Phone 7 - Tips collection

[Guest XeOS]

Hi guys, just wanted to share my collection of tips for Phone 7 that I collected from over the net. Hope you find it useful.

Cheers!

How to remove a Tile form today screen:

Press and Hold and then click the round pin button in the right top corner of the tile.

Download the Zune software to have the best experience

sync music, add picture, podcasts etc, you can download the software at www.zune.net. Pay attention for the X86 or X64 versions.

When connected to the PC start Zune click on the phone and go to Wireless Sync

set it up according to instructions and the phone will sync added content wirelessly

You need a live ID, but you must have an US region on it see here how to set-up (thanks to Leiby)

Using the Windows Phone 7 voice controls

Press and hold the Windows key at the bottom of your screen and you can start talking to your phone. Try saying "Open Calendar", or “Call Name Mobile”

Adding apps to the Start screen

When you are in the long applications list on your phone pressing on an icon and holding brings up a contextual menu that gives you a series of options, one of which is "pin to start". Press on this option and the app will be shown on the Start screen.

Add people to the start page

No it's not just about adding apps to the start page, but people too. Find them in your contacts book, click on the "pin" icon, and they'll be added to your Start page so you can speed dial them whenever you need.

Moving your tiles around

Adding a new app or tile to the Start screen will place it right at the bottom. If you want it to be elsewhere, press and hold on the tile in question and then you are free to move it up and down and rearrange your tiles to best suit your needs.

Removing apps from the Start screen

You like the app, but you don't really want it on your Start screen anymore. No worries. Hold your finger on the tile in question for a couple of seconds and when it highlights press the no pin icon in the top right-hand corner.

Uninstall Windows Phone 7 apps

You've tried it and you don't like it. No problem. Head over to the menu list and press down on the app in question until you get the contextual menu. Select uninstall and you're done.

How to change the theme

Zip on over to the menu list, select Settings, and then Theme. Here you can choose the color of the background and the accent color. Background options are "Black" or "White" while you'll get nine accent colors to pick from. Lime, anyone? I would go for Orange.

Swipe to the left

Windows Phone 7 is built around the idea of panoramic tiles that you swipe to reveal more content off screen. It's always worth seeing if you can swipe to the left as there might be more stuff waiting to be revealed.

What are the dots?

Whenever you see three dots at the bottom of the screen, that's a menu for more options. In photo playback for example, it will give you the options to delete the image or perform a quick upload.

Hold to get secondary menus

While the three dots will get you to the same thing, holding down your finger for longer than a second normally brings you the menu too. Try it in photos to see what we mean.

Turning off the key press sound

Click, click, click, click. Yep, it's annoying isn't it? Great thing is you can turn off the noise Windows Phone 7 makes when you tap on your keyboard in the ringtones and sounds area within settings.

Setting an email tone

Want to know when you've received an email? Probably not, but if you do Windows Phone 7 lets you set a dedicated sound so you know when "You've got mail". Settings, Ringtones & Sounds, and choose sound.

Change your ringtone

Settings, Ringtones & Sounds, Ringtone. There are 30 to choose from and you can try them before you select it; just make sure you aren't on a train. You cannot add a custom ringtone in this R1 release. It is coming very soon.

Turning on Wi-Fi

Unless you are happy to surf on your 3G connection you'll probably want to turn on Wi-Fi at some point. Wi-Fi settings can be found in the Settings area, and you can have the phone notify you of when new networks are found or not. Selecting the network you want to join prompts you for a password, if there is one, and you can go deeper and adjust specific settings if that's your thing.

Setting up an email account

Setting up an email account in Windows Phone 7 is really easy regardless of what email service you use. There is support for Exchange, Windows Live, Outlook, Yahoo! Mail, Google, Facebook, as well as other accounts if you use someone different; this varies slightly from network to network. Select the one you want, punch in your email address and password and for most of them that's it. A new tile will be created on your Start screen and within a couple of seconds you should be getting email to your phone.

Adding your Google Calendar

In Settings, Emails, and then Google email, there is an option to sync your email, your contacts, and your calendar. Select which one you want to add to your phone. (There are rumors that syncing your Google calendar has been disabled by Microsoft as they hit some issues caused by the way Google offers the calendar service. I am sure they will re-enable it soon).

Change your lock screen wallpaper

While most of the interface is two colours you can change the image on the very first page you see when you turn the device on. Here you get to choose between a selection of stock images from Microsoft or ones you've taken. Search the images you've got, select the image that you want and then select the area of that picture you want to crop. Press the tick and you're done. You've just selected a new wallpaper for your lock screen.

