Switched from PPC to SmartPhone... Questions

[mdb139]

Hi all. I have a few questions that I thought fit best into the tips & tricks category, so here goes...

I just switched from an SX66 to a 2125. So far I'm very happy with the device.

Phone numbers in calendar location: I see that I can use "p" and "w" to put in a pause or wait into a phone number. Is there a way that I can put an asterisk in? The issue is that I have conference numbers that I'd like to be something like:

800-123-4567p*123456*

(This works fine on a contact, but it's split into two fields on the calendar item). I suspect I'm screwed on that one.

Contacts: can I set the default phone number for a contact? For example, my wife has both a cell phone and our home phone. Right now her cell phone is the default number, but I almost never have to call her there. Oops. I just figured this one out. Silly me, I thought it would be from the Edit Contact screen. For anyone else that is wondering... You can use the right/left cursor from the Contact List to toggle the default.

Dialer: This is probably my biggest complaint... The Cingular dialer is UGLY. I saw some posts for the registry keys required to change the start menu background... Anyone have the dialer figured out?

Home screen: Is there a good resource to find out what standard plugins you can use on the home screen? I'm not interested in third-party plugins (at least at this point) but am considering doing my own home screen. I understand the XML stuff... Just want to know if anyone has identified all of the available (standard) plugins.

Home screen program list (mru): can you set this to be static instead of dynamic? Is there a way to at least manually update it one time (registry?) I have several programs that I removed, but they are still showing up in the MRU list (broken icons).

Thanks!

[Mike Temporale]

Phone numbers in calendar location: I see that I can use "p" and "w" to put in a pause or wait into a phone number. Is there a way that I can put an asterisk in? The issue is that I have conference numbers that I'd like to be something like:

800-123-4567p*123456*

(This works fine on a contact, but it's split into two fields on the calendar item). I suspect I'm screwed on that one.

If you press and hold the * key for a second or two it should pop up a menu and you can select Symbols and then you should be able to find a * someplace in there along with a bunch of other things. This works for any input field.

Dialer: This is probably my biggest complaint... The Cingular dialer is UGLY. I saw some posts for the registry keys required to change the start menu background... Anyone have the dialer figured out?

The dialer? I'm not sure what you're talking about here. Are you talking about the wallpaper used behind while you're on a call?

Home screen: Is there a good resource to find out what standard plugins you can use on the home screen? I'm not interested in third-party plugins (at least at this point) but am considering doing my own home screen. I understand the XML stuff... Just want to know if anyone has identified all of the available (standard) plugins.

I used to do my own homescreens, but there are so many other great free ones out there that I promptly gave up. Check out any of these sites and you'll find loads of good screens:

http://smartphone.kleinweder.ch/downloads/index.php (hands down the best on the net IMHO)
http://www.jdskins.com/
http://w411y.blogsome.com/

I'm sure there a document out there someplace that outlines the homescreen setup in detail, but I haven't seen it. Just take an exiting home screen and look at it's XML to see what it's doing.

:)

[mdb139]

Thanks for the reply Mike.


If you press and hold the * key for a second or two it should pop...

Maybe I didn't explain this correctly. I get a calendar item for a meeting for work. The number is 1-888-123-4567p*123456*. I synchronize my calendar. When I open up the calendar item on my phone, it only selects the "1-888-123-4567p" part -- not the *123456* part. So it's not a data entry issue, but a question of whether or not anyone has a trick for getting around this. Or maybe I'm the first person to have this issue.

The dialer? I'm not sure what you're talking about here. Are you talking about the wallpaper used behind while you're on a call?

I'm talking about the screen that comes up if I start dialing a number. It shows the number and my most recently called contacts/numbers.


I used to do my own homescreens, but there are so many other great free ones out there that I promptly gave up. Check out any of these sites and you'll find loads of good screens:

Thanks, I'll check those out. I believe I've looked at most of those.... My issue, I think, is that I want a consistent color scheme throughout the phone, and so I'm either going to have to use the blue that I have now or figure out how to change all of the screens (even if I'm not necessarily designing the themes).

[Mike Temporale]

Maybe I didn't explain this correctly. I get a calendar item for a meeting for work. The number is 1-888-123-4567p*123456*. I synchronize my calendar. When I open up the calendar item on my phone, it only selects the "1-888-123-4567p" part -- not the *123456* part. So it's not a data entry issue, but a question of whether or not anyone has a trick for getting around this. Or maybe I'm the first person to have this issue.

