Navigate the Treo User Interface

The engineers at Palm went to a great deal of effort to design the Treo user interface so that it's ruthlessly efficient at allowing you to carry out common tasks with minimal effort. Everyday tasks such as making a phone call and replying to an email message were studied in detail, with the end result being a reduction in the number of actions required on your part to carry out these tasks. For example, dialing a recent number on your Treo requires as few as three button presses via the five-way navigator. These efficiency gains in the Treo user interface are subtle, but they dramatically affect the device's usability. The following sections examine the basics of navigating around the Treo user interface and uncover some of these efficiencies.

Traverse Screens and Controls

Although you might have an affinity for using the stylus, eventually you will come to appreciate the usefulness of the five-way navigator. With this control, you can move throughout the Treo user interface with your thumb while holding the device in the same hand. In other words, you can do just about anything on your Treo with one hand. Granted, I wouldn't recommend typing text with one hand unless you have a physical limitation, but most people are accustomed to using a mobile phone with one hand. The five-way navigator enables you to carry this usability pattern over to your Treo.

The five-way navigator actually consists of five different buttons in one control: Left, Right, Up, Down, and Center. The first four buttons serve primarily as directional navigational controls, and the Center button functions as a selection button for making choices. You can generally think of the five-way navigator buttons as serving as a crude mouse, with four of the buttons accounting for mouse directions and the Center button corresponding to entering mouse clicks. Of course, you can also use the stylus as a useful alternative to the five-way navigator. You'll likely find your own unique approach to navigating your Treo that involves a combination of the five-way navigator and the stylus.

Many screens on the Treo present a sequence of controls, such as a group of command buttons. To move between these controls with the five-way navigator, just press the Up, Down, Left, and Right buttons to move to the control in the desired direction. Many screens are laid out so that you can move vertically to activate different groups of controls and then move horizontally within each group. Figure 2.1 shows the Day view in the Calendar application, which is a good example of how the directional buttons on the five-way navigator are used to navigate through an application.

Figure 2.1. The weekday selection control at the top of the screen, along with the hour list and command buttons along the bottom, demonstrate the flexible user interface in the Calendar application.

In the Calendar application shown in Figure 2.1, you can press the Left and Right buttons on the five-way navigator to change the weekday along the top of the screen. Pressing the Down button shifts the focus to the hour list, which you can use to select specific hours of the day to schedule appointments. By pressing the Center button to activate the hour list, you can then move within the specific hours of the day by pressing Up and Down. Press the Center button again, followed by the Down button, and you can access any of the command buttons along the bottom of the screen by using the Left and Right buttons, of course. If you experiment with the five-way navigator in applications such as Calendar, you'll see a deliberate rhyme and reason to how the Treo's user interface flows.

By default, the hour list in the Calendar application shows exactly enough hours of the day to fit on one screen. Some lists in your Treo don't have enough room to show their entire contents, in which case you must scroll to see more of the list. The Up and Down buttons on the five-way navigator are used to scroll up and down within a list. In many lists, you can also scroll a page of data at a time by holding down the Option key with your left thumb while pressing the Up or Down button with your right thumb. In lists where the default action of the Up and Down buttons is to scroll the entire list, use the Center button with the Up and Down buttons to scroll between individual items in the list.

Tip

You can use the stylus to interact with controls on any Treo screen. For example, to scroll a list with the stylus, just tap the arrows at the ends of the list. You can also tap and drag the slider in the middle of a scroll bar for exact scroll positioning.

Just as the Up and Down buttons are useful for navigating lists where information flows vertically, the Left and Right buttons are important in allowing you to navigate left and right through text entry controls. For example, the Memos application (see Figure 2.2) basically serves as a way to create and organize simple text notes. When entering a memo, you'll likely need to back up and change or delete text, and you can use the Left and Right buttons to move around within a memo's text. Of course, the Up and Down buttons still come into play for navigating up and down through memo text, but for quick corrections, the Left and Right buttons are invaluable.

Figure 2.2. The text edit control in the Memos application is a good example of where the Left and Right buttons come into play for navigating through text as you enter it.

A critical concept to understand when navigating through the Treo user interface is highlighting, which indicates that a control has the input focus and is ready for action. In other words, a highlighted control is ready for a press of the Center button to carry out some action. This action varies depending on the type of control. For example, pressing the Center button while a command button on the screen is highlighted results in the command being issued. On the other hand, pressing the Center button while a list is highlighted activates the list so that you can edit individual list items. You can easily tell whether a control is highlighted because it has a noticeable blue glow around it; for lists, the blue "glow" comes in the form of horizontal blue bars above and below the list. Figure 2.3 shows how these two horizontal bars frame the email list in the VersaMail application.

Figure 2.3. The email list in the VersaMail application is highlighted with horizontal bars above and below the list.