Setting a password

If you are able to connect up your phone to your email, Facebook and other gems, we would highly recommend setting a password to protect it all. Like the iPhone you can set a four digit password to lock anyone out. Setting the password means that you lose the "never" option in the screen time-out options, however it does mean that if you forget to lock your phone, it will do it for you. (When you hook up to Avanade Exchange you will automatically be asked to set up a password – this is the Corporate policy in action. The downside is that you can only choose up-to 5 minutes of timeout as opposed to 15 minutes in the past! Read the next tip to know how to change the inactivity time).

Setting the screen time-out

Want your phone to lock automatically so you don't phone people from your pocket? Of course you do. Jump into Settings, Lock & Wallpaper, and choose how long you want your Windows Phone 7 handset to go before locking down. You can choose 30 seconds, 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, or never.

Turning location off to save battery

Location services are great, but they will eat your battery. If you aren't fussed about geotagging your photos or finding out where you are on Bing maps, nip into the Location option in Settings and slide that toggle to the left. No more Big Brother for you.

Turning off Geotagging

If you just want to turn off geotagging you can do that too. Go to Settings, Applications, Pictures & Camera, and then toggle the "include location (GPS) information in pictures you take", to the Off position.

Turning off data roaming

Surfing the Internet is an expensive pass time when you are in another country, as is checking Twitter or Facebook. Luckily you can turn off data roaming at the flick of a switch. Settings, Cellular is the place to go.

Turn off 3G connectivity

There is always someone that will want to turn off 3G network support, presumably to save battery, and if that's you you'll need to head to the Settings, Cellular page to do just that. While you'll save battery don't expect those web pages you are surfing to load anytime soon.

Correct misspelt words

On-screen keyboards are great, but they are prone to helping you make mistakes when typing. Realizing this might be the case, Microsoft has added an option to "Correct misspelt words". It's on as default, but if you find this idea annoying, fret not, you can turn it off. You'll find the option in Settings, Keyboard.

Turning off double space bar full stops

Hit the spacebar twice in an email and you'll get a full stop automatically appear. Don't want that to happen? Settings, Keyboard is your friend.

Turning on the "Find my Phone" function

Windows Phone 7 comes with some really natty features, one of them being the, "Find my Phone" feature that lets you find your phone again if you've lost it or had it stolen. Trouble is, it's not on as default so you've got to do that yourself if you want to take advantage of the feature. In the Settings, Find my phone page, you can opt to have the phone save your location periodically for better mapping and to get results faster.

How to update the software

Guess what, you don't need to worry about that, the phone will automatically do it for you when there is an update available.

Finding out your signal strength

Wondering how many "bars" you've got, or what the Wi-Fi strength is like? Simply tap at the top of any screen and that information will appear.

Adding Facebook

Yes there is a dedicated Facebook app, but Facebook is also well and truly integrated into the phone. If you've got a Facebook account, go to Settings, Email & Accounts; log in, contacts, pictures and other gems are then populated across and around your phone. (If you want the dedicated FaceBook app head on to the marketplace and download it for free).

Auto save your images to SkyDrive

It's always a good to keep a backup of your pictures, and Windows Phone 7 comes with SkyDrive which lets you do just that. In steps the auto upload to SkyDrive option. If you got confused the first time it asked you when you went into the pictures area, don't panic, you can re-enable it via the Applications page hidden within Settings. Go to Settings, swipe to the left and then scroll down to Pictures & Camera. In there you'll find the option to set the Auto Upload feature on.

Quickly upload your photos to Facebook

Following the instructions in tip 31 there is an extra option to enable quick uploads to Facebook. Now when you view the picture you'll have an "Upload to Facebook" option. Press the button and into the ether the picture goes.

Turn off Xbox Live

Gaming is for kids isn't it? Well if that's the way you feel then you'll want to turn off the Xbox Live functionality. Settings, Applications, Games, Off. Done

Turning off mobile browsing

There are plenty of sites on the Internet that have a mobile version of their website so you can browse quicker when you are out and about on a slow connection. Trouble is, sometimes you don't want the mobile site and not the desktop site. Go to Settings, Applications, Internet Explorer and you can change how you want your Windows Phone 7 browser to act when it goes to a web-page.

Turn on SMS delivery confirmation

Want to know if the text message you've sent got there? You can turn on SMS delivery confirmation by going to Settings, swipe to Applications, Messaging and flicking the On toggle.

