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LinkBoy UIQ3 FAQ Product referenced: LinkBoy UIQ3 1.52 Document version: 1.52 This document is available for Download.
General
Configuring the icon panel
Changing shortcuts
Using LinkBoy
Answers
General
Q: Why do I need LinkBoy?
A: LinkBoy provides extra shortcuts to execute applications or to view files, thus extending the functionality and ease of use of your smartphone.
Q: What are the advantages of using LinkBoy?
A: Major advantages of using LinkBoy include the following:
You can choose (1) to display LinkBoy's icon panel over the standby screen, or (2) to use it separately as a standalone link collection, or (3) both.
You can have up to fifteen more shortcuts on the standby screen than otherwise.
Three independent sets of shortcuts provide up to 45 shortcuts in total.
On the standby screen you can still see operator, area message, media player, alarm, and timer.
On the flip open standby screen you can still use keypresses to navigate built-in shortcuts, furthermore to switch silent mode and phone lock.
You can also have the extra shortcuts with the flip closed.
You can execute or view practically anything that you have on your phone.
You can select any image to display as a shortcut icon, including large or transparent ones.
You can have customizable captions below each shortcut icon.
You can access the Service menus without remembering keypresses.
LinkBoy comes with fully pre-configured shortcuts to instantly help your work (and you can change everything to exactly match your needs).
Q: Which phones is LinkBoy compatible with?
A: LinkBoy can be installed and executed on all smartphones running on Symbian 9.x with UIQ 3.x.
Occupation of the standby screen is naturally possible only on those phones that have a Standby application.
Q: How much memory does LinkBoy use?
A: LinkBoy with its default configuration uses less than half a Megabyte of RAM while running.
Memory consumption may increase if you choose to display large custom images as shortcut icons.
Q: Why does LinkBoy display a security warning when installed?
A: LinkBoy accesses your contacts database, therefore you are prompted to authorize this activity.
The contacts database is exclusively used for reading contact names and images when you choose to have a shortcut to contact someone.
Configuring the icon panel
Q: How do I change LinkBoy's appearance?
A: The right-side page tab of LinkBoy is called the Panel options view.
It is used to configure how the currently selected shortcut set appears on the icon panel.
The available display options are adjusted independently for each shortcut set.
The Settings dialog is used for general options that affect all shortcut sets.
The function and appearance of individual shortcuts is set using the Shortcut editor.
Q: How to set which shortcuts are shown on the standby screen?
A: A separate Activity dialog is provided for that purpose, available in the main menu of the Panel options view.
For each shortcut set you can separately define if the set should appear over the standby screen.
In case of phones having a flip keypad you can also define if the set is to appear in one flip mode only.
If you have more than one set displayed then you can set one of them as the Default set which will appear when the icons are re-displayed over the standby screen.
Q: How to change the number of shortcuts?
A: In the Panel options view you can select how many rows and columns of shortcuts you want to display.
You can have up to 3 rows and 5 columns, thus providing a maximum of 15 shortcuts for each set.
Q: What to do if I can not see the captions well?
A: Set the Captions option to Large size.
You can also use the Colors selector for better adapting the captions to the current theme.
Q: Can I have smaller icons?
A: Yes, for changing the icon size use the Icons selector in the Panel options view.
You can also use custom icons for individual shortcuts, as set using the Shortcut editor.
Q: Can I see more of my wallpaper?
A: Yes, there are several ways of achieving that:
Use less icons by changing the number of rows and/or columns displayed.
Set the icons to small size, or use small custom icons.
Set the icons and captions to none (you can still see where the shortcuts are by having frames).
Move the icon panel to a more suitable place (first enable the move option in the Settings dialog).
Use the Blank space shortcut type for leaving additional space empty.
Changing shortcuts
Q: How do I change a shortcut?
A: You use the Shortcut editor dialog to define what exactly a shortcut should do.
The editor is invoked by touching the respective icon for about one second.
In the absence of a touch-screen, first select the shortcut to be changed with the hardware keys,
then keep the Confirm key pressed for about one second.
Within the Shortcut editor first select a shortcut type, then specify the exact target for the shortcut.
A default icon and caption is provided for each target, that you can change at will.
Q: What kinds of shortcuts does LinkBoy provide?
A: Shortcut are available for the following items:
All built-in and installed applications.
All system settings that are present in the Control panel.
All multimedia file types for which your phone has a viewer.
Any web site or individual web page.
Communications with individual contacts, like call, SMS, MMS or Email to a person.
Creating a new entry for built-in applications, like Calendar, Notes, Sound recorder, and more.
LinkBoy functions, like switch to another shortcut set, or hide the icon panel.
Active items that display current information about calendar events or memory status.
Notes to use as sticky reminder on the screen.
Blank space to leave certain screen areas without an executable shortcut.
Q: Can I make a shortcut for Bluetooth?
A: Yes, by selecting Setting as the shortcut type, and then selecting Bluetooth as the target.
You have the full range of Applications and Settings available on your phone to define as a shortcut.
Q: Can I make a shortcut for sending SMS to someone?
A: Select Contact someone as the shortcut type,
then select the contact (and optionally the phone number) from the list,
and finally select the communication method (like SMS) to use with the shortcut.
Q: Can I make a shortcut for setting a new appointment?
A: Select New entry for shortcut type, then Appointment as the target.
