaller and on two lines? How does this happen? Can I get a walk thru step by step? Thanks.

[Mike Temporale]

Can somebody help me here. These screen shots look great. But I have no idea how to do this. Are these being done on a PC and then copied to the phone? Or done on the phone? Do I need a plug in? How do I get a plug in? I particularly like Kris Kumar's screen on post 1498 where the icons are smaller and on two lines? How does this happen? Can I get a walk thru step by step? Thanks.

Sure,

Step 1 - Download Homescreen Designer (http://www.smartphone.net/smartphonethoughts/software_detail.asp?id=870)
Step 2 - You're done. :wink:

Seriously, Unless you have some desire for pain, there is no easier way. You could manually edit all the files, but it's a huge pain in the rear-end. Homescreen Designer gives you a WYSIWYG editor for creating and uploading your homescreens from your PC to your phone.

If you don't want to make them, you can just download one. Check out Smartphone Themes (http://www.smartphonethemes.com) and kleinweder's web site (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5131) for a nice collection of cool themes.

[carlheizer]

OK, I downloaded it and I will give it a go. While I like all the themes in the link, none showed the minature icons which Kumar was able to show. I will let you know what happens. Thanks for the response.

[Mike Temporale]

none showed the minature icons which Kumar was able to show.

What? Did you check out Kleinweder's site? All of his themes are using the small icons. For the most part, that's all I use on my phone. 8)

Smartphone Themes is more geared towards the baisc homescreen layout, so I'm not surprised if you don't see any with smaller icons there.

[Kris Kumar]

The two icons on my home screen are as follows...

Second Row: shows my favorite apps, it is a quick launch bar. It requires a plugin to be installed. The name of the plugin is RJShortcuts. It can be downloaded here (http://smartphone.peakin.com/) and the details to modify the home screen can be found here. (http://smartphone.peakin.com/download/rjshortcut/readme.html)

This plugin I believe (not sure) ships with a sample home screen that is similar to mine. So you should be able to play with it or use it as it is. ;-)

First Row: shows the most recently used apps (MRU) and the icon list is built by the OS itself. I just reduced the size to small, default is large icons. Instructions to do it can be found here. (http://smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5058)

As Mike mentioned, it is not easy if you are a first timer. But with little bit of pain you will be very happy. :-)

Happy HomeScreening. :-)

[carlheizer]

Wow, fantastic!!! Thanks. But another question. Suppose I want to go back to the original screen becasue it has an icon for Xpress Mail which I do not want to lose. Can I go back to the orginal or how would I continue to use the Xpress Mail icon?

[Kris Kumar]

Xpress Mail: there are two parts to this one. The new mail count indicator, I don't think you have to do anything special to get that. Anytime you have a new Xpress Mail, it will automatically show the count. Just make sure you have section with the following plugin:

<plugin clsid="{8486CC1E-025B-4888-9C76-048DF7C1787D}" name="msgcount2" ....... />

Look for account="sms" and account="others" under the above plugin.

Next, Xpress Mail performs periodic sync of email. That is triggered using the following plugin. So make sure that if you are not using the original Cingular home screen, then copy plugin line from the Cingular home screen into your new one. The line you need to copy looks like this one:

<plugin clsid="{1237A231-5D10-4d97-8D59-6A9DCA0653A9}" name="getmail" height="20"/>

[carlheizer]

I am still having a tough time here. Apparently, my mpx220 has a somewhat different file structure. I cannot find IPSM\Application Data\home. Is that only for the mpx200??? I have downloaded three screen shots - one from Microsoft and two from kleinweder to my PC. Then I copied and pasted them from the PC to storage\application data\home on my mpx220. Then I went to start>settings>home screen and they are not there. I was able to download RJshort but it lays over the top of my default screen. I have played with homescreen designer but have not installed any as yet. Gun shy I guess. Will I always have the default sceen to go back to?

Any help you guys can give will be appreciated.

[Kris Kumar]

"IPSM" has been renamed to "Storage" in the newer Smartphone OS :-)

So the correct path is "Storage\Application Data\Home".

If you copy the homescreen XML files to the above folder, you should see them in the Settings->Home Screen. If not, then the edits that were made to the these new XML files are not valid. Or these XML files were not valid home screen XML files to begin with (corrupted). :? Another reason could be that the home screen names, the ones specified inside <title> tags are the same for the new home screen files.

Oh...don't worry to pull the trigger on the Homescreen Designer. It probably is the wisest thing to do. ;-) And the safest.

[carlheizer]

Baby steps. I now found full.home.xml in windows folder. I copied it to the PC desktop, renamed it myfull.home.xml and made the changes to MRU. I did not find title lang= full layout to make changes to that. I then saved it and copied it to windows folder. But when I launch start>settings> home screen, it is not there. Now what am I doing wrong?

[Mike Temporale]

I have downloaded three screen shots - one from Microsoft and two from kleinweder to my PC. Then I copied and pasted them from the PC to storage\application data\home on my mpx220. Then I went to start>settings>home screen and they are not there.

Did you unpack them? Kleinweder compresses his themes using RAR. You'll have to un-rar them to XML and JPGs before coping them over.

[carlheizer]

doooooooooooogh. :oops: (I can't get the emoticons to work!) I should have known that. But I have never heard of rar. So how does one un-rar them to xml and then to jpg???

[Mike Temporale]

So how does one un-rar them

Check out this post. (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=36736#36736) I found a free tool on Download.com that does a great job.

[Mike Temporale]

Just to let you guys know, I have split this discussion off from the original thread, which can be found here. (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=47505#47505)

[Kris Kumar]

I have downloaded three screen shots - one from Microsoft and two from kleinweder to my PC. Then I copied and pasted them from the PC to storage\application data\home on my mpx220. Then I went to start>settings>home screen and they are not there.

Did you unpack them? Kleinweder compresses his themes using RAR. You'll have to un-rar them to XML and JPGs before coping them over.

Wow Mike! You are proper Sherlock Holmes. 8)

[Kris Kumar]

Just to let you guys know, I have split this discussion off from the original thread, which can be found here. (http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=47505#47505)

Very appropriate. Will have to learn how to do that from you someday.