Introducing PreCentral's "Tip of the Day" 39
We are happy to announce that PreCentral's “Tip of the Day” feature. We know that there is already a whole PDF file in the Precentral forums with over 300 tips, but have found that most webOS owners either don’t know about those or don’t have the time to read through them all. With so many forum postings asking about how to do some pretty basic functions within webOS (e.g. copy/paste, save picture from web), it got us thinking…why not create a “Tip of the Day” that doesn’t require a big commitment!?
You can find it here: http://www.precentral.net/tips. Obviously we're just getting started, so there are plenty more to come. Want to suggest a tip? Great: hit us up on our contact form and select "Suggest a tip."
Do you think that you can benefit from these tips? Well, if you think about PreCentral's readers, most fall into one of three categories:
- The Power User -- You probably know how to do 99% of what the phone has to offer, and even if you don’t know how to create an app or code a patch, you understand the basic workings of webOS.
- The Casual Reader – You come to PreCentral to read the news and may occasionally check out the forums, but usually only to research a specific problem or question.
- The New User – You just got a webOS phone and are so excited, but have no idea what you are doing and find yourself with many questions.
For those hard core power users - those who have had the Pre since it was launched and already knew how to work it before we even got it in your hands - many of these may be "old hat." But for the Casual Reader and New User, these should be a great resource to learn about what webOS can do, but we also hope that there are a few nuggets of information that may even be new for the Power User!
As these tips will be targeted for the more causal user, you will not need to Homebrew, know how to install patches nor get command line access to the phone to benefit from these tips, as we are going to try and focus on tips that any user can do. However, don't be surprised if a few Homebrew-specific tips pop up here and there.
For now, we will leave you with a sample tip for today: How to take a screenshot from your phone:
Simply press Option (orange or silver key) + Sym + P at the same time. You will find a copy of the screenshot (as a .png file) in the "Screen captures” folder in the Photos app and the "screencaptures" directory on your USB Drive
Keep an eye out on the Precentral.net homepage for these daily tips, or check out http://www.precentral.net/tips for the full list. And if you have a suggestion to add to this Tips gallery, contact us and select "Suggest a tip"
39 Comments
Good initiative, that I presume many new users (and some seasoned) will appreciate and find quite useful.
If you'd like a vector of the Pre keyboard for easier production of shortcut-visualization, let me know.
That sounds good... but what exactly is a "vector of the Pre keyboard"?
I think he means a vector-based graphic as opposed to a bitmap-based one. Vector graphics can scale better and take up less space.
Easily and quickly edited and exported. After all, a hassle-free usage is depending on a bitmap output.
Always wondered how to take a screen shot.
This is a great addition to the site.
Is there any way to get an RSS feed of those tips? I see you're posting them on Twitter, which is great, but I'd like an RSS feed too so I don't miss any. :D
I'll try to drum one up
if you subscribe to the main precentral RSS feed ( http://feeds.feedburner.com/Precentralnet?format=xml ), these pop up too
My most used feature:
From the home screen type any two letters. Universal Search will display all contacts whose names contain those two letters either together or as the initial letters across the first and last name.
For example, if I type ji this is what I see on my phone:
John Illy
Jim Fisher
Ji Young Lee
Eric Jimenez
In place of the italics you will see underlines (wasn't sure how to show underlines in this post).
Other useful shortcuts:
orange + sym + r = reboot phone
orange + sym + u = force phone into usb drive mode (only works when your phone is connected to your computer)
Are you too lazy to navigate through the icons and interface just to find the calculator and you forgot where it is located anyways?
Well just slide out the keyboard and start typing.... calc ... and voila.... shortcut! Works for pretty much anything on your webOS device.
:)
great idea guys.
Thanks
Vic
great idea guys.
Thanks
Vic
I definitely think the next tip of the day should be how to use Universal Search...
That's just based on the shear number of threads where people say... OMG I just talked to somebody who has owned a Pre for 6 months and didn't know about Universal Search.
I couldn't agree more.
To move cursor within a text box: Tap in the box, then hold orange/grey button and slide finger anywhere on screen.
I Saw a thread on where a guy didn't know there was more than one launcher page..
