Email in Landscape Mode: No Rooting Required! 70
Gennadiy sends in a tip that's in the same vein as the now-famous Konami Code developer mode trick, but is much more useful to your average user: viewing email in Landscape mode!
Here's how: when in your mailbox listing view (i.e. the top of the email app), type in RocknRollHax. It helps if you hold down Shift+ the key for the capitalized letters instead of hitting them in sequence. As Gennadiy writes, type as follows:
Hold Shift + R
ockn
Hold Shift + R
oll
Hold Shift + H
ax
Do that, and suddenly you can rotate your Pre in either the message listing mode or while looking at a specific email and view it in Landscape mode. Very helpful for those HTML-coded messages. Note however that the menu disappears when in landscape mode (just like it does in the browser). Update: As jhoff80 notes in the comments, unlike the landscape browser, scrolling the gesture area doesn't work here.
Unfortunately, this method doesn't appear to 'stick' after you've closed the email app. If you want it to be permanent, jblebrun at the Pre Dev Wiki has the details for you Pre-rooters for keeping landscape mode permanent. Kudos also to FXDemolisher for the RocknRollHax trick!
Thanks, Gennadiy!
70 Comments
Also, no gesture area scrolling this way, like you can in the browser.
Good point! Will update article
i was just wishing for this functionality this morning..thanks pre fairies.
This is a very important feature and I am glad it has been discovered. It's only a matter of time before others start to discover these hidden easter eggs within WebOs. Keep up the good work!
I sure hope the reason this functionality was not available by default was simply due to incomplete testing or development and not because it was missing from the original design.
Great find! It looks like webOS has a great future.
RocknRollHax. I love it.
cant's get it to work...hmmm
also would love something similar for viewing pdfs
use caps for RRH
Landscape w/PDFs would make them enjoyable to read.
I cant get this to work either....help?
soooo coool
Hoping for some text Forwarding real soon, it's driven my crazy without it!!
Thank you so much. It works nicely.
Ok, you have to open the email app. Now on the screen where is says all inboxes etc, type in RocknRollHax. I think this is the trick... Don't push shift and then the letter like you normally do, make sure you push the shift button and the letter at the same time. Once you type it out try rotating and you'll be set
Ok, you have to open the email app. Now on the screen where is says all inboxes etc, type in RocknRollHax. I think this is the trick... Don't push shift and then the letter like you normally do, make sure you push the shift button and the letter at the same time. Once you type it out try rotating and you'll be set
Oh, that helped. Thanks.
This is so awesome! The beauty is that I will never have to close the app! Maybe they will have an permanent auto-rotating update in the next WebOS update. Does any other phone's email auto-rotate and pinch-zoom? I know iPhone's email pinch-zooms, but can't touch Palm's email synergy
yea i don't plan on closing it either lol. nice to have the landscape view.
Also goes into Landscape mode even when not in full screen mode. Very cool. Thanks.
OK Palm, if you are monitoring any of this.... time to clean up (enable menu and enable side gestures) and enable this option, by default, in the next update!
Like most people, I don't really understand why this wasn't an option to begin with.
While on the topic, wouldn't it be nice if you could rotate the screen when selecting video so you don't have to rotate, play, rotate select, rotate play?
Why in the world would you want to watch a video in portrait view? When selecting a video you select in portrait mode, then rotate once.
Like most people, viewing emails in landscape mode is not that useful unless you have a lot of html content in the email (pictures, etc), which most email doesn't. Next you will want an on screen keyboard for typing emails in landscape mode, when typing in portrait mode is more practical. Think practicality first before you go complaining about lack of little "neat" conveniences, or go looking to duplicate some of iPhone's stupid little bells and whistles. Next you will want landscape mode in every application and an on screen keyboard in every app, which would completely defeat the point of having a physical keyboard. A physical keyboard is hallmark of Palm's and much easier and faster to use than an onscreen!
You didn't read what I posted...
I said I wanted the *file list* also in landscape. Thus, you can browse, select and watch then return to the list and watch something else without having to constantly rotate the screen.
And yes, I *do* want an on-screen keyboard in landscape mode and EVERY mode. It might be nice to have a tiny tiny physical keyboard that can only be used in portrait mode, but I would like the ability to use a larger on-screen one also- in both modes.
