Why are the widgets forced to be in a grid formation (4x4)? I've seen other launchers that allow you to increase the grid but nothing that will allow you to put widgets wherever you want them. I used to use Mobile Shell on Windows Mobile and liked the way I could butt widgets against each other, I could even overlap them if I wanted. I could get a ton of information on my homescreen but in a 4x4 I'm somewhat limited. Don't answer with "just scroll to the left or right" .
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Hello
I have an HTC Touch, and I'm not crazy about the famous cube, as it does not allow you to create enough shortcuts to launch all my apps. So I am not using the cube, but rather a launcher (iLauncher from SBSH as it happens) to give a nice look and feel to my phone. For this I have created a set of 50 icons, size 64*64 in TGA format (as it allows for transparency), feel free to use them and complete the collection if you want (a blank icon called "backbroud.tga" has been included for this).
It should work with any launcher that supports TGA icons in 64*64. the reason I'm using iLauncher is because it has a nice jump to tab option that allows to go from one tab to the other by simply clicking on an icon, thus allowing for an infinite number of pages.
I was playing around with the HTC bookmark widget earlier, and noticed widgets can be dragged up and down. Are there any widgets available that act as a blank overlay for the homescreen, which can also scroll vertically to view more widgets and shortcuts? This can be helpful to access more on each homescreen and provided no one else knows about the vertical scroll, hiding a few "work documents" .
sanamkan said:
I was playing around with the HTC bookmark widget earlier, and noticed widgets can be dragged up and down. Are there any widgets available that act as a blank overlay for the homescreen, which can also scroll vertically to view more widgets and shortcuts? This can be helpful to access more on each homescreen and provided no one else knows about the vertical scroll, hiding a few "work documents" .
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how long have you had your phone again?
just about everyone knows about scrollable widgets.
and no you cant make a homescreen vertically scrollable.
1. You are being a ****.
2. He didn't ask about scrollable widgets.
3. Yes its possible it would just require some heavy knowledge and coding.
I wasn't announcing that widgets could scroll, I was providing an example. Nor did I ask if it was possible to make the homescreen scroll. What I'm asking IS possible. I was only asking if it already exists.
sanamkan said:
I wasn't announcing that widgets could scroll, I was providing an example. Nor did I ask if it was possible to make the homescreen scroll. What I'm asking IS possible. I was only asking if it already exists.
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I haven't seen anything like that and I understand what you are asking. You would need to go to the android app dev section to see if someone will take A TON of time to make a full screen vertical scrolling widget that you can place other widgets in.
Would it be impossible to look at bookmark widget's code as a basis? As for integrating shortcuts into a widget, I could probably try and contact the dev of Multi icon. That should take care of the major concerns, right?
I dont know if you could make a widget that lets you host other widgets or shortcuts. but there are 2 options that may work for you
one is the folder system, you can make folders to keep your app shortcuts in, but they will not allow you to nest widgets inside of them.
another option is to use a secondary launcher like launcher pro or ADW launcher, and when you want to access the shortcuts or widgets that are in that launcher you can open it up. then you can set one of the launchers to be the default when you hit the home button, or have it ask you each time you hit it.
just my 2 cents, but don't give up on the widget inside a widget idea, im sure a bunch of people would like to have that ability
Teksu said:
I dont know if you could make a widget that lets you host other widgets or shortcuts. but there are 2 options that may work for you
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The program/shortcut integrated in a widget is performed perfectly on the Multi icon widget. Pre-existing widgets in the widget haven't been included, but the dev has begun creating specialty widgets. I do recommend checking it out.
Teksu said:
another option is to use a secondary launcher like launcher pro or ADW launcher, and when you want to access the shortcuts or widgets that are in that launcher you can open it up. then you can set one of the launchers to be the default when you hit the home button, or have it ask you each time you hit it.
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I've tried QuickDesk, which keeps your current launcher, but enables a popup homescreen when you double tap the home button. It's not the smoothest process by any means, and somehow makes HTC Sense pop up in your home button long press. If you know of any better attempts at this, I'd like to see how those work as opposed to this one. It may be simpler than eventually having to create a new one, right?
Actually, being able to pull up or down on the home screen to activate something like quickdesk would be pretty cool. QD kinda sucks having to double tap on it, and the response is laggy because the button is getting confused as to what it's supposed to do.
as far as I know, the only Launcher that provides vertical scrolling functionality is HTCSense. It also provides the EditText widget as a RemoteView.
**in Android world, a "widget" is any GUI object, really. While the widgets we talk about adding to a Home screen is really called an "AppWidget"**
Its all about how the Launcher handles and behaves with RemoteViews.
For a Launcher to allow one of its AppWidgets to contain and run another AppWidget, that Launcher would have to provide a huge heap of new RemoteViews and surrounding functionality...or, the AppWidget container would have to somehow import the child AppWidget App and run it internally (not possible I think!).
