JeffKirvin.net

The Basics, Improved

What if you like the Zen simplicity of the stock Windows Mobile Today screen, but just wish it did a little bit more? Like, say, actually show you your tasks along with the summary so they’re not as easy to ignore? Or show more than just the next 24 hours worth of appointments? Or how about a way to make the Date plugin take up only one line of precious Today real estate instead of two? We’ve got you covered.

Let’s tackle tasks first, since that’s the one that Microsoft seems to pay the least attention to (Microsoft has always put a heavier emphasis in Outlook and Exchange on being somewhere over doing something). Rather than reinvent the wheel, AM TasksPlus is just like the stock Tasks module, only better. It starts off with a summary of your tasks, just like the stock module (this can be disabled), but then optionally displays the actual tasks under the summary. It can display up to 29 tasks, broken up by due date and sorted however you like. It can also open the stock Tasks program when you tap on a task, or use Agenda Fusion or Pocket Informant instead. Not bad for free.

Calendar+ is basically the same idea, but for appointments. I’m not sure which came first, but they seem to be from different developers yet share a lot of the same look and feel, so I’m sure one was inspired by the other. With Calendar+, you can show up to the next 30 months, or just the next 36 hours, or just the next 5 appointments, however you want to handle it. You can also set up color bars to show in front of free, tentative or conflicting appointments. Like TasksPlus, you can also alter the font size for all UI elements. Also free.

Something you’ll notice if you install these is that your taking up a lot more lines on your Today screen than you were before. Keeping in mind that anything you have to scroll to see won’t be seen all that often, you need to try to keep as much information “above the fold” as possible. And as soon as you look at your Today screen with a mind to optimize vertical space, you’ll notice that the default Date plugin can’t be moved and takes up two lines of text. Wasteful, but fortunately, there’s TodayTime (don’t let the download page fool you; you don’t have to speak Portuguese to use this). This is a small Today module that allows you to replace the default Date module with one that takes up only one line and can be configured however you like. In the settings for it, you define a template for left and right sides of the plugin to use when displaying date and time information, as well as the font size to use. I usually drop the font size down a bit and then display:

dddd, d MMMM yyyy

on the left and:

h:mm:ss tt

on the right, which after I disable the Date module and activate TodayTime at the top of my Today screen, displays:

Wednesday, 13 September 2006 10:32:24 AM

And oh yeah, it’s free too.

And while we’re tweaking, a word on the subject of launchers. A lot of people use third party launchers to put program items right on the Today screen. Personally, I’ve tried this but always undo it. I look at it like this. While one of the great things about the Pocket PC platform is that you can customize just about everything, this isn’t always for the best. While having commonly used apps on the Today screen can be convenient, I find that it isn’t worth what you’re giving up in interface consistency.

It’s vitally important to have one defined way of doing something. Let’s say you want to run Windows Media Player. What do you do? Press a hard button? Tap an icon on the Today screen with your stylus? Is it in the Start Menu, or the Programs screen? Too many possibilities! Agh!

Here’s what I do. On my Today screen, I have information about, well, Today. Or in the case of plugins like Pocket Player, now. But information, not programs. And a cool background.

On the Start menu, Microsoft kinda sorta gets it. Using the Menu settings applet, you can have a program icon in the Start Menu or Programs, but not both; the shortcuts are actually moved from one folder to the other under the \windows directory. Here I make the split even more concrete. I have no programs permanently assigned to the Start Menu. They’re all in Programs. I’ve cleaned up the Programs folder a bit by moving unused program icons I can’t uninstall to a subfolder called “Unused”, but other than that, it’s a flat collection, similar to viewing the Palm home screen on All. In the Start menu itself, that leaves only the hard links to Programs and Settings along with a dozen or so recently used applications. This list is constantly changing, but it’s a great way to get to stuff you just used, well, recently.

This way I have everything in its place. I can find program icons in Programs, recently used apps in the Start Menu and current info on the Today screen. No overlap, no confusion, no hesitation. When I’m looking for something, I go right to where I know it will be.

Next: SBSH’s PocketBreeze