To me, more choices are better. Of course, none of these enhancements are anywhere NEAR as important as having a "nag" mode for the alerts.
Does it really matter why he'd want it to? I don't think you or anybody else is in any position for him to need to justify what he wants and why he wants it.
"A physical keyboard is hallmark of Palm's"
You apparently don't remember the days of Graffiti...
Back in the day I used Graffiti so much it actually modified my physical handwriting style :-). How cool would it be to bring back Graffiti as a WebOS input option? ROTFL!!
oh this is just too cool.
Very cool! Now to make it permanent...FYI I saw a tip on the Palm forums that pressing the volume up/down while in landscape mode allows you to select the menu (both in the browser and email...)
Any more codes? How was this one found?
... and why is this not default?!?!?! reading long emails, word docs and pdf's in landscape would be perfect, ENABLE GESTURE AREA SCROLLING, please please please!! I hope palm is reading this.
Reading long emails, word docs and pdf's in landscape mode will not shorten your text fields! It just resizes the text and app to a new screen proportion! Why is this so important to you? You can already pinch to zoom in all these apps!
Uh, Ecoteric, PDFs do no reflow when we zoom in to a legible size forcing us to to scroll back and forth and back and forth, ad nauseum. A landscape viewing option would minimize that if not eliminate it. HTML emails, the same.
My point is that text does not reformat in an screen rotatable application! On the Pre, Iphone, or any device! I simply blows up the screen and rotates the width to fit the length screen. Long emails are still just as long, just bigger text. You would still be "forced" to scroll just as long down any page. Talk about being overdramatic! "Forced". Give me a break!
Imagine if you rotated the type on a piece of paper, then scaled up the width of the text field to fit the length of the paper, then elongated the entire type field to scroll off the width of that same piece of paper. That's all is happening. So in essence you would have to scroll MORE for landscape mode, because the overall screen image would be bigger and fit less on the shorter width of the screen! So for long emails or documents, portrait mode makes much much more sense than landscape. For example, go to the blog.palm.com website. In portrait mode, it takes 5 swipe-scrolls to get to the bottom of the page. In landscape mode, it takes 9 swipe-scrolls.
RE: Not understanding landscaped email/PDF reading
Ecoteric: I think you are assuming that having larger text ("simply blows up the screen" as you put it) is of no value. It makes it easier to READ (i.e., bigger). This helps when text is *just* too small to be legible (rotating can give just enough to not have to zoom). Poor legibility can be caused by poor eyesight, or it's just too small for the screen resolution. Either way, there is value for having a wider area to display text for those applications.
It might not make sense to you, but try to think about it from another users perspective -- Before you get so "overdramatic" as you put it. :)
Did I ever say that landscape view was a bad thing or had no value or was a bad idea or anything negative towards wanting landscape view? NO! In fact, I even said in another posting, "I want to read emails in landscape just the same! I'm just trying to dispell the misconceptions about landscape mode formatting."
No duh that it is good to have a widescreen view for small text viewing! My point was that landscape mode doesn't make long emails, and the like, any shorter to scroll through, it actually makes them longer!! The previous poster was being overdramtic when he said that we shouldn't be "forced" to scroll over and over through the portrait mode in long emails and that a landscape mode would eliminate that, when in all actuality landscape mode makes long emails longer. Then I used the blog.palm.com website example to prove that fact. So don't go trying to paint me as being closed minded or unempathetic, because I never said landscape mode was a bad thing, it's just not what most think it is.
Why do you care so much, if folks want to read their emails in landscape view then they should be able to do it, it's simple preference...
I don't "care" that people want to read emails in landscape or not! I want to read emails in landscape just the same! I'm just to dispell the misconceptions about landscape mode formatting. What you see is exactly the same in portrait or landscape, just different proportion.
YES!!! Thank you Gennadiy!
I can't get this to work???
I did the caps and everything and it doesn't rotate.
I was having problems as well, and then I closed and restarted email. Entered the code, and it worked.
I don't know about letaplareh, but that worked for me. Thanks!
There's a hack on the dev wiki for enabling landscape mode in the PDF Viewer, as well.
for those having problems doing this, just make sure to hit the shift button (once) and the "R" at the same time. Don't push shift and then the letter like you normally do, make sure you push the shift button and the letter at the same time. Once you type it out try rotating and you'll be set.