Include Facebook friends as contacts

Adding your Facebook mates to your People hub is one thing, but if you aren't really that fussed about contacting them on a regular basis from your contacts book, then you can rid yourself of them in a couple of steps. Settings, swipe to Applications, People and then choose to "Show all my Facebook friends" in your contacts or "Only add Facebook information to existing contacts".

Getting International dialling help

Always travelling, always forgetting to add the 0031 to your calls back to the NL? Then go in to Settings, swipe to Applications, choose Phone and then set International assist to On. Turning it on will help automatically correct some of the common mistakes while dialing international or dialing while abroad.

Delete search history

Been to a website that you perhaps shouldn't have? Trying to cover your tracks? Well the delete search history option is found in Settings, Applications, Search. Click the big "Delete history" button and your tracks are covered. You can do the same to your entire Internet Explorer history in Applications, Internet Explorer.

Bookmark your favourite websites to your start page

You can pin a link to a website by going to Internet Explorer, visiting the site, and then hitting those three dots. That brings up a menu and in that menu are the words "pin to start", press it and you'll get a new tile on your start page.

Find a word on a webpage

Internet Explorer on Windows Phone 7 has a "find" feature that allows you to find a word on a page. Very Handy. Go to the web-page in question, press on the three dots, click on "find on page" and then type in the word you are looking for. You can then scroll through those instances on the site. To get back to the page without the search words highlighted, just press the back button.

Surf more than one page at a time

Just like tabbed browsing on your desktop computer, Windows Phone 7 Internet Explorer lets you do tabbed browsing on your phone. At the bottom of the page is a circle with what looks like two pieces of paper in it. Press on that icon and you'll be able to load up more pages. When you have more than one it will show a number. That correlates to the number of pages you have running.

Full screen browsing

To get rid of the address bar and the icons at the bottom turn your phone landscape. The software automatically switches with you giving you more space to read the site.

Email a web-page to your friend

Like a page, and want to send it to a friend; press the three dots in Internet Explorer, select Share page and then you choose how you want to share it - Messaging, Hotmail, Google Mail, etc.

Turning on Caps Lock

Double tap the shift key to turn it on, double tap it again to turn it off.

Adding accents to letters

Press and hold the letter on the keyboard in question to get the different characters associated with that letter.

Finding more symbols on the keyboard

The keyboard is fairly comprehensive and simple to use, but it can't display all the symbols you might want at the same time. If that's the case press the "more" arrow to the left of the screen to reveal more keyboard options.

Adding emoticons quickly to an email

Another keyboard shortcut that works when you are typing an email. Press on the smiley face and you get all the :P :P :-] faces you can imagine without having to type them out. It's quick, it's simple, and yes your mates will either love you for it or think you are a dork.

Searching within an application

Easy, press the search button on the bottom of the phone that looks like a magnifying glass. Pressing it once lets you search the application you are in, pressing it twice lets you search the web via Bing.

cc and bcc people in emails

Go into an email, press on the three dots and then select "Show cc & bcc”.

Forwarding an email

It sounds silly right, but it caught us out first time so we suspect it will catch you out too. Forwarding an email is actually found in the icon with a small envelope and an arrow that looks like you are replying at the bottom of the screen.

Get rid of the "Sent from my Windows Phone" signature

Annoyed by that "sent from my iPhone" message you always get from your mates, and don't feel you need to brand your messages with the Windows Phone 7 love - don't panic, you can turn it off. In Mail press the three dots, select Settings, and then either turn off email signature or change it to whatever you want - maybe "Sent from my iPhone" ? Actually I encourage you all to keep the signature and make sure it says "Windows Phone 7" this might make customers more curious :D

Quickly deleting an email without reading it

Press and hold down on the email you want gone and a contextual menu will appear on screen allowing to delete it from your phone.

Flag an email so you can find it quickly

Email on Windows Phone 7 isn't just about seeing the emails coming in, but about seeing what you've read, what you haven't read, what's flagged and what's urgent. You can flag emails to appear in the flagged list by pressing and holding on the email you want to flag and then selecting "set flag" from the menu that appears.

Deleting multiple emails

In your email queue tap on the far left of the screen. Doing so will slide the email queue to the right slightly, and you'll now see that all the emails have the option to be ticked. Once you've ticked the ones you want gone press the rubbish bin icon at the bottom.

Marking all read

One of the annoyances of email on the iPhone is that you can't mark all "read", here you can. Follow the commands in tip 54 and then press on those three dots. You can then set "Mark as read", hey presto you've now read those emails.

