First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

Alright... I'm going to put this out there up front. I so far hate this phone. As a bit of background, I've been a treo user for years. 650->700->755 (and i've fiddled with the 800 a bit). Palm OS is old, ugly, and desperately needs an upgrade... but man, its fast.

To send a text message, i hit the "message" hardkey, and "new" on the screen, immediately start typing a contact name, and be in the text in about 3 seconds in total.

Here (again, best I can tell, please let me know if there is a faster way to do things)... I slide the phone open, either hit the txt button, or hit "messages" on the front of the screen. Hit the right onscreen button "menu", hit new, start typing the name, then go down and msg. All told, its easily about 15 seconds... Is there any easier way? I mean, if I could get the "reply" button at the bottom of the message screen to just be "new", that would save me a step, but is there a faster way?

In a similar vein, contact searching in Palm OS was the same way. I hit the home screen, and type a couple letters on the contact name, and hit the center key, and boom, its dialing. Here, (assuming I want to use the hardkeys, which I do... not a fan of onscreen jazz). Slide the board open, start typing (lags quite a bit here, probably cause I have sizeable contacts), then i guess hit the screen where the name is displayed. Is there a physical button i can press when have narrowed it down to 1 contact?

How about alerts? Palm had a nice "alerts" screen that you could check fairly easily, and was defaulted when coming out of keyguard (which, speaking of keyguard, i love how this phone doesnt really have one).... How in lords name do i clear out all alerts? Do i really have to open outlook, and physically open every e-mail to make the yellow number in TF3D go away? Same thing with text messages...

And how about the fonts? It seems like every other text I open is a different font size... and that drives me nuts. Is there some touchscreen way that I'm changing the font size.... Can I somehow disable that?

Overall, TF3D is beautiful, and it is arguably pretty quick... But I'd trade in speed and ease of use over looks any day... and I'm starting to think this phone isn't for me :/

I'd appreciate any feedback anyones got, thanks

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

Patience my friend. You will find the beauty of the phone is not what you got from Sprint but what you can get from here. These guys are already customizing this beast to make it 100% better than what Sprint gave us. Stay tuned and keep your eyes open and your mind open.

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

ok Keygaurd yes. You can enable lock to be set to when you hold end down it automatically locks or presents you with another menu option including lock.


Touch flo does not have to be used and you can just enable txt messages as a today item. This should take you directly to your inbox, or in TF3D you can choose the inbox option.

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

Text message: In TF3D, thumb over to text messages and then menu>new.

Contacts: Press the talk button and use the onscreen number keypad to spell out the contact name T9 style. It will automatically display matching contacts below the entered digits display. Use the d-pad to scroll through the list.

Alerts: Click on the alert icon in the taskbar and select the proper alert. Then just tap menu>dismiss.

Keyguard: Search for SensorLock in Google and give it a whirl.

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

For a new text, I go to the text tab in TF3D and hit the "new text message" icon that is just below and to the right of the "Messages" header. The blank new message opens with the curser blinking in the "To:" field, I flip to landscape, slide open the keyboard, and start typing. Proper contact name appears after 1 or 2 letters, then "enter" > "tab" to type the body of the text. Better?

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

Wow, I am a Palm user coming to the Touch Pro as well. I have had the TP 6 days now, and I have not activated it as yet. I am still using my Palm Centro. I enjoy playing with the TP though, I am just not ready to use it as yet, because I do no think that it is at the same level as my Centro. I want to customize it for me enough to be comparable to my Centro before switching over to it. I too have a HUGE problem with the speed of the speed of the TP. My Centro feels like it can run circles around the TP. I wanted to take it back after one day. It is growing on me more everyday, and everyone says to 'just give it some time'. I do love it though, but I am just not ready to switch over as yet until it gets some more customization.

I like this tread. It has given me some good hints.

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

^^^^^^^^^sale it to me ;)

-Chez

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

to clear the message counter icon in emial there is a cab file called inbox extender or something... here I'll post it (got it from someone on these boards). This adds the option in the menu tab to mark all as read.
NOTE: change file extention from "zip" to "cab" as it is a cab file.

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

For the easiest way to dial out - use Voice Command. Hold down the send button (hard button bottom left looks like a phone with ends pointed up) for a couple of seconds. You'll hear a funny beep and see a small microphone appear at the top of the screen. Holding the phone at least 6 inches away from your mouth (more if your voice booms) say "Call firstname lastname at Work" You'll hear it reapeted back. If it's right, say yes and it starts dialing, if it's wrong, say no and try again. You'll get used to this very quickly, it's great when you're driving. No need to look at the screen. If you use a blue tooth headset you should be able to hold down the send button on the headset and do the same thing.

Barb

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

The Touch Pro will probably never be as fast as Palms and or similarly designed devices. That said, Palms will probably never be as powerful or customizable as a WM phone either. it's a trade off that you have to decide when going into these things.

