The Priority of Apps

You’d be surprised to know that there is actually a method of application placement on your iPhone. According to writer Ben Brooks of The Brooks Review, the order pictured above is the ideal home screens set up for iPhone users. Each important application, according to Brooks, has a level of priority that will follow his method. For some individuals, the first page, or important page, is the only page that is needed. This is because, if it isn’t an important application, some believe it shouldn’t be on the iPhone at all. However, this isn’t logical for all iPhone users. Unless your iPhone is purely business, your 32GB will go to waste if you restrict it to just important, power applications. This is where folders come in to help with organization.

Utilize the Folders

Folders for iDevices are things that individuals either love or hate. The lovers of folders enjoy not having their not-so-useful applications out in the open, filling up useful space. There are just as many individuals who don’t like an iPhone with a ton of folders. Plus, folders have an app limit of twelve applications, not a sufficient number for some individuals. Whether you like folders or not, here are a couple of rules for folder etiquette:

1. Never Have Folders On the Front Page

One rule to folders is that you should keep your front page, the page you seen when opening the iPhone, free of folders. There are many aesthetic reasons behind this, but the most apparent reason behind this is because the front page is reserved for important applications only. If you followed the advice of “The Priority of Apps”, folders would be unnecessary.

2. Use Folders for What They Are

There are some individuals that like to throw applications into a folder without much thought. This defeats the purpose of folders and simply stores them away out of sight for harder retrieval. When assigning an application to its respective folder, you have the ability to keep your home screen organized and productive.

3. Don’t Go Overboard

There are some individuals who recommend keeping a folder for every application. I personally disagree with this method. The thought of having every application (not a majority, but every single app) in a folder would make retrieval a lot harder for me. In addition, it makes the iPhone look less welcoming. The color and variations of each application’s icon adds personalized flavor to iPhones, folders diminish this. Below is how to make a folder:

Find the two applications you want into a folder

Press and hold on either application until it makes a motion

Drag and drop the application over the other one.

Click on the name to rename the folder.

To remove a folder, drag an application out of the folder.

Different Approaches

http://brooksreview.net/2011/03/homescreen-organized/

In the end, we must remember that the iPhone home screen shows the type of iPhone user that we are. Multimedia users will be more likely to have game and music folders, creative users on the other hand will have more photography and entertainment folders.

There are some individuals, including myself, who has their iPhone for both personal and work uses. For this reason, some individuals would appreciate having pages dedicated to different parts of your routine. For example, an entertainment and personal page and another page for work/school related applications. There are then the minimalists who enjoy a clutter free iPhone. One minimalist approach I read about is to have a blank page that utilizes just the dock, reminiscent of the Mac interface. The approaches are up to you.

“The App Test”

One approach I learned from a fellow blogger is to perform an application test when downloading one. Before downloading, look through your iPhone to see if you have any applications in that same category. For example, Camera+ and Instagram are both photography applications.

From there, compare the applications you already have to see if they have the same features. For example, both applications take photos that can be shared. However, they have different concepts. After this stage, you would assess if one application does the same features better than the other. If it doesn’t, then it’s trashed. This prevents the common problem that many iPhone users have, repeated applications that have the same uses.

My Home Screen Set Up

This is my personal home screen set up for my iPhone. The front page is very simple, keeping the same set up that I was given out of the box. I seem to love the placement of each application on the front page. One variation I added was the Vlingo application. This is my personal Siri alternative since I don’t have an iPhone 4S. On the next page, I have a utilities folder for Apple applications like iCards, calculator, compass, etc. The second page is mainly my social networking page. The next page is where a majority of folders are seen. I have a “Lifestyle” folder that includes mostly dining apps; my “Shopping”, “Games”, and “Photography” folders are self-explanatory. That’s it. My set up is pretty simple and works for me.

Conclusion

The iPhone home screen set up is what can tell you the type of person the owner is. For this reason, it’s very personal and involves much thought for many. For myself personally, I try everyday to look for new ways of organizing my home screen to best suit me. It’s an ever-changing canvas that helps me to be more productive. Now, it’s your turn to start your iPhone canvas. Share with us in the comments your set up and how it helps you.

Image credit: The Brooks Review

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KDE 4 offers an alternative to the traditional icons scattered all over the desktop with a Plasma widget called Shelf. Just like a shelf in a library, the shelf widget keeps files, folders, devices, and applications in order and easily accessible.

Creating a Shelf

There are several ways to create a shelf in KDE 4, providing maximum convenience and fluidity (Before beginning, make sure your widgets are unlocked – right click on the desktop and click “Unlock Widgets).

Add Widgets Dialog – The most basic way to add a shelf is to right click on the desktop and click “Add Widgets”. Next, type “shelf” in the search box. Finally, drag it to the desktop.

Using this method, the shelf will be empty by default, so click “Configure…” and then click “Add…” A menu will show you a list of various types of shelves available:

• favorites
• applications category
• places
• folder
• removable devices
• fixed devices
• system tools
• new documents
• open documents
• recent documents
• online contacts
• unread messages

After you select one and click “OK”, you are finished. The shelf will be populated with the icons you chose.

Add to Panel

To add a shelf to the panel, you can drag a desktop shelf to it, which creates an icon and accompanying menu. Alternatively, you can create a shelf directly by right clicking anywhere on the panel, navigating to “Panel Options”, and clicking “Add Widgets”.

Drag and Drog

Yet another easy way to create a shelf is to drag any folder to the desktop or panel. A menu will appear giving you three options: Folder View, Shelf, and Icon. Choose “Shelf”, and a shelf showing the contents of the folder will instantly appear, with no further configuration necessary.

