[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note II] garyd9:
I was going to re-post the apk's I pulled together for modifying the samsung touchwiz launcher to have an extra row of icon space on the home screens and an extra column as well. However, there's a better solution:

THIS IS A HOWTO. This isn't a "download the attached file and donate to me" thread. This is a thread intended to help people to learn how to modify their own devices. If all you want is something pre-made to install on your phone, there are several good customized firmwares (ROMs) available in this subforum. The attached files are so people can download a working example to compare to their own work. Please keep this in mind when replying to the thread.

First, a link to another thread that explains how to modify the launcher. These instructions are for a galaxy S III, but they work just fine for the Note II:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?p=27433971

That's not my thread and 99.9% of any credit for this should be given to the person who posted the that thread and the people from whom that person learned from.

Now, I found I didn't like these directions as-is. First, I thought the icon labels got too truncated when using this with 5 columns. Second, I really didn't like how this mod moved the little "page" indicator dots below the docked icons. (The photo's on this thread don't show that, but if you follow the directions, they are moved.)

So, I spent a few hours playing with sizes and such to get things to look a bit better (from my perspective.) That's how I came up with the apk's I posted a week or so ago.

Below, I'll dump my notes on the measurements that I kept so I could reproduce the changes I did (for the next firmware update.) They don't make much sense on their own, but if you combine them with the above linked thread, they make perfect sense. Keep in mind that these are my notes and not even an attempt as a tutorial.

Now, these notes are YOUR notes as well. Please use them, change them to suite your own desires, or ignore them.

There's only one thing better than downloading a custom firmware for your phone: Customizing that firmware yourself.

SecLauncher2... modifying the grid sizes

To enable scrolling on any of these:

res/values/bools.xml: change fixedWallpaperOffset to "false" (to turn on scrolling)

The rest of the files to edit are all in "res/values-sw359dp-xhdpi"

For 4x5 (extra vertical row):

integers.xml:

<integer name="home_cellCountX">4</integer>
<integer name="home_cellCountY">5</integer>

dimens.xml

<dimen name="app_icon_size">44.0dip</dimen>

<dimen name="home_cellWidth_port">80.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="home_cellHeight_port">90.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="home_cellGapX_port">10.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="home_cellGapY_port">2.0dip</dimen>

<dimen name="home_pageMarginPlusPaddingTop">12.0dip</dimen>

<dimen name="home_pageIndicatorTop">484.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="home_pageIndicatorTopShrunken">484.0dip</dimen>

For 5x4 (extra horiz column):

use the 4x5 and 5x5 to figure it out.

for 5x5 (both extra row and extra column):

integers.xml

<integer name="home_cellCountX">5</integer>
<integer name="home_cellCountY">5</integer>

dimens.xml

<dimen name="app_icon_size">44.0dip</dimen>

<dimen name="home_cellWidth_port">68.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="home_cellHeight_port">90.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="home_cellGapX_port">4.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="home_cellGapY_port">2.0dip</dimen>

<dimen name="home_pageMarginPlusPaddingTop">12.0dip</dimen>

<dimen name="home_pageIndicatorTop">484.0dip</dimen>
<dimen name="home_pageIndicatorTopShrunken">484.0dip</dimen>

styles.xml (this is needed for 5 columns or the icon labels get truncated - the change is only the textSize)

<style name="HomeIcon" parent="@style/BaseHomeIcon">
<item name="android:textSize">12.0dip</item>

As a bonus, I'll also upload some apk files that already have these changes in place. My primary intention for uploading them is to serve as an example, but they are fully functional on a stock i317 firmware.

If you want to use them as-is, do a backup first. Then figure out which you want based on the name. (4x5 is 4 columns and 5 rows IN ADDITION to the dock row. if "scroll" is in the name, the wallpaper will scroll, else it won't.) Then rename the file to "SecLauncher2.apk", and use something like root explorer (that allows you to write to the /system/app partition) and overwrite the existing file by the same name. After you do that, your home launcher will get a little nutty for a second or three, and then it'll work fine. (If it doesn't, restore the backup.)

(If you download one of these files with IE, the file extension might get changed from "apk" to "zip" If so, just change it back to .apk.)

Take care

Gary