Tip

You can often jump directly to the command buttons along the bottom of a screen by pressing the Right button on the five-way navigator.

When a list is highlighted, you must push the Center button to activate the list and access the items within it. The highlight bars disappear, and one of the items in the list gains the input focus. To deactivate the list and return to the other controls on the screen, press the Left button. The highlight bars return to the list, indicating that you can press the Up and Down buttons to navigate to other controls on the screen.

Highlights don't always come in the form of a blue glow around an item. Phone numbers, email addresses, and links on web pages are highlighted by being shown in reverse text. For a web page that normally displays black text on a white background, the highlight around a Web link appears with white text on a black background. Press the Center button to activate a phone, an email, or a link highlight. This results in the phone number being dialed, a new email message being created, or a Web link being traversed.

Speaking of reverse text indicating highlighting, this is exactly how text is highlighted in a text edit field. I'm sure you've selected text in a desktop application and cut and pasted it into another application. The selection concept on the Treo is the sameyou block off a selection of text, which then becomes highlighted. Some text edit fields don't immediately allow you to edit them; instead, they show the entire text contents highlighted. Simply press the Center button to begin editing the text. Press the Center button again when you're finished editing the text.

Note

Speaking of cut and paste, the Treo 600 and 650 devices have a 1KB limit on how much text can be copied or cut to the Clipboard for pasting. With some third-party applications, such as FieldPlus by Ansel Rognlie, you can overcome this limitation with a much larger Clipboard buffer. FieldPlus also adds the capability of selecting a block of text with the five-way navigator, which is unfortunately a feature lacking in the Treo user interface. To download FieldPlus, visit a site with Treo software downloads, such as http://mytreo.net.

Unfortunately, selecting a block of text on Treo devices can be accomplished only via the stylus. In other words, there's no way to select a block of text with the five-way navigator without the aid of third-party software. This is a strange limitation, but I have to admit that the stylus provides a more effective way to select text. To select a block of text with the stylus, just tap and drag the stylus across the text. To highlight a word, double-tap the stylus on the word. To highlight an entire line of text, triple-tap the stylus anywhere on the line. Quadruple-tap the stylus to…just kidding on that one! Triple-tapping is as fancy as the stylus shortcut moves get.

Access Menus

Note

The Palm OS is designed so that the most commonly used commands are available via onscreen buttons, and lesser used commands are accessed via menus.

Although menus aren't readily visible in Treo applications, they are nevertheless a vital part of the Treo user interface. The Menu button, located slightly above and to the right of the five-way navigator on the Treo 650, gives you access to the menus in the current application. Just press the Menu button to open the application's menus. Figure 2.4 shows the menus available in the Phone application.

Figure 2.4. The three menus in the Phone applicationRecord, Edit, and Optionsprovide access to a variety of phone commands and options.

After opening a menu with a press of the Menu button or a tap of the stylus on an application's title bar, you can navigate through the menus. Use the Left and Right buttons on the five-way navigator to move through the different menus, and then use the Up and Down buttons to move up and down a particular menu and select a menu command. To issue the command, press the Center button. Of course, you can also use the stylus to tap a menu and then tap the menu command you'd like to issue. If you change your mind and decide not to issue a command from the menus, just press the Menu button again to exit the menus and close them.

Tip

You can also tap the stylus in an application's title bar to access the menus. However, not every application has a visible title bar (Calc and Camera, for example), which means you have to resort to the Menu button from time to time, even if you're a big fan of the stylus.

You might notice that most menus have shortcuts listed next to some of the more commonly used commands. You can use these shortcuts to quickly issue a command with a two-key combination involving the Menu button and one other key, the shortcut key. For example, in Figure 2.4 you can see that three menu commands have shortcuts, as indicated by the forward slash icon and a letter beside the command. To issue the New Contact command at any point while using the Phone application, simply press the Menu button followed by the N key. If the menu is already open, just press the N key to issue the command.

Note

Similar to menu shortcuts, the Phone application also supports Quick Keys, which are keys you associate with a favorite, such as a frequently dialed contact or a frequently visited website. While in the Phone application, you can immediately issue a Quick Key command by holding down the appropriate key. To find out how to create custom Quick Keys, see "Create and Manage Favorites" in Chapter 7, "Using Your Treo as a Mobile Phone."

Another user interface control closely related to menus is the pick list, which allows you to select from a list of possible values. Like a menu, a pick list drops down to reveal additional information when opened. More specifically, only one item is visible in the list until you activate it; then the list opens and provides access to all the items in the list. You can easily spot pick lists because they always have a small down arrow displayed next to their current selections. Figures 2.5 and 2.6 show a pick list as it's selected and opened to reveal cities in the World Clock application.

Figure 2.5. A pick list in the World Clock application is first selected, in which case it's highlighted to show that it has the input focus.

