[Lillieperl]

This should be simple, right?

The tutorial on the Sprint site (the tutorials are EXCELLENT, BTW) says, "From the home screen, just enter the phone number." That's the way it's always been done, right?

But that isn't working for me. On the home screen, I start by entering my local area code, which begins with "2," and right away I'm calling the person who is #2 on my speed dial (and no, I didn't hold down the key), before I can even dial the other two numbers of the area code.

I know I can hit "9" and get to a list where I can input the number I want to call in the field at the top of the page, but WHY CAN'T I JUST INPUT A NUMBER LIKE A NORMAL PERSON ON A NORMAL PHONE?

I tried calling Sprint last night by dialing *2, and of course, you have to do this by holding down the alt key in order to access the * and the 2, but nothing happened. No call, no movement.... the home screen just sat there.

I wound up calling Sprint by clicking on the 800# within the email they sent me.

Am I doing something really wrong or has the whole world gone nuts? (It is permissible to select both options.)

[wheelyfeet]

I'm not even close to an expert, but something is definitely going on with your phone. Mine doesn't speed dial unless I press and hold the key for quite awhile. I also don't have to keep holding down the alt key to dial *2. I just type alt * then alt 2, then hit the send button.

[Lillieperl]

Okay, I just hit "alt-*" and then "alt-2" and nothing happened. No call. No change on the screen. Rats.

[wheelyfeet]

I posted under your other thread re: your browser and your OS version. Check to see if you have the latest version. If you do, something is up with your phone. I suppose there are rare cases when a BB phone is defective.

[Lillieperl]

I just installed the desktop software that came with the new phone. It was a newer version than the one I had been using. Looking over the list of installed applications, I noticed that "phone" was in the list, but it was grayed out. I'm thinking that has something to do with my problem.

[ADGrant]

Doesn't the Perl have a green phone button?

[Lillieperl]

No, I have to amend that. It's grayed out because you don't have the option of changing or removing it.

[Lillieperl]

Sorry, I don't have a Pearl anymore. I can't seem to change the identifier under my name. [Oh, I see one of the mods removed it.]

I got a Style 9670 a couple of days ago. It also has a green button though. On my Pearl, I just started entering a phone number and it appeared on the screen, and I hit the green button and the phone dialed the number.

On this phone, when I start hitting numbers from the so-called "hone screen," the phone does not interpret those numbers as phone numbers to be called, but as commands. So for example, if I hit the 9, I get a list of contacts. If I hit the 9, and hold it for a split second, I get #9 on my speed dial. Dialing an area code that begins with 9 doesn't appear to be an option.

When I hit *2 as I said above to call Sprint, NOTHING happens. No numbers appear, the phone does not dial. The home screen with buttons and wallpaper remains unchanged.

[ADGrant]

Press the green button, dial the number and then press the green button again.

[ADGrant]

No point in replacing with another BB. There does not appear to be anything wrong with the one he has got.

[wheelyfeet]

OMG Kellyjdrummer that would be too easy! LOL!

[ADGrant]

In Phone Options turn ON Dial from home screen.

Which you can do from the phone dialer screen which you can get to by hitting the green button.

[Lillieperl]

Okay. I get it. You hit the green button and it sends you to another screen from which you can dial the number.

On the Pearl (and other normal phones), you start dialing the number from the "home screen/desktop" and hit the green button (only once, AFTER you've input the number) and the phone dials the number.

I didn't realize Ii couldn't begin dialing the number itself directly from the home screen without accessing an intermediate screen first.

However, THIS

In Phone Options turn ON Dial from home screen.

interests me.

Where do I find this? I've gone to phone>options... is "turn on dial from home screen" under one of the options listed.

I'mwearingdown...

[Lillieperl]

I prefer to leave it off. No accidental calling.

Tell me more. Where do I find it?

[wheelyfeet]

Okay kellyjdrummer, I can't find the option to dial from the home screen. I've tried looking under options and under phone options. We have no general options on the Style.

ADGrant, I think Lillieperl knew how to dial from the phone dialer screen. The problem is dialing from the home screen, which I suspect is on and not working properly since speed dialing is working from home screen.

Also, please don't be too sarcastic; I'm not an expert and not really interested in being one. I just want my device to work the way I think it should. What may be obvious to you, may not be to me.

[ADGrant]

Okay kellyjdrummer, I can't find the option to dial from the home screen. I've tried looking under options and under phone options.

ADGrant, I think Lillieperl knew how to dial from the phone dialer screen. The problem is dialing from the home screen.

Also, please don't be too sarcastic; I'm not an expert and not really interested in being one. I just want my device to work the way I think it should. What may be obvious to you, may not be to me.

Lillieperl did not know how to access the phone dialer screen. Read his/her post from 2:35.

As for being sarcastic, if you are not an expert, it is better to leave the advice to those who are (or those who at least knows the answer to the question being asked). If you do want home screen dialing, it can be enabled by selecting options from the phone dispose menu. I have it disabled and prefer to use the home screen to launch applications.

[ADGrant]

It should be in General Options in the Phone screen. Hit the green dial button once, then the Menu button. General options will be at the top. Open it and enable Dial from home screen.

It's actually menu button->options->general options.