There's a chance that MIUI (a new Chinese Launcher) provides AppWidget-within-Folder functionality. It may then expose custom RemoteViews and API interfaces to allow AppWidgets to be developed to do similar things
Hey guys,
I've tried ADW Launcher, Launcher Pro, Zeam Launcher, Launcher 7, Regina 3D, SPB Shell 3D, Android home and LG Home.
After trying all these, I still couldn't find a launcher that satisfies me. The biggest issue is that you can't fit a lot on the same home screen. Of course, you can add more home screens and change the 4x4 layout into more. But, with more home screens, it's hard to remember what is where and when you increase from 4x4 to 5x5 or more, the designs break.
Also, when you fill up the same screen with too many shortcuts(ie when all 16 slots are occupied), it becomes way too cluttered.
Visually pleasing doesn't really mean 3D. It's just the right kind of graphics.
Any solution to it?
i know - it's a really hard choice, as every launcher got it's problems...
i tried ADW Launcher, Launcher Pro and a few months ago i switched to Go Launcher, which - i must say - is my absolute favorite...
The best compromise for me is to sort the apps into categories. Go Launcher, for example, allows you to sort your app shortcuts into folders, then you can put shortcuts to these on your homescreen. I have 8 folders (Games, utilities, web, multimedia etc.) with icons sitting on my first home screen. Tapping one of those brings up a 'mini app drawer' containing a subset of your apps.
You can achieve the same thing with apps such as 'Folder Manager' and 'SIMI Folders' - these also have more customisation options for things like icons and backgrounds.
Here's an idea I've had rattling around in my head.
Currently, most of the launchers I've seen are a certain number of screens, with a given grid. The default launcher is 5 screens, each is a 4x4 grid. Is it possible to make all of these into one continuous stream? I mean, could we make the homescreen instead one continuous 4x20 space. You would only see a 4x4 space, but could move left or right one column at a time. You could also customize the width of the space, for example, make it 4x21 or 4x18. Widgets wouldn't be limited in which blocks they occupy either, so you could have them offset from one another. You might not want to have it go up or down, as this could cause some issues if you have scrolling widgets.
I have no programming experience, so I can't make this happen. But anybody else give it a shot.
Funny, was thinking about this last week as well.
One addition though; why work with columns and rows at all? Regina launcher (IIRC) works with lines instead of rows and columns, pretty cool.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Grids (to me) are a lazy man's method of a tidy desktop. I tried Regina, quite liked it and the freedom, but I'm a lazy person and prefer grids.
I actually like the horizontal scrolling idea, that coupled with the popular blocks-based organisation using Desktop VisualizeR, I can actually imagine an elegant and beautiful sideways-scrolling home screen.
Would give my full support for testing if anybody can come up with such a launcher!
I've been seeing a lot of threads (not only here) about ADW and ADW EX, the different settings, how to do certain things, etc. I don't think Ander ever wrote up a documentation so here's my little guide.
Anyone that would like to add anything, PM me and I'll add it in.
Little overview of ADW
ADW (EX) is a home launcher replacement. What does that mean? Well the home launcher, usually just called launcher, is pretty much the main way to get around on your Android device. It's the first thing you see when you turn your device on and it is what all of your apps, folders, and widgets are displayed on. To relate it to something everyone knows just think of your Windows/ OS X desktop. You know the thing you probably stare at saying "What did I want to do?!" and is a cluttered mess of icons? Yeah that's your desktop. The launcher on your device is essentially the same thing.
Quick rundown of the settings
When you first open the settings menu, you will see a list of 9 options. The top 4 are the ones you will be tweaking and constantly going into.
Presets - Profiles of settings that are preloaded into ADW. You can also create your own. Presets are just quick and easy ways to switch different things like icon size, dock type, workspace size, etc. These are only settings, NOT layouts.
UI Settings - The foundation of your launcher. From here you will edit things like Icon size, icon backgrounds, Dock type, the amount of rows and columns your workspace has, the App Drawer, and ADW's Hidden Dockbar. These are the real customization settings.
General Behavior - Name says it all. Screen transition effects, gesture controls, and the way ADW interacts with your device's hardware is all found here.
Theme Preferences - Again, pretty self explanatory. From here you choose what custom ADW theme you want on certain things. You can set 1 theme to cover everything, or use separate themes for icons, the dock background, and the hidden dock.
Backup and Restore - Backs up and restores your settings and icon layout. This does not work with widgets (I believe)
Tips and Tricks
Resizing
To resize a widget, you simply long press a widget until the little pop up menu appears and then click "Edit." The resize feature let's you resize in 4 different diretions (up, down, left, right), kind of like in a Word document. I find this to be a lot better than LauncherPro's because LP forces you to resize diagonally. To have some widgets overlapping, go to ADWSettings > UI Settings > Screen and click the Overlapping Widgets option. After that you can now overlap any widget over another widget or icon. Just remember that if you want a certain widget/icon to be BELOW another widget, the item you want below has to be placed on the screen first. If not, then it won't work.