Figure 2.6. Pressing the Center button activates the pick list, causing it to open and reveal more items that can be selected.

After opening a pick list, you can use the Up and Down buttons to scroll within the list and highlight items. When you find the item you want, press the Center button to select it and close the pick list. To close the pick list without changing the selection, press the Left or Right button. You can also use the stylus to scroll a pick list by tapping the arrows at the top and bottom of the list. To select an item in the pick list, just tap the item with the stylus.

Launch Applications

I'm sure you noticed that the Menu button isn't the only button that accompanies the five-way navigator and the Phone/Send and Power/End buttons. There are, in fact, three other buttons in the same "navigation" area of the Treo keyboard, and they all relate to launching applications. The Application button, located just above and to the left of the five-way navigator, is used to access various application screens. Figure 2.7 shows the main application screen, which displays all the applications available on your device.

Figure 2.7. The main application screen shows all the applications available on your device, including core applications and applications that you've installed.

You might notice in the figure that the word All appears near the top of the screen and is, in fact, a pick list. You can use this pick list to change the category of applications displayed onscreen. All appears by default because it's the one selection that displays all applications. Press the Up button followed by the Center button to access and open the application category pick list. Figure 2.8 shows the application categories available in this pick list, some of which might be empty on your device.

Figure 2.8. The application category pick list allows you to filter the applications that are displayed according to a specific category.

Tip

To quickly move around within a pick list, press a letter key on the keyboard. The pick list immediately highlights the first item on the list beginning with that letter. You can continue spelling out the name of a pick list item by quickly typing additional letters. If you pause for a couple of seconds and then press another letter, the selection process starts over with the new letter.

By selecting any category other than All, you are effectively filtering the applications displayed on the application screen according to a particular category. An optional and often quicker way to move between application categories is to press the Application button repeatedly; doing so cycles through the application categories that contain applications. This is why I mentioned that some categories might be empty initially, in which case they are skipped over when you press the Application button to cycle through the categories. You might notice a small memory card icon at the bottom of the pick listselecting this "category" results in displaying only the applications stored on the memory card.

To launch an application from the application screen, just use the five-way navigator to highlight the application, and then press the Center button to launch it. Or use the stylus to scroll up and down via the scrollbar on the right edge of the screen, and tap the application to launch it.

Although the Application button provides a way to access all the applications on your device, the other buttons can be used as shortcuts to commonly used applications. For example, the Calendar button, located just below the Application button, launches the Calendar application when pressed. Similarly, the Messaging button just below the Menu button launches the Messaging application. Some buttons also offer an optional application launch when you press the button preceded by the Option key. Following are buttons and button combinations, along with the applications they launch or, in some cases, the actions they take:

Phone/Send Launch Phone application, Phone "send"
Option + Phone/Send Launch Blazer Web browser
Power/End Turn power on and off, Phone "end"
Option + Power/End Turn on Keyguard
Calendar Launch Calendar application
Option + Calendar Launch World Clock application
Messaging Launch Messaging application
Option + Messaging Launch VersaMail application

Tip

You can quickly highlight an application on the application screen by typing the first letter or two of the application name. For example, to launch the Tasks application, press the T key, followed by the A key; the T key is probably enough to get to the Tasks application in most cases. If you want to type and highlight a different application, just pause for a moment and then resume typing the first letters of its name.

You'll find these buttons indispensable in quickly moving between applications on your Treo. You might also find that you use some applications more than others, in which case you might want to tweak the applications that these buttons launch. You learn how to customize the application buttons in Chapter 3, "Customizing and Personalizing Your Treo."

Enter Text with the Keyboard

Probably the most notable feature of the Treo family of devices is the full QWERTY keyboard it sports. Few smartphones include a full keyboard, and most of the handhelds that include keyboards are large and clunky. The Treo is one of the few devices to successfully merge a full keyboard into a mobile phone form-factor. Given that this keyboard is one of the highlights of the Treo device, it's worth taking a moment to learn a bit more about it.

Note

The Treo keyboard includes a backlight that automatically turns on and off with the screen.

Like a normal computer keyboard, the Treo keyboard allows you to enter lowercase letters by default. If you want to tinker with typing and using the keyboard, launch the Memos application and quickly create a new memo by following these steps:

1.	If you aren't already viewing the main application screen, press the Application button to open it.
2.	Press the M key to jump to the Memos application, or scroll to it by using the five-way navigator.
3.	Press the Center button to launch the Memos application.
4.	Press the Right button to highlight the New button on the screen, and press the Center button to create a new memo.
5.	You can now type to create a new memo.