[Laura Knotek]

Dial from home screen is not there in OS 6.

In OS 6, Options>Display>Home Screen Preferences will provide you either Launch by Typing "Application Shortcuts" or "Universal Search".



If I wish to make a phone call, I press the green call button, and then enter the number if the caller is not in my contacts. If the caller is in my contacts, I press the green call button and then either start typing the caller's name in the box at the top, or press the BlackBerry button and then scroll to "Call from Contacts".

[Lillieperl]

I did know how to access the phone dialer screen. If I gave the impression I didn't, I misspoke from inside my cloud of confusion. What I wanted to do was dial directly from the home screen, as I thought I should be able to do.

When I go to menu button>options, there is no "general options."

Menu button>options takes me to a screen called "Home Screen Preferences," which contains the following text:
Launch by typing
with a drop-down menu containing two choices:
"application shortcuts"
and
"universal search"

Below that is wallpaper settings (with the option to change wallpaper or reset)
Below that is number of icon rows (with several choices)
Below that is downloads folder (with some choices)
Below that is Reset to Default Settings
and a message in red saying that if you hit the reset button all of your hair will fall out and some other bad things you may wish had not happened (not really)
Below that is the Reset Settings button

That is all. Nothing else. No "General Options."


ETA: Yeah, like in that picture.

Tell me what's so great about OS6???


ETA 1:

If I wish to make a phone call, I press the green call button, and then enter the number if the caller is not in my contacts. If the caller is in my contacts, I press the green call button and then either start typing the caller's name in the box at the top, or press the BlackBerry button and then scroll to "Call from Contacts".

Yeah, I guess this is the way to do it. I couldn't wrap my brain around not being able to pick up the phone and just DIAL. But I guess I have to.

[Laura Knotek]

OS 6 will take some getting used to. I never used "dial from home screen" even when I was running OS 5 and OS 4.6, since I use the keyboard shortcuts, such as pressing "m" to open my messages.

Granted, I have always used a full QWERTY device, never a Pearl of any type, so I probably had less to learn when I switched to OS 6.

This article is about OS 6. However, the parts the refer to touching the screen will not apply, since the article was written when the 9800 was first released. At the time of the article, only the 9800 had OS 6. There also are themes for all OS 6 devices now, since theme builder was updated. I would still recommend checking out the article, since it does explain some of the new features in OS 6.

[Laura Knotek]

Lilliperl, these are the options in OS5. As you can see, there seems to be more control on this old Curve. Maybe not. As I said, I prefer to disable "Dial from home screen" in order to avoid accidental dialing.

She cannot do this. Her device runs OS6 only. There is no OS5 for the 9670. Please refrain from mentioning OS5, as it cannot help the OP.

[wheelyfeet]

Lillieperl did not know how to access the phone dialer screen. Read his/her post from 2:35.

As for being sarcastic, if you are not an expert, it is better to leave the advice to those who are (or those who at least knows the answer to the question being asked). If you do want home screen dialing, it can be enabled by selecting options from the phone dispose menu. I have it disabled and prefer to use the home screen to launch applications.

LOL! Sorry! I thought maybe I could be helpful since I too happen to own and successfully use a Style. I saw Lillieperl's main concern was that when beginning to type a number on the home screen it would speed dial. My Style does not speed dial from home screen without holding down the letter/number and I can dial from home screen without using the phone dialer to begin dialing (you do have to hit the green button to complete the call.)

Doesn't that possibly indicate that dialing from home screen is ON (which is default I would assume)? Even if Lillieperl was not understanding how to use the dialer, one should not have to use the dialer if dialing from home screen is ON and functioning correctly, right?

Lastly, evidently the Style doesn't have the option of turning OFF or ON dialing from home screen not at least in the manner you describe. (I have looked through every single option to see if it is hidden somewhere else.) I've also wondered if it could be a universal search problem and changed those options, but that didn't affect dialing from home screen. So, since turning Off or ON homescreen dialing is apparently not an option for the Style, should not the correct mode be always ON and functioning as it should?

So given all of this, perhaps Lilliperl's problem is the BB and not user error?

[Lillieperl]

It's been a helpful discussion. One erroneously assumes that later/new OS's will bring improvements and not promote entropy. Oh well.

Thanks for the support, wheelyfeet (cute name). (Are you a roller skater... or wheelchair-bound?)

[Ferretling]

Technically, you *can* dial from the homescreen. This is how.

Hold down the alt key. Press any number (though I advise against 2 because this is giving you the speed dial.) The number you press doesn't matter. It should automatically call up the Search Screen, but ignore this. Now dial your number and hit the green phone button. This will dial the number.

As you can see, it's less confusing to hit the phone button, dial, and then call, but it can be done.

The other way that you can dial from the home screen is to start typing in the person's name that you want to call. This will, again, bring up Universal Search and list the name(s) that correspond with what you are typing. Select name (and number if there are multiple for that listing) and hit the green phone button.

That's it. It does take some getting used to. It did feel weird to me at first too.

[BergerKing]

Lillieperl, if you activate the Universal Search feature in Home Screen, when you start typing numbers, below the Universal Search field you should see the number being typed, a quick scroll down and click will dial your #.



If it doesn't work this way, you may have a hardware problem and they need to fix or replace your device.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com