Using Active Desk

Active Desk gives you an overview of your calendar, tasks, and messages. You can create new entries in these applications by clicking on the Active Desk menu on the top left hand side, or by clicking on the icon of the application. Clicking on a calendar entry takes you directly to that entry, whereas clicking on the Calendar row takes you to your calendar view. Clicking on a task takes you directly to the Tasks application. Clicking on a message takes you directly to the Messages application. Each view can also show up to six favourite applications to launch.

Active Desk provides four default, customisable information views on the P800/900. Click on the top right dropdown on the screen to change views. The default views are:

All
Shows all categories of calendar and tasks, as well as six favourites.

Personal
Shows personal category of calendar and tasks only, as well as an additional six favourites.

Business
Shows business category of calendar and tasks only, as well as an additional six favourites.

Calendar
Shows a list of calendar events only, as well as an additional six favourites

These views are only there so that you have some default views and backgrounds when you install Active Desk, and can see the power of the application. Using the Edit menu, you can add new views, delete existing views, and change the view settings, as well as change the zoom of the particular view.

Changing preferences is the best starting point. From the Edit menu of Active Desk, choose 'Preferences'. Choose to start Active Desk when the phone is switched on, a startup sound, whether to activate Active Desk when the flip is opened, and whether to launch Active Desk program, the Active Desk Task Manager, or another application from the buttons on the right hand side of your device (normally camera and internet).

Next you should change your view settings - there are a lot of options for you here. From the Edit menu of Active Desk, choose 'View Settings'. You can change the display, the calendar properties, the tasks properties, the Messages properties, and the six favourites that are displayed on each view. You can decide not to show any section if you don't use it freeing up your screen for more information. The setting options available for each tab are:

Display - the title of the view, the colour of regular text, header text, text selection bar, overdue tasks, whether to use a colour background wallpaper or an image wallpaper, the colour of the wallpaper, and the image file to display as a background.

Calendar – whether to show the calendar section or not, how many rows to display, how many days to display, and whether all, personal or business events should be displayed. In Version 2.0, you can also decide whether to show only future events or not. After an appointment is completed, it need no longer be displayed in Active Desk. e.g. appointment from 10 AM - 11AM is no longer displayed after 11AM.

Tasks – whether to show the tasks section or not, how many rows to display, how many days to display, whether crossed out tasks should be displayed and whether all, personal or business tasks should be displayed.

Messages – whether to show the messages section or not, and whether to only show message box rows if there are new / unread messages. In Version 2.0 you can also decide whether you want to display the messages section at the top of the screen. This is useful especially if you want to tap on the icon of a messages row to create a new message of that type e.g. new SMS, new MMS, or new email.

Favourites – whether to show favourites section or not, and what six favourites to show for this particular view. In Version 2.0, favourites also show an Active Desk tools menu at the right hand side of the favourites row, giving access to a task manager, storage details, and a phone lock (See enhancements above).

Remember that you can add new views and delete views you don't use as well, so that you can personalise and configure Active Desk exactly the way you want it.

Finally, you should check out the Active Desk tools menu which appears at the right of the favourites row. It offers a task manager for switching and closing applications and showing phone memory usage; a storage details option shows internal and memory card storage usage; and a phone lock which has been designed for flip-off usage of the phone.

Remember to make the Active Desk program one of your preferences for applications on the top of your phone (in Applications - Preferences). This will greatly enhance your user experience by allowing you to quickly return to Active Desk after creating a message etc.

You can get a useful overview of all the functionality in the overview diagram.

Don't forget to send your enhancement suggestions or any bug reports to support@cibenix.com.