Hrm... What field is this stored in? It could be a case of the number being too long when it's sync'ed to the device. That's my guess anyway. Try creating a fake entry and just type in abcdef... then when you sync that over you can see how many characters it will hold on the phone.

I'm talking about the screen that comes up if I start dialing a number. It shows the number and my most recently called contacts/numbers.

There's a number of ways to dial contacts. I'll assume that you're just starting to dial from the home screen. The first thing you'll see is the numbers you've pressed and below that you'll see some recent call activity and then if you scroll even more you'll find contacts.

If you're saying you don't like how it shows all the recent call activity, then there's nothing that can be done - other than clearing your call history log regularly or picking another way to dial.

Thanks, I'll check those out. I believe I've looked at most of those.... My issue, I think, is that I want a consistent color scheme throughout the phone, and so I'm either going to have to use the blue that I have now or figure out how to change all of the screens (even if I'm not necessarily designing the themes).

Depending on the theme, some do manage all the system colours. Especially those created by the top guys. I'm using the latest ones from Kleinweber and they changed all my colors across the phone. Looks sharp. :D

[mdb139]

Hrm... What field is this stored in?

It's the "location" field. It's not too long -- it shows the whole number, but it only selects the first part. Anyway, there's a workaround -- create a contact with the number -- but that is maybe a little more work.

If you're saying you don't like how it shows all the recent call activity, then there's nothing that can be done - other than clearing your call history log regularly or picking another way to dial.

Cingular puts a logo at the top of the screen. I'd like to remove it or change it. It looks pretty bad even if you're using a blue color scheme, but really really bad if you're using something other than blue.

Depending on the theme, some do manage all the system colours. Especially those created by the top guys. I'm using the latest ones from Kleinweber and they changed all my colors across the phone. Looks sharp. :D

Yeah, the issue is that Cingular puts stupid background images (or what I'm assuming are background images) everywhere. So the Start Menu, for example, keeps their blue background even if I change the home page. Same with the dialer, above -- I assume it's a background image, b/c everything stays blue except for the status bar (top) and context menu (bottom).

[Mike Temporale]

Hrm... What field is this stored in?

It's the "location" field. It's not too long -- it shows the whole number, but it only selects the first part. Anyway, there's a workaround -- create a contact with the number -- but that is maybe a little more work.

I just created a test appointment and in the location field I placed "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz" in the location field and it synced to my device just fine. So I don't think it's an issue with lenght. I then edited the appointment and added a * right about the middle of that string and then re-sync'ed. It's still transfered to the device without any problems.

I'm not sure what's preventing you from seeing that. Are you using a 3rd party calendar? I checked in both Extreme Agenda and the default calendar. :?

[Mike Temporale]

Cingular puts a logo at the top of the screen. I'd like to remove it or change it. It looks pretty bad even if you're using a blue color scheme, but really really bad if you're using something other than blue.

Depending on the theme, some do manage all the system colours. Especially those created by the top guys. I'm using the latest ones from Kleinweber and they changed all my colors across the phone. Looks sharp. :D

Yeah, the issue is that Cingular puts stupid background images (or what I'm assuming are background images) everywhere. So the Start Menu, for example, keeps their blue background even if I change the home page. Same with the dialer, above -- I assume it's a background image, b/c everything stays blue except for the status bar (top) and context menu (bottom).

Ah, ok. All the branding crap. These are all stored in the reg. You can either locate the file on the device (usually in the \Windows folder) and replace them with something you like (please make a backup first!) or, edit the reg and remove the settings. I think they are stored in hkey_local_machine\software\microsoft\Splash Screen but I could be wrong.

[mdb139]

I just created a test appointment and in the location field I (snip)

No, I'm not using any third party software. I don't think we're communicating very well. Let's try this again.

First, how do you dial a number from a calendar entry? I open up the calendar item, use the joystick to select the number, and then hit talk.

Let's say the location for my meeting is "1-888-123-1234". Everything works fine.

If the location for my meeting is "1-888-123-1234p*123456*" (which happens to be the format for most of my calls) and I use the joystick to select the number, only "1-888-123-1233p" is selected -- "*123456*" is a separate selection (though it is selectable) and does not get dialed.

It's not a DISPLAY issue. It's an issue dialing the number from the calendar item.