The main reason I'm having you create a memo is because it's a great place to explore using the keyboard to enter text. For example, to enter uppercase characters, press the Shift/Find or Right Shift key followed by the letter key. Unlike a desktop or notebook computer keyboard, you don't have to hold down the Shift/Find or Right Shift keys to enter an uppercase letterjust press the Shift key and then press the letter key. If you want to enter several uppercase letters, you can turn on Caps Lock by pressing the Shift/Find or Right Shift key twice. To turn Caps Lock off, just press either key again. A small arrow with a line through it appears in the lower-right corner to indicate when Caps Lock is turned on (see Figure 2.9).

Figure 2.9. When you turn on Caps Lock while editing text, a small arrow with a line through it appears in the lower-right corner.

I'm sure you've already noticed that just about every key on the Treo keyboard has an additional number, punctuation, or symbol printed above and to the right of the letter on the key. This additional character is entered by pressing the Option key before pressing the letter key. So to enter a dollar sign ($), press the Option key followed by the H key. Like the two Shift keys, the Option key doesn't have to be held downjust press it before pressing the letter key.

Also similar to the Shift key, the Option Lock feature locks in the Option key for entering numbers, punctuation, and symbols. To turn on Option Lock, press the Option key twice. When Option Lock is turned on, a small oval icon with a line under it appears in the lower-right corner of the screen (see Figure 2.10). To turn off Option Lock, press the Option key again.

Figure 2.10. When you turn on Option Lock while editing text, a small oval icon with a line under it appears in the lower-right corner.

Note

Because typically you want to start a sentence with a capital letter, the Treo automatically enables the Shift key when you start a new sentence. This means you can type away without having to worry about capitalizing the beginning of each sentence.

In addition to using the Shift keys and Option key to access different characters on the keyboard, one other technique offers access to more obscure characters and symbols. I'm referring to the Alt key, located just to the right of the Space key on the keyboard. The Alt key enables you to select from several different characters and symbols associated with each key. For example, type the letter c by pressing the C key, and then press the Alt key. Scroll through the selection list that appears with the Up and Down buttons to choose from several symbols related to the letter c, such as the copyright symbol (©) and the cent symbol (¢). Figure 2.11 shows the copyright symbol as it's selected from a list of characters associated with the letter c.

Figure 2.11. You use the Alt key to select an alternate character from a list of choices when entering text.

Note

The Option Lock feature is sometimes turned on automatically in data entry fields that expect numbers. For example, the phone number entry fields for a new contact in the Contacts application automatically turn on Option Lock because the fields expect numeric input.

To accept a selection from the alternate character selection list, press the Center button or tap the character in the list. If you change your mind and decide not to choose an alternate character, press the Left or Right button.

It's important to understand that you can use the Alt key to access alternate characters for a particular key at any time, not just when you first type a character. For example, use the five-way navigator to position the text entry cursor just to the right of any character in a body of text, and press the Alt key. A selection list appears with alternate characters that correspond to the character next to the cursor.

Making Sense of the Indicator Light

Note

If you're moving to the Treo from an earlier Palm device that relied heavily on the Graffiti handwriting recognition feature, you've probably already realized that no Treo devices include Graffiti because they all have full QWERTY keyboards. Even so, third-party applications, such as Graffiti Anywhere (http://www.escande.org/palm/GrfAnywhere/) and Jot (http://www.shopcic.com/product_details/jot_details. asp), enable you to install Graffiti on your Treo as an add-on.

The indicator light near the upper-left corner of your Treo (just beside the earpiece) is an important part of the Treo user interface because it conveys information about your network access and battery status. More specifically, the indicator light changes from off to flashing green to flashing amber to indicate the wireless network's availability. The light also comes into play when charging your device, except in this case the light glows solid instead of flashing. When charging your Treo, a solid red light indicates that the battery is charging, and a solid green light indicates that the battery has a full charge. If you're attempting to charge your device and the indicator light is off, there's likely a problem with the connection or the power source.

To recap the exact meaning of the indicator light, take a look at the following list:

Flashing green Connected to wireless phone/data network.
Flashing amber Outside the wireless phone/data network coverage area.
Solid red Battery is charging.
Flashing red rapidly Battery is very low.
Solid green Battery is fully charged.
Solid amber Active application is running, but the screen is off.
Off Disconnected from wireless phone/data network, or battery is not charging.

Note

If the battery is completely drained, the indicator light might not come on for a few moments when you begin charging it.

Some users have noted that the flashing green indicator light sometimes flashes at different rates. Unfortunately, there isn't currently any consensus among users on what this flashing rate change indicates, and Palm has offered no answers on the matter. Possibilities range from the flashing rate indicating how much charge is left on the battery to perhaps indicating that you have new voicemail messages or missed calls. The problem is that a soft reset of the device typically does away with the rapid flashing, which leads you to believe that maybe it isn't indicative of anything. Even without the mystery flashing rate, the indicator light is useful in quickly diagnosing your wireless network availability and battery charge status.