The target selector for the New entry type lets you have shortcuts for a wide range of common tasks.
Q: Can I make a shortcut for a web page?
A: Select Web page for shortcut type, then enter the target URL in the appearing text input field.
Q: Can I make a shortcut for a video file?
A: Select File for shortcut type, then choose the file in the appearing file selector dialog.
You can have a shortcut to view any multimedia file type for which your phone has an assigned viewer application.
Q: Can I change the caption?
A: Yes, you can change the provided default caption for each shortcut using the Caption field in the shortcut editor.
Q: Can I customize the icons?
A: To change the icon displayed for any shortcut, use the Browse option in the Icon selector.
You can choose any image format supported by your phone, including BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG, and SVG.
Large images are automatically scaled down to fit within the icon area.
For best results, use 40x40 and 18x18 pixels images for large and small icon sizes, respectively.
Q: What are Active items?
A: You can have dynamic information displayed on the screen.
Such special "shortcuts" are called Active items:
The Upcoming event target displays the next calendar or alarm event.
The Memory status target shows available free memory in Kilobytes.
The Note shortcut type shows arbitrary text that you enter.
Q: Can I change the appearance of Active items?
A: The Adapt to theme option in the Settings dialog lets you have the Active items taking the appearance of buttons, as defined by the current theme.
When the caption is empty for an Active item (or captions are off for the entire shortcut set),
the size of Active items grows to occupy the whole shortcut area, allowing to display more information.
Q: Can I leave empty space between shortcuts?
A: Yes, by using the Blank space shortcut type.
You can also set the number of columns to 1 or 2, and use the Alignment option to put the icons at the desired place.
Q: Can I display a longer Note?
A: Yes, by setting empty caption for the Note, in which case longer text is displayed.
In addition, when executing the Note, you can see the entire text displayed on the icon panel.
Q: Why are my contact images lost when upgrading to 1.40?
A: In LinkBoy 1.40 the loading speed of contact shortcuts was improved dramatically,
which resulted in some incompatibility with contact shortcuts defined using previous versions.
For such shortcuts the default application image is shown instead of contact pictures.
To solve the issue, just enter the Shortcut editor and re-select the same contact as the target for the shortcut.
Using LinkBoy
Q: How do I execute a shortcut?
A: To execute a shortcut touch the respective icon for a short time.
On phones or flip modes that do not provide a touch-screen, first select the shortcut using the navigation keys,
then press the Confirm key.
Q: Can I execute shortcuts by keypress?
A: Yes, by pressing the Confirm key, after selecting the desired shortcut with the navigation keys.
Q: Can I see more than one calendar event?
A: Yes. When you execute an Event shortcut, a list of upcoming events is displayed.
All events are shown that are within one month from the current time and fit on the icon panel.
Events that have an associated alarm are marked by a bell symbol on the right hand side.
To return to displaying the shortcuts, click on the icon panel, or press any key.
Q: Can I save and restore my shortcuts?
A: Yes.
To save your current shortcuts, use the Shortcuts/Backup command, available in the main menu.
The Restore command can later be used to re-load the backed up shortcuts.
This mechanism is useful if you want to return to a more suitable collection of shortcuts that you saved earlier as a backup.
Note that backups are for shortcuts only, and do not include Panel options and general Settings.
Q: What happens if I reset my shortcuts?
A: When you use the Shortcuts/Reset command, your current shortcuts are lost,
and replaced by the default shortcuts provided by LinkBoy.
You can use the Restore command to load the custom shortcuts saved earlier by the Backup command.
Q: Can I still use the Standby application with LinkBoy?
A: Yes, absolutely.
One of the key concepts of LinkBoy is to leave the Standby application (called Activity menu on the P990) undisturbed,
while supplementing it with more shortcuts.
Standby is a fundamental built-in program of the SonyEricsson UIQ3 phones that has many useful features,
like displaying status plugins (operator, area message, media player, radio, timer), and providing access to key lock and volume controls.
LinkBoy does not interfere with the display functions at all, and with the keypress functions in flip open mode.
In flip closed mode you can use the Back key to allow using the Standby application's keypress functions.
Q: How can I quickly access my LinkBoy shortcuts?
A: The shortcuts are automatically displayed whenever the Standby application comes to foreground.
The following methods can provide additional access to LinkBoy:
On SonyEricsson phones that do not have a flip keypad (P1, M600, W950, W960) you can assign LinkBoy to one of the built-in shortcuts provided by the Standby application.
On the P990 in flip open mode you can use the Status icon of Swiss Manager Pro to invoke Linkboy, either as a running task, or as a Favorite.
On the P990 in flip closed mode you can assign LinkBoy to one of the four configurable built-in shortcuts available on the standby screen.
On the Motorola Z8 phone you can bind LinkBoy to the right softkey of the Home application.
Q: Why my shortcuts do not appear on the Standby screen?
A: Make sure that at least one of the shortcut sets is active over the standby screen,
using the Activity dialog for the respective set.
If the icon panel still does not appear, then disable the Today menu observing option in the Settings dialog.
Q: Why does transparency not work on my P1?
A: On P1 phones with firmware versions R6F41 and above, floating windows lose transparency over the Standby application's client area.
The problem affects LinkBoy's icon panel, which is displayed with opaque gray or black background on such phones.
SonyEricsson has confirmed this problem, and a workaround will be provided as soon as available.
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