WM can be customized to make many things easier and it can be made to be faster but in reality it just won't be what you are expecting. If you expected to come from a Palm into a WM phone and it to be just like your Palm, then you should probably just send it back for a Palm. I am curious as to why you decided to change to a WB phone in the first place?

In no way is this ment to be disrespectful. I totally hear your points and can even relate to some degree but the change for me was made easier knowing already what the major differences between these phones are.

This is in some ways like trying to relate a Diesel truck to a VW bug :) They both allow you to get from point A to point B but one will pull stumps while doing it :headbang:

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

Hrm, I've got to wait till I have an alert to clear, but hopefully ill see that menu you are talking about.

Thanks for the tips on a better way to get to text... while I really don't like sliding through touch flo, functions including in the first 5 icons (so I dont have to scroll) dont really bother me...

Anyone got anymore productivity hints? Way to do things faster?

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

EDIT: That touch screen dialing method is completely not what I was looking for, but a wonderful substitute.... I'll have to adjust the brain a bit... but I think that could suit me perfectly :D

wow, edit fail D;

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

You are asking me the exact same questions I'm asking myself... I wanted a new device (just time for a new toy). This screen is beautiful, Palm OS is old as hell, Sprint hasn't confirmed a Treo Pro yet, and I wasn't ready to go fully touchscreen.

I went through the same thing when i got Guitar Hero World Tour... It wasn't rock band, and that pissed me off... then i learned to appreciate the differences.... Or the first time I got a macbook.

I'll give it time, it is just a bit frustrating O_o

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

I'm also coming from the centro and feel the same. I'm keeping the touch pro. While the centro is awsome, time is not on palm's side.

Palm will ditch the palm os soon. The centro gave it a wheel chair to keep it rolling. Time to move on.

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

Another centro convert here. Centro was my first palm os after several wm devices. I didn't realize how much I liked the speed of the centro, and all the quirks of this thing--like lag ending up opening the wrong program--are kinda buggin me. I came back to WM because this phone is the complete package (FINALLY), and people convinced me that this device could push the windows. I have to admit I am a little dissapointed on how clumsey it make me feel, but I've only had it a couple days. I'll just have to get to cust-o-mizen.

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

As you can see from my phone history, I have just recently come from my 700p, but I did have the 6700 and 6800...then got my Treo, it broke, had to go back to my 6800 and then back to my Treo, until I finally got my TP.

I hated the 6700 and thought the 6800 was going to be better, in ways it was, but overall it was pretty much the same...I loved the simplicity and ease of my Treo, but the TP has re-instilled my confidence in WinMo, especially with TF3D...so I feel you on the comfort of your Treo, but TF3D adds more depth and intuitiveness to WinMo, let's not even mention the tweaks/rom's being made for this phone, functionality will be thru the roof...

P.S. I love it stock believe it or not...

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

You have two things going against you coming from a PalmOS Treo to a Touch Pro or similar HTC model.

1. The form factor is completely different. You have to get use to doing things on screen or sliding out the keyboard. The Treo is the winner in 1 handedness here.

2. You are changing operating systems from a very simple one to a much more powerful, but less user friendly one.

Luckily, I only made those changes one at a time as I moved from a 700p to a 700wx. I was ready to throw that 700wx against a wall because it was so much more of a pain to use than the PalmOS I was use to. However, after I got use to it, I realized that I would never go back since PalmOS is so outdated. I later moved to the HTC 6800 (Mogul) which took a little getting use to, but I already knew how to use WM very well at that point. I do miss the one-handedness of the Treo form factor at times, but I really love the slide out keyboard better now.

PalmOS is nice because its simple and as long as you don't do a lot of mods to it, it works pretty well. Have you considered moving to a 800 or some other WM Treo?

Regardless of what you do, give WM some time as its not something that you can just pick up. If PalmOS works better for you then you should consider going back. I got my wife a Touch Pro, but she may go back to her BlackBerry because it just works for her.

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

I am now in love with this TP. I still have my Centro, and I switch back my account to my Centro in the nights when I want to talk to my girlfriend and play with my TP at the same time. I can not be installing/tweaking while talking to her when I need to do resets and stuff. I still love my Centro, but I do love gadgets, and I am having a blast tweaking/installing stuff to this thing. I am getting better at finding what I want now, and I have discovered how wonderful voice dial is. I still prefer the keyboard on the Centro, and it is still taking me some time to get used to the TP's keyboard. I still make mistakes, but my speed is improving as I use it more.

Re: First time WinMo - How can you do this faster?
 

Question: How do you increase the speed of thumbing through your SMS in TF? Instead of the usual 5-8 second delay that allows you to "read" the SMS, is there a reg edit that allows you to have it say its "unread" for only a second?