But yes, I would like to see this and other similar things in a future update, it is weird why it is not on already
Ok, this is cool, but definitely weird that my text is not supersized.. rending the whole point of going landscape a little useless... i wanted to read longer lines of text, this doesn't help =)
Hopefully this is a sign for things to come. c'mon palm...
the Gesture scrolling does work initially, but once you go into a new scene, it stops working. Perhaps why it's not enabled by default?
The Preferences & Accounts menu also rotates. Browser Prefs do not.
Palm is earning themselves some street cred with these codes, but yeah, these hacks need to become optional features.
If I had to wager a guess, I'd say this feature isn't permanently enabled because they haven't finished shaking out the bugs and fully integrating the experience people expect. The gestures support being incomplete is a good example of this.
It's nifty to be able to try it out, though, even in it's incomplete format.
I think i know why this isn't a real feature yet. I had mine set up last night and went to bed with it charging on the touchstone. When I got up this morning it was frozen with the email app half on the screen and in landscape. I'm not sure what happened, but it then rebooted. I have yet to have my pre freeze or crash until doing this. Hopefully they shake any bugs out and get us all of these great features (more landscape, more app pages, uninstall nascar, forward texts, send texts to more than one person).
You can definately send new text to more than one person. Just open a new conversation bubble, and select from the contacts list. You think a firmware update should include an uninstall of a default/native app just because you don't use it? Are you serious? This a Sprint phone.
why are you so condescending to people just because they have suggestions you didnt think of or dont agree with. its really annoying. are you here to help or not.
I CAN NOT GET THIS TO WORK IF MY LIFE DEPENDED ON IT DO YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE KONAMI CODE TURNED ON IN ORDER FOR THIS TO WORK ???
Open the email app anew. Open the slide-out keyboard. Hold down the shift key and press 'R'. Then normally type 'ockn'. And so on.
If you let go of the shift key then press 'R', it will not work. Make sure to hold the shift key while pressing the capital letters.
Great!! Now would somebody please find a KeyCapsHak... That's the most important input addition needed for the Pre.
You mean capslock/orange lock? Hit them twice.
No. I dont want to have to hit the orange button every time i need a cap. Like on the Treo, KeyCapsHack lets you cap a letter just by holding that button a second longer than you normally would. Double tap any letter would act like the orange button on the Pre.
SOO Cool! And so easy once I quit doing symbol key instead of caps :-)
I may try typing this in some other places just to see what happens... Any ideas on that?
Sweeettt... Finally got it to work, after following Ecoteric tips (hold down the shift key worked for me, opposed to the simultaneous pressing of both buttons). So big ups to Ecoteric, and this feels so nostalgic to my Super Nintendo codes.
To enter landscape mode you have to open the email client and enter the following
I was working just fine until the new update..Anyone having the same problem?
I cant get this to work for some reason and i have no clue why.
Yeah this hasn't worked for me since the 1.04 update. Its a shame. Hopefully this will be fully implemented in the 1.05 update.
Hey guys, just do it all caps now and it works again! Until the next update at least! :) Lovin my new Pre, apple better watch its back!
Dang....I can't get mine to work. Are the words supposed to show when you type or is it hidden and just starts to work? I don't see anything when I start typing.....can someone please help? Thanks.
im not getting it at all,,,,thats a good question, are the words supposed to appear?
is there an easier way than writing code into the phone for the pdf viewer landscape patch? there has to be something we can download to repair the application right? I've successfully rooted my pre and downloaded all the homebrew apps, even the non-ipk ones. what I'm missing is some instructions on how to do the patch (how to edit the file to begin with). i'm referring to this:
http://www.webos-internals.org/wiki/Patch_PDF_Viewer_Change_Orientation
Just found this post today...but it's not working for me. I've read and re-read the posts and comments, and amdoing everything as specifically instructed (I think), but to no avail. Can someone tell me if this code still works.
No longer works with 1.2
darn...thanx, tho
nope, not working for me either
Works fine with 1.2, I just did it, it did take me a few times...if you mess up you need to exit out of email and then go back in. Hint... you must hit shift and leters at the same time and type it in somewhat fast... just tested it again and found this to work best.
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