Let’s Take a Walk Through TF3D
I realized in all of our fancy tweaking and tipping we’ve never gone through the basics of how to use the dang interface out of the box (and then tweak anything we don’t like:)). Well today is as good a day as any, so let’s do this. And as a beginner, for those of you who don’t know the home screen of the Touch Pro is called TouchFlo3D (or TF3D for short). If you don’t like it go to Settings – Today – Items and you can turn it off and then use the traditional homescreen or one of the alternatives (like SPB or PointUI). But let’s stick with TF3D for now.
And I know a lot of you may have been playing with the interface for a while now but there may be a few things even the best of you overlooked:) This is a long posting so I hope your eyes are ready for it but it makes for good weekend reading:) Hit the jump for the rest of the post.
To go through tabs you can either use the dpad to go left/right, swipe left/right or hold your finger on the bottom to drag through them.
The first tab is the home screen showing the time, date, alarms, call history and calendar. If you want to add an alarm just press the clock. Press call history to see your call history button in full. And your upcoming calendar appointments are at the bottom. To see more appointments (bu shrinking the size of the clock) simply swipe on on the home screen and the clock shrinks and there are more visible appointments. Regardless of how you have the calendar view (ex: daily view, weekly view) when pressing on the appointment on the home screen it will always show you ‘agenda’ view. If you want to see your calendar in weekly or monthly view (or any other view) then simply add a shortcut to your Programs tab and whatever preset view you have it will open in that view if you open the calendar through the Programs shortcut (to change the view go into the calendar, press menu – view). If you add a shortcut to the Start drop down menu it will also open in the preset view (to do this go to Settings - Menus and check calendar). To change the left and right soft keys on the home screen just use DiamondTweak and change 14.4 and 14.5
Ok, let’s move on to the People tab. The best way to add a contact with a photo is through TF3D and not through adding the photo into Outlook (to save the resolution – see here for more details). Once contacts are added you can just click on the contact you want or hold the strip on the right and drag your finger to the contact you are looking for. To call the contact through the default number simply press on their number that appears below the photo. If you want to call the non-default number or send a text/MMS/email then tap the contacts photo to see the entire contact information appear with options to use any other method. For contacts that aren’t your favorite people use the left soft key and in that screen to quickly get to a contact you can either press and hold the letters on the right side or bring up the onscreen keyboard and start typing the name and you’ll see the contacts list reduce with each letter you press as it limits it tot hose with the name you’re typing. On that screen you can select the contact and then decide if you want to call, text, etc on the next screen that comes up.
Next tab up is Email. Simply flick up/down on the screen (or use dpad up/down) to flick through your emails. If you have multiple accounts then flicking up/down or pressing the dpad up/down will bring you to the other account. At this point an email is considered unread unless you open\view the email. To start a new email press the button on the screen on the top right or go to menu-new (or map a button to a new email shortcut). Pressing the left soft key brings up the entire email inbox. To change folders you are viewing just tap the inbox button at top for a drop down. You can press and move up and down on the screen or if you push and swipe it will kinetically scroll through your emails (this works in the Inbox view and within the individual emails themselves). To search emails just use the keyboard and start typing a name or subject matter and you’ll see your emails reduce as it limits them to hat you typed. To forward an email as inline text read this. If you don’t want to be copied on your own emails when you press ‘reply all’ check this out. If you think the headers (like the word “Inbox” are too large) then look here. If you want to go to another inbox (either another email account or your text message inbox) swipe your finger left/right or just press the dpad left/right. If you are in an email and want to go to the next or previous email then swipe left/right or press the dpad left/right. If you want to add more folders to sync, including syncing your sent items, then look at this post. If you want to make the text larger or smaller when viewing an email then scroll your finger around the dpad. If you want to be able to make the dpad active in emails so you can scroll the inbox try SensorScroll. A list of email shortcuts are located here. To change the options for your email account (like the number of days you download) then go into an email and go to Menu – Tools – Options.
Lets move on to the Text Messages tab. To view the text messages you can flick up or down on the tab itself or use the dpad. This tab is very similar to the messages tab and almost all of the usage features are identical except as I note.If you view a text message on the screen it will be marked as unread. To increase the size of the text box you can type in then follow these instructions. Left/right flicking to go to the next message does not work in this tab. The default is for threaded messages (meaning that all of your messages for each contact are put in conversational order as opposed to emails where there is a single inbox with all of them in time order). If you want to change this just use DiamondTweak and change item 2.3.If you have a delay in typing a text message and it appearing on the screen try this fix. As a side note, if you cannot send MMS you may need to enable your carrier’s hidden proxy.