I've gotten the screen shot feature to work once out of the thirty times I've attempted it in the past. Otherwise, it does nothing but repeat P or = in a search field.
The trick is to make sure you press and hold down the orange key first, the Sym key next, then the p key (without letting go of the other two keys).
I use my left thumb on the orange key, my right thumb on the Sym key, and then my right index finger on the letter p.
or as I found out the other day, not only can you data roam on Sprint, the option is in the Phone apps preferences. Handy handy.
Double pressing the power button while there is an incoming call will send the caller immediately to voicemail.
Ooo. I like that one.
That's a sweet idea. Good tip!
Thanks for all the tips.. keep suggesting away and we will try to keep a running list for inclusion on the homepage
Great idea!
This is something I can point my sister to without hesitation. Looking forward to learing some so-very-basic things, though, too.
Best example: didn't know there's a gesture to switch between maximized apps. It's great, but I didn't know - I'm glad I do, now ;-)
You can "ignore" a call without "ignoring" the call by doing the "back gesture" when the call comes in (unlocked state) and the incoming call will "minimize" to the notification bar, and then you can tap the notification to answer\ignore, or swipe the notification away to ignore the call.
Comes in handy when you "need to finish that last thing" before getting on the call. You have about 5 rings before VM pics up so you get a few seconds to finish typing or whatever then answer. I use it when I'm talking to finish my sentence and then say "excuse me while I get this". ;)
Now that is new to me! I consider myself between casual and power reader.
Thanks precentral for the tips of the day. I knew how to take a screen shot but sometimes have to think about it to remember the exact keys.
There is a help guide in the phone just open your phone and type "help." Universal search is awesome!
Great idea! How 'bout adding the tips page to the mobile site?
Try http://m.precentral.net/tips
My personal favorite...to unlock the phone or to answer a call just slide open the slider..
Then, of course, I had to add the patch "Close Slider to End Calls" to hang up..Very intuitive...for me anyway.
You can install many useful "Patches" using Preware..I personally have 136 installed! :)
Thanks Precentral
Here is another..Ever make a conference call? then wanted to hang up just one of the calls and not both?
Instead of taping on "End All Calls," tap the callesr name or number, and then the Blue Double Arrow icon to extract caller.
Then ask one of the callers to hang up, so you can stay connected to the other caller or tap the red hang up icon to end all calls.
Uncapitalize a Letter
When typing, the Pre auto-capitalizes letters where appropriate (beginning of a sentence, "I", etc...). To undo this, simply press backspace once. Rather than deleting the letter, it will change it to lower case. Pressing backspace again, obviously, will delete the letter.
To do a Soft Reset ...
Hold the power button and cycle the ringer button on/off three times.
Much easier to hold down "Orange button" "Sym" and letter "R". It's like a Ctrl Alt Del for the Pre
Some might find this handy others will say "daaa!"
To delete an app that you downloaded - All you have to do is hold the all-white key (Note: on the Sprint version it is Orange.) and tap an application icon. You will get a pop-up window that tells you how much space the app takes and lets you delete it with one click
+1
I know this is old but I couldn't change my password for some reason until now so I can comment just wanted to thank you for this tip!!!!!! I have done it before trying to put smillyfaces on text but didn't know I was doing it ... I was looking at some pix and was like hey where did the screen shots come from??how did I do that? Now I know but have no idea for the use lol and ideas of how to use this or why to even have it ??? Any1
My favorite is entering #*66623# in the phone app. This brings up CellBrite Export. Follow the prompts to create a vCard of all your current contacts including facebook. Does not export contact photos though.
The file is located under the .temp folder.
Note: For Sprint customers it's ##66623#
Excellent tip. I have really gotten into my Pre after a year of having it (10 at this point). Sprint kept replacing with refurbs that had one thing or another wrong with them. I finally remembered I had the BestBuy Black Tie Insurance and went in a couple months ago and they gave me a brand new one right from the box and I've not had one bit of trouble with it since. Then, I downloaded "ILOVEHOMEBREW" app and now my phone is the bees knees-lol! I'm lovin' it and now I can do screenshots, SWEET. I am now over my need for the EVO 4G and looking forward to the next iteration (2.0 & hardware) for pre. Let's go HP + Palm!