Resetting your phone

If you want to start fresh you can reset your phone to factory defaults wiping everything on the phone. Go to Settings, About, and hit the "reset your phone" box at the bottom of the page.

Disable caller ID

Windows Phone 7 allows you to show your number to everyone as default, but if you don't like the sound of that you can turn the feature off to anyone not in your contacts, or to everyone regardless. Go into Settings, swipe to Applications, choose Phone and then set the "Show my Caller ID to" to the setting you want: Everyone, no one, and my contacts.

Find a contact quickly in People

If you're worried about having to scroll through all those names in your contacts book, don't. Pressing any of the letters (a, b,c...) will bring up an alphabet so you can jump straight to the starting letter of the person you are looking for. “X” for XeOS, obviously.

Merging your contacts

If you've got your contacts book filled with Facebook, Gmail and Hotmail, maybe even your work email, then chances are some of your core friends are going to be in your contacts book a couple of times. Windows Phone 7 is clever enough to "link" these contacts so they are shown under a single page. If it misses some, go into People, select a contact and then press the "chain" icon at the bottom of the page. You can then link further contacts to this page if you wish.

Sending an MMS

There isn't a dedicated MMS area in Windows Phone 7. Instead you just attach images to a standard text message and it does the rest for you. If you want to send an MMS go to the Messaging tile on the Start page.

Accessing Zune controls outside of Zune player

You don't need to be in the Zune player to access the music on Windows Phone 7. Tap the volume buttons on the side of your phone and down pops a miniature player window that gives you access to the play and skip buttons. If you've not got your headphones in, the music will start playing through the phone's speakers.

Fast forwarding in Zune player

Go into the Zune music player, press and hold the skip track icon at the bottom of the screen. Rather than skipping to the next track it will fast forward within the one you are in.

Shuffle tracks on an album

This one is hidden within the player. Tap on the album cover and it reveals two controls, a repeat and a shuffle icon. It's like you've found a special secret.

Enhance Xbox Live connectivity

Get more out of the Xbox live connectivity by downloading Xbox LIVE extras. It's a free download from the Marketplace and lets you have more access to your profile, letting you change your avatar's style while you're bored.

Check downloads and their progress

You're impatient we know, but at least you can check the state of your download and how it's progressing. Once you've clicked to install the new app on your phone you can then see how it's doing by clicking on the "check install" button. Watch that progress bar move!

Importing contacts from your old phone

Put in your old SIM card, Go to People, tap and hold near the top of the screen and then select "import SIM contacts".

Setting up a conference call

Windows Phone 7 lets you bring in another person to your call at the tap of a button. Dial your first friend, then when you have them on that call, tap the down arrow displayed on screen, then press "Add call" and phone another friend. Now tap "Merge calls" and the word conference appears near the top to show you that you are on a conference call.

Making the most of the "ME" card

The reason you've got a picture of youself staring out at you on your start page, is because it's your phone, and you've paired your Facebook, Windows Live and other social networking details with the phone. If you click on the pic, you can quickly share messages with your social world. Clever huh?

Silence the ringer when you're in a meeting

If your phone starts ringing in a meeting, and that's a bad thing, just press the power button. It silences the ringer immediately.

Finding your phone number on Windows Phone

Yes, you could just phone someone and get them to read back the number, but that shows you don't know your new number - embarrassing right? To save you from that moment you can nip into Settings, swipe to Applications, then select Phone, and it should be there. If it's not, then you've got to make that phone call.

HTC APPS

Go to HTC HUB and browse for the apps they have to offer. They have a couple already installed on the phone, but there is one which you really want to have and it is called HTC “Attentive Phone” it has some nice features which once you see them you will not know how you’ve done without them.

FREE APPS

Go ahead to Market Place and search for apps with a keyword “Microsoft” some nice add-ons are available…

Set the Phone to Vibrate

Just hold down the volume down button till the Vibrate sign shows up on top.

How to forward text messages

Try holding your finger on the individual text message (not the conversation but you have to go into the conversation and hold individual message).

How do you accept a meeting request

When you receive a meeting request there is a link in the body of the messages called “Show Calendar” or “Show Scheduling Conflict” in case it is a conflict. Clicking on that link will take you to your calendar so you can see what the day looks like. Then hit the back button and you’ll go back to the message. To accept/decline click on the icon to the left of the dustbin which will show a menu…

Phone can be powered down even when locked!!!

Just a warning: the Phone can be powered down even when locked, so be careful when keeping it in the pocket.