We’ve gone through the Internet tab at length on this site. First we changed the default internet home page and name, then we updated it so that your Opera home page would be the default page for the TF3D tab and then we added a program shortcut to the tab.Finally we changed the default browser TF3D uses. I think we’ve done enough damage already:)
The next tab is the music tab. Flicking or pressing the dpad up/down scrolls through the albums you have. If they have multiple songs then flicking takes you through the songs. You can toggle repeat and shuffle by pressing the buttons located on the top right of the screen (or use the right soft key) and fastforward through the track by using your finger to advance the timeline under the album art or use the scroll wheel around the dpad to advance the music. The left softkey is your library and you can go throughout music by album, artist, playlist, etc. if you go to a playlist and start playing a song it will bring the entire playlist to ‘now playing’. If your album art is not showing up then take the album art image and place it into the album folder and rename it folder.jpg and then either soft reset or give it a few minutes and eventually the art will appear.
The weather tab is fairly straightforward. Flick or press the dpad to scroll through the multiple cities you have added (if you have weather set for multiple locations). To add a city that’s not on their list try this. If you want to show off all of the weather animations then follow these instructions.
The Programs tab is just that – you can press the plus sign on an empty box to add a new program and hit the remove button on the right soft key to remove a short cut. At this point there is no known method to change this screen to four columns wide.
The Photos and Videos tab shows all of your pictures and videos so you can flick\dpad through them by going up and down. The left soft key takes you to the album and you can press and drag to go and and down or press and swipe to kinetically scroll through your images (or dpad through it). Within a photo tap the screen once to bring up the menu. Once you’re in a photo if you take your finger and make a clockwise circle on the screen it will zoom in on that point. Going counterclockwise zooms out. You can also zoom in/out by going around the outside of the dpad. To pan within a photo just tap the screen and hold it for a second then you can pan within the photo. To save an image once you have panned/zoomed in then just hit the right soft key and go to ’save image as’ . If your photos are yellow then just change the white balance. There are also instructions there to decrease the cameras delay in taking a photo and if you want to tweak it even further try this. And to add more modes to your camera just make these tweaks. It’s also easy to watch videos on your PC that you’ve recorded and if you have a problem just try this.
There’s nothing too fancy left on the Settings tab but if you scroll up you’ll see there’s one more tab that tells you what version of TF3D you have installed. If you want to change the communications tab (like adding a 3G toggle button) try this.
To add or remove tabs simply use Diamond TF3D Config (which I used to get rid of the AT&T tab). If you want TF3D to work in landscape mode (instead of just the 8 boxes AT&T gives us) try installing either MobileMatt’s FuzeBerry Theme or Herg’s Theme. It’s actually pretty simple to change the name of the tabs as well. If you have stock TF3D want to add a calendar tab then follow these instruction and here are the instructions to add a call history tab (Herg and MobileMatt added these for you so no need to do it manually). To change individual clocks or icons try using Manila Customizer and check out this posting for various themes, clocks , etc.
Hope this helped and feel free to post any tips you have that can help others or ask any questions that you may still have.
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Comments
Thomas awesome, time intensive review.. thank you. One quicky. On music tab what if I flick through and find the album I want to play? It only plays the first song on the album then switches to the next album and plays the first song on it..
David K Thomas – make a playlist and it will play the entire album. You can make the playlist on your PC or Fuze.
I would love a 6.5 preview:)
Trent Alexander I just got an HTC FUZE. How do I do copy, cut and paste functions???
Thank you,
Trent
David K Trent – just use the stylus to tap and drag it over text then tap and hold the stylus and a drop down will appear just like it would on your PC
Jill Thank you for all the info above. Very helpful. Is there a way (other than pressing the on/off button on top of device) to bring out of standby mode. Thanks.
Trent Alexander Thanks for the tip on the cut, copy and paste. Very helpful!
I connect to UNIX servers at work using ANTHA VPN software. IIt looks like the blue FN key plus the back arrow key generates the escape character. Does any one know how to generate a control (ctrl) character using the keyboard? Using control sequences in UNIX is very helpful and saves time when working with a UNIX OS.
Thanks,
Trent
Gary Terrific overview! Never would have known half of this. One question. You say, “Next tab up is Email. Simply flick up/down on the screen (or use dpad up/down) to flick through your emails. If you have multiple accounts then flicking up/down or pressing the dpad up/down will bring you to the other account.” This does not appear to change accounts. The screen seems stuck on a secondary account that I rarely use, which is a pain! Any advice??
