Adding pauses to a phone number / Speed Dial 17
by Adam Marks Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:59 am EDT
If you have any phone numbers that require you to type in PIN numbers (e.g. for voicemail or a conference calls) or phone extensions, you should consider adding pauses to the number. There are 2 types of pauses you can enter:
- Timed Pause: waits a few seconds before dialing the next set of numbers
- Hard Pause: waits for the user to indicate when to continue dialing the next set of num
bers
To add these to a number, just type a "t" for a timed pause or a "p" for a hard pause. When trying to dial directly from the phone app, you will not be able to dial a "t" from the physical keyboard since the "t" shares a key with the number 3. Instead, you can press-and-hold the "*" key (either on the screen or on the keyboard) to insert a "t" or you can press-and-hold the "#" key for a "p". The example to the right is what happens when you dial: 234-555-6789p12345t987
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17 Comments
I guess would be great for calling cards
And the group training/conference call common numbers. Can have each individual conference call programmed in instead of having to manually dial specific code each time.
you would need to program the specific codes into each contact. So if the standard call in was 888-555-1111, but Joe was 1234, Jim as 5678 and Jane was 9876, would do the following:
In Joe's contact: 8885551111p1234
In Jim's contact: 8885551111p5678
In Jane's contact: 8885551111p9876
does that answer your question?
Awesome
This is a really good tip especially for VZW customers as we have passwords to access voicemail. I set up a speed dial for *86tXXXX# and it worked really well for me (XXXX would be where you would put your own passcode). Does anyone know if this can be done for the voicemail button on the dialer screen? It would be cleaner and not take up a speed dial but still a great tip regardless!!!
Not sure how to update the VM button, for anyone who needs it, here is how to set a NEW speeddial: http://www.precentral.net/set-speed-dial
This is great for Verizon voicemail where there's no way to turn off the requirement for entering a pin code every single time voicemail is accessed. Now we just need a patch to allow changes to the voicemail number that's dialed automatically when a voicemail notification or the voicemail button in the phone app is pressed.
Looks like the poster above me can type faster than I can!
what benefits it provide. i don't understand
what is a pause
You're joking, right?
Jeez. Thought webOS was supposed to make things easier. Why are so many of these little tricks performed with such arbitrary and obscure keystrokes???
Those 'arbitrary' keys are only needed when typing from the phone interface itself. This is understandable because you are dialing so the phone is designed to assume you are entering numbers, not letters.
Instead, add the phone number as a contact and then all you have to remember is to insert 'p' for hard pause and 't' for a timed pause. This use case is way more common than dialing directly from the phone app. It's super simple.
What a great tip. I have a conference bridge that requires a boatload of typing:
1. Dial 11 digit phone number, pause
2. Enter 10 digit meeting number, pause
3. Enter * for host, then enter 4 digit leader PIN, pause
4. Enter 1 to start meeting, pause
5. Say name, enter # (this last step I just do manually)
Awesome! I just entered digits and p's for hard pauses into the contact card for my bridge number. It worked like a charm!
Yep, that one's going to save some time on conference bridges
Thanks
My phone turns the t's to upper case T ! this seems to stop it from being recognised - any comment - I have a Pre 2 with 2.1 any characters are upper cased
I haven't tried this yet, but after a hard pause, how do you get it to dial the next set of numbers?