“Pocket to Picture” Feature

You can start the camera without unlocking the phone, just hold down the camera button

Search Company Directory

When composing an E-Mail click on the “+” sign at the end of the “To:” field this will take you to People. Hit the search button and type in the name you are looking for.... and there you are you can choose to search Company Directory!

The keyboard is excellent !!!!!!

Greg Kumparak from MOBILECRUNCH says…

“Who the hell did Microsoft hire to make this keyboard? Because whatever they’re being paid, they deserve a raise.” :huh:

“I’ve got no idea what sort of sorcery Microsoft used to build this thing, but it rocks. I’ve typed the character-count equivalent of a novel or two on just about every smartphone platform’s software keyboard, and this … this just might be the best one. I could type as well on this immediately after picking it up as I could on my iPhone after weeks of practice. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement. Auto-correct works as expected, and if it misfires on a word it just doesn’t know, switching it back is a matter of tapping the word once at any time. The word you originally typed will lead a list of potential alternative corrections — tap the original, and all is returned to normal.”

Sync More than Inbox

Want to sync more folders besides Inbox? No problem: In mail app click on the Folder Icon then click show all folders and select the folder you want to sync and once it opens hit the “sync this folder” link. In case you by mistake clicked on Sent Items or on Deleted Items a lot of stuff is going to sync to your phone (I made this mistake J), and as we know the storage is scarce. No worries you can undo the mistake – go to the folder you do not want to sync with anymore and hit the menu button and choose “Don’t sync this folder”.

Change the Phone Name

Run Zune on your PC, Connect your phone via USB to your PC. Click on the Phone status icon, Click VIEW SYNC OPTIONS, Click NAME YOUR PHONE, Enter the required phone name, Click OK, Close Zune, Disconnect you phone from the PC. (from Vincent van Baak)

Save an Image from a Webpage

If you’re in a browser, just hold the finger on a picture and choose save picture to store it in the photo library (from Aram Smith)

How to move a cursor around

If you are typing and you need to place the cursor somewhere else to correct something: Press and hold on the text a colored cursor appears. Place the cursor itself in the place you want it to be. Note do not try to place your thumb on the place where you want the cursor, but the colored cursor itself it is on purpose above your thumb so you can see where in the text you are…(Aram & Leiby)

Multiple Calendars Trick

If you have more than one account configured there is chance you have more than one calendar. You could disable the calendar sync on the accounts you do not need to. But you can also keep them all. The only problem is the calendar from the Primary Live account. Go to calendar, hit menu, and click on Calendars. There color code your calendars and if needed turn off the Primary Live ID calendar. The calendar will show appointments form the active calendars in their respective colors.

Stop FaceBook contacts from Syncing

On the home screen slide to the next screen (folders) choose settings, and then people. There you'll find the option to turn off syncing of all contacts. (from Jesse Houwing)

Sync OneNote To the Phone

You can sync your OneNote notebooks via SkyDrive with your phone.

On your PC: Open OneNote. Select the notebook you want to sync. On the ribbon go to ‘Share’ and click ‘Share this notebook’. Make sure the correct notebook is selected and choose to share to ‘Web’. If you’re not yet signed in, click ‘Sign in’ and sign in with the same Windows Live ID as used on your phone. Once you click the ‘Share Notebook’ button, OneNote will start syncing your notebook.

On your phone: Go to Office, OneNote. Click on ‘All’. Click on the sync button on the bottom of the screen. It will ask you if you would like to sync your notebooks. Choose ‘Yes’. Fire up Internet Explorer. Make sure the website preference is set to ‘Mobile version’ (default). You can change this in the settings of Internet Explorer. Navigate to the URL: ‘http://office.live.com’. Then navigate to the location where you synced your notebooks to (by default ‘My Documents’). Click on the notebook icon, this will take you to the next page. Then again click on the notebook icon. It will tell you ‘Opening notebook’. After that, the notebook shows up under notebooks in OneNote and the contents starts syncing. (from Sander Schutten)

Listen to Zune on the Phone while connected to the Laptop

When having the phone connected, but you want to play or view media from your phone, the Zune on the phone results in “Connected, please disconnect before launching zune” or something similar..

In order to be able to play media from the zune, while being connected to the computer (for charging).. shutdown zune and then also kill the ZuneLauncher process using task manager.. once the zuneLauncher and the zune player are not operational, connect the phone.. it will continue to charge, but will not be connected to the zune software allowing all regular phone functions..

Edited February 10, 2011 by XeOS

[Guest Kelly Smith]

Wow these tips are really useful. Thanks for sharing these tips with our community.