Using soft-keys and customizing 'Today' screen

[bluevolume]

This is a tutorial I put together to help take advantage of the 'softkey' feature in WM5.

By default, our Axim's are not setup with hardware buttons mapped to softkeys. This is unfortunate, as I've found that these softkeys can be very useful in using your PDA without the stylus. Mapping the buttons is very simple -- just go into the "Buttons" program in 'Settings', and change two buttons. I mapped the left softkey to the 2nd button (Contacts button) and the right softkey to the 3rd button (Mail button). This made the most sense to me, but you could map them any way you like.

You can now use the hardware buttons to 'click' the active softkeys on the screen. For example -- in IE, you can click the left button for 'Back' and the right one for 'Menu'.

The only problem with this setup comes on the 'Today' screen, due to the default softkeys that Microsoft chose. If you setup the buttons like I did, you're Today screen will show that the buttons aren't optimal. The 'Calendar' button (1st) will still open the calendar (OK), but the 'Contacts' button (2nd) will also open the calendar since that's what the left softey defaults to. The 'Mail' button (3rd) opens contacts, once again since this is how the right softkey is defined. So lets change it! Follow these steps to Today screen perfection:
1. Open a registry editing program
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Today
3. Under 'Today', create a new key called "Keys"
4. Under 'Keys', create a new key called "112".
5. Click on the 112 key, and you will see a "(Default)" value set to nothing. Change the value to "Contacts".
6. Staying in the 112 key, create a new string value named "Open". Set the value to "\windows\addrbook.lnk".

Repeat those steps to set the right key, making these changes:
4. Use "113"
5. Use "Messaging"
6. Use "\windows\messaging.lnk"

Just to verify, here's what the keys look like:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Keys\112\(Default) = Contacts
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Keys\112\Open = \windows\addrbook.lnk
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Keys\113\(Default) = Messaging
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Today\Keys\113\Open = \windows\messaging.lnk

Return to the Today screen and verify that the buttons have changed. You might need to do a soft-reset to get it to update.

Thats it! Good luck. :approve:

[SolSie]

Thank you Bluevolume for the great tutorial. (I will include this a s a tip in the "WM5 is here to stay" Tip of the day!, if you don't mind!)

Just want to point out:

1-If you don't feel comfortable manipulating your Registry. You can use tool such Tweaks2k2.

2-You can also include this hack along with creating your own Today theme and the ability to customize the color of the bottom bar for free as well. Read the "WM5 is here to stay.." (link below for more!)

[jwsg]

I would further recommend mapping the fourth button to < Today > to easily return to this useful screen when viewing full-screen applications.

I have also mapped the fifth (record) button to < Rotate Screen > to quickly flip to landscape (useful in full-screen apps but not so pretty with the top & bottom bars taking so much space in WM5).

To maximise the amount of one-handed control (the cursor pad & select can navigate menus) you can map < Start Menu > and < OK/Close >

[makuu]

Thank you Bluevolume for the great tutorial. (I will include this a s a tip in the "WM5 is here to stay" Tip of the day!, if you don't mind!)

Just want to point out:

1-If you don't feel comfortable manipulating your Registry. You can use tool such Tweaks2k2.

2-You can also include this hack along with creating your own Today theme and the ability to customize the color of the bottom bar for free as well. Read the "WM5 is here to stay.." (link below for more!)

But when you asked me I already gave you the tip in your thread here

[jwsg]

Thanks indeed to Makuu. After trying his themes here, which install different Today screen soft-keys, I followed his post here and installed Ppctodaythemes, the 1.1 patch, and theme_patch.inf

After building a TSK with my own JPEGs, I find it easier to make colour and soft-key changes by directly editing theme.inf in the tb sub-directory and running build.bat as with the original Themebuilder.

[glb]

I got a bit confused by the second paragraph in your tutorial posting and wondered why I would want to map softkeys to buttons. Reading the rest of it I decided that you were mapping softkeys to the applications.
As a test I followed your instructions and mapped the Today screen left softkey to TCPMP and it worked well. Now I will just have to decide what programs I really want mapped to the softkeys.
Thanks!

[bluevolume]

I got a bit confused by the second paragraph in your tutorial posting and wondered why I would want to map softkeys to buttons. Reading the rest of it I decided that you were mapping softkeys to the applications.
As a test I followed your instructions and mapped the Today screen left softkey to TCPMP and it worked well. Now I will just have to decide what programs I really want mapped to the softkeys.
Thanks!

That's not really what I was doing here. I mapped the softkeys to buttons so I could click without having to use the stylus. This only applies to WM5 -- is that where you were confused?

[glb]

That's not really what I was doing here. I mapped the softkeys to buttons so I could click without having to use the stylus. This only applies to WM5 -- is that where you were confused?

Okay. I've never used a stylus to select a softkey. I use my thumb - thought everyone would. Since that works well for me mapping a button to a Today screen softkey would be waste of a button.
Anyway, I may still be confused but it doesn't matter. I can now reconfigure the softkeys on the today screen to quickly access programs other than the defaults and for that I am grateful.

[CJ4]

Is there a way to remove the softkeys from the today screen? I don't like the area that they take up in the today screen.

Thanks,
CJ

[makuu]

For those that don't have any registry editor, I wrote this small script to help you to perform the softkey modification.

[makuu]

There is actually a better way, read this .