Lancelot Menu

If you use the Lancelot menu widget, you can drag any one of its sections directly onto the desktop or panel to create a shelf.

Shelf inside a Shelf

Any shelf can also hold other shelves. For example, if you wanted to have your “Places” shelf and your “Removable Devices” shelf in the same widget, simply drag one onto the other. You can also drag a new shelf onto any existing one, or add multiple shelves within “Shelf Settings”. The new shelf will be appended to the current one, allowing you to navigate through them.

To remove a shelf from a widget containing more than one, right click on the title and click “Remove This”.

Additional Options

By default, the shelf widget has a “no click” feature, which is displayed in the form of a tiny “extender” icon on the right hand side of each shelf item. Move your mouse over the icon, and the shelf item will open without clicking. If you prefer good old-fashioned clicking:

1. Click the settings wrench icon
2. Click the “Advanced” side tab
3. Choose “Click to activate items”

KDE Plasma widgets also have shortcuts. For example, if you have a documents shelf icon on your panel, you can activate the menu using a shortcut. To use a shortcut, open the shelf settings and do the following:

1. Click the “Keyboard Shortcut” side tab
2. Click the button with the wrench icon that says “None”
3. Enter a key combination (such as Meta+D)

Now, anytime you press that keyboard shortcut, the shelf menu will open.

Another useful feature is the “search box”, which essentially gives you the functionality of your application menu search feature inside of your shelf. In Shelf Settings, check “Show the search box”.

The KDE Plasma Shelf widget is a versatile tool that will hopefully bring some order to your chaotic life. At the very least, it will give your desktop the appearance of organization, and that will put you step ahead of most others.

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Basket was one of the last KDE 3 programs to be ported to KDE 4. While the development appeared to have stalled for some time, it has picked up again, and the developers have released a beta version for KDE 4.

Installation

You can download the source code from the project’s website or install your Linux distribution’s version, if available. Kubuntu/Ubuntu users can install it from the Universe repository.

Search for “basket” using your package management software or install from the command line with:

sudo apt-get install basket

Features

There are four types of baskets: one column, two column, three column, and free, the last of which allows you to post notes without any ordered structure.

The fastest way to create a new basket is to press Ctrl+N, select the basket type, and then give it a name.

Once you have a basket created, click your mouse pointer on the basket window section, and it will automatically create a first note. When typing notes, you do not have to save them. Basket uses an immediate write-to-file system that stores the basket notes as soon as you type them.

You can tag a note by clicking the arrow to the left of it. A menu will come up with several options, including a to-do checkbox, a progress bar, Important, Funny, and more. You can also choose to create a new tag. To help you organize further, you can assign an icon to each basket and note.

It is easy to copy and paste to and from baskets, and you can also add images, links, colors (especially helpful for graphic and web designers), screen shots, and application launchers.

One particularly useful feature is the ability to export an entire basket as an HTML file. You can also export all of the baskets, and it will automatically create a website with functional links to all of them.

Basket Note Pads can be linked with external applications, such as a text editor, image editor, and media player. Like all KDE applications, shortcuts are fully customizable, and all drag and drop functionality should work, even with most non-KDE applications.

The “filter” function allows you to find a note in a basket containing particular words or phrases. This is especially helpful for large baskets with numerous general notes. It begins to filter as you type, picking up partial matches if you are not exactly sure what text is in a note.

With the “group” button, you can organize notes in a hierarchy. You can then collapse a group of notes by clicking the arrow to the left of the primary note.

By default, Basket docks itself in the system tray when closed. This gives you easy access to your notes whenever you need them.

Basket Note Pads can import notes from other Basket archives, KNotes, KJots, KnowIt, TuxCards, Sticky Notes, and Tomboy. You can also import notes directly from a text file.

Current Release

The current version of Basket (2.0) is still in beta, so some functions, like password protection, do not function correctly. Aside from a few bugs, however, it is fully functional and very useful for productivity and organization. Basket Note Pads is free and open source software, released under the GNU GPL.

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Navigating the desktop trying to find the correct shortcut icons to launch an application can sometime be a chores, if you have a overcrowded desktop filled with plenty of icons. With Fences, you can now organize your desktop into a more manageable manner and even hide your icons when you have no use for them.

Fences is a freeware from Stardock, the company behind the popular ObjectDock. What this application does is that It allows you to create several KDE4-style sticky canvases (Fences) on the desktop that act as containers to store your icons. You can assign each fence a category and drag and drop the respective icons to the canvas.

After you have installed Fences, a window will appear to help you setup Fences on your desktop. There aren’t many options to configure and there are clear and detail instructions listed in the window, so you should be able to setup your Fences in no time.

The default layout comes with two fences of which you can resize and move them around in the desktop. If that is not enough for you, you can also create extra fences by right-clicking the mouse. Simply right-click the mouse and drag it across the desktop to create the canvas. Once you release the mouse, you will see an option “Create New Fence Here“. Selecting that option makes the new fence appear.

When you have no use for the icons, you can hide the fences by doing a quick double-clicking on the desktop. This will hide all the icons and allows you to appreciate your beautiful wallpaper. To retrieve the fences, simply double-click the desktop again.

On the configuration side, while there are several settings that you can configure, the one that impresses me most is the snapshot function. You can take a snapshot of your desktop at any point of time and get it to restore to a previous setting. There is also a pre-install snapshot that shows your desktop condition before installing Fences. When you uninstall Fences, it will restore your desktop to the original setting.

Overall, Stardock Fences is a simple application that allows you to organize your desktop easily and efficiently. While it does not reduce the number of icons on your desktop, it sure does provide a good way for you to organize, find and access your shortcut easier and faster.

Stardock Fences is free and works in Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and on all 32-bit and 64-bit machine.

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