David K Gary, if you have multiple accounts then flicking brings you to the other account. If you only have one account then flicking takes you through the emails. I don’t know of a way to change that behavior…
Gary I now see the problem is that the plugin doesn’t think my Outlook account is a real account — it is synchronized using Intellisync.
Trent Alexander I still can’t believe they built a phone and an interface around Windows Mobile OS without control or escape keys for those os us that have to hook up with UNIX servers via VPN when we are on the go. How stupid is that? I have solved the problem to some degree. Look for the Happy Tapping screes keyboard layouts which have CTRL and ESC keys and install them. Not the most convenient or easy to use but it does work. I tried one downloadthat was supposed to allow you to remap keys on the hard keyboard but it didn’t work an froze the phone. This would be the ideal solution. The OK key would be the targe for the CTRL and and possibley the right SHIFT key for the ESC. Anyone have any info on doing this would be much appreciated. XDA-Developers this would be real handy!
David K Trent – check this out for control: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=381924 or if you want to get more advanced: http://www.ppcmobility.com/forums/showthread.php?t=627&highlight=remap
Ludendorf777 I am not sure if I am really stupid, but where is the actual post? I can only see the comments about this post…
THANKS!
Doug Smith Sorry Everyone. 
We had some technical difficulties with the older posts but they are back now. Enjoy!
[...] while back we took a walk through all of the tabs and features of TF3D. That was a detailed tab by tab explanation of how each tab works and the features of the tab (some [...]
[...] Take A Walk Through TF3D…The TP2 Edition Posted by David K March 26, 2009 A while back we took a walk through all of the tabs and features of TF3D. That was a detailed tab by tab explanation of how each tab works and the features of the tab (some [...]
[...] while back we took a walk through all of the tabs and features of TF3D. That was a detailed tab by tab explanation of how each tab works and the features of the tab (some [...]
Kimi I have 3 issues with this phone that I just can’t figure out (and I am a proud gadget geek)… ONE: in the TF3D email home screen there is an account that I removed… but still shows there on the main screen and it says I have 2 emails from december in it! I can’t get rid of it… it is driving me crazy! I removed the account months ago – but there it is… on the home screen (only the home screen!) … TWO: I can’t get the Express email PUSH to register (this never happened to me before with the 8525!) … it just won’t go… I wonder if this is part of problem#1 ….THREE: I did something and now my phone talks to me whenever an alarm goes off OR I get a high priority message- it is so annoying, but has also provided alot of funny moments in the middle of the night!!! Scaring me or my family to death telling us we have to PAY THE BILLS today or THAT BUELLA ROBERTS SENT A MESSAGE THAT WE MUST QUICKLY USE OUR WEBCAM AND SEE HOT GIRLFRIENDS – lol….. okay =SIDE NOTE:::argh!! I have tried everything and can’t get a stupid work around to remap the PTT key!
[...] while back we took a walk through all of the tabs and features of TF3D. That was a detailed tab by tab explanation of how each tab works and the features of the tab (some [...]
[...] while back we took a walk through all of the tabs and features of TF3D. That was a detailed tab by tab explanation of how each tab works and the features of the tab (some [...]
Matt H Maybe I’m just hugely missing something here, but I really don’t understand this, and it’s very frustrating finding something that explains it simply.
is this a new ROM, or is it a replacement for the TF3D program? And secondarily, WHERE do I download it?? I can’t seem to find a link to where to go to get the TF3D2 on this post or several similar posts like it. And is the “latest version of TF3d” the TF3D2? I’m confused by the differences. And what is Manilla? *I’m so lost… :\ lol
David K Matt- there’s a Q&A here: http://www.fuzemobility.com/lets-take-a-walk-through-tf3dthe-tp2-edition/
it is a replacement of TF3D. no new rom is needed.
download is here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=493531
manila = tf3d
you should jump onto the forums if you have additional questions – there’s a lot more people to provide answers there
[...] (stock) This is the version of TF3D that comes standard on the Touch Pro/Fuze/Diamond series. We all know it. It’s a series of tabs on a slider that has [...]
[...] already gone through TF3D in detail which we updated when TF3D 2 was ported and now that TF3D 2.5 (a/k/a Sense) is out, it’s time to [...]
Great write up! A good orientation for new fuze owners and possibly a few new tricks for people who’ve had there’s for a while.