[HTC Inspire 4G] Nickovtyme:
Commonly Used Widgets Read the whole thread...alot of useful information and widgets in there.

Here's a simple (prolly incomplete guide) to using Minimalistic Text that I wrote from some folks at another forum I belong to. It takes a little getting used to...Like in my Screenshots above...every bit of text you see will launch another app.

All credit goes to the Developer...I'm just helping out!

Minimalistic Text Widget (from here on out will be refered to as MT) is kinda tricky to figure out how to use it effectively. If you open a widget on your homescreen and leave everything default in the settings screen...then you'll get a decent looking text clock widget...but who wants that? Lets customize your home screen. Want to create a custom text widget to say launch your dialer or message app? Well you can do that to...or you can just put static text on your screen to remind you of an important even coming up. Either way, this guide I hope will get you started and a better understanding of how the widget works.

To add a default MT clock widget

1. Tap and hold your finger on the screen till the menu comes up. Tap Widget.

2. Scroll down to MT and select which size you want. If the 1 is first its vertical; if the 1 is last its horizontal.

3. Click MT 2x1 and the MT Preferences Menu opens.

4. Give it a name if you want so you can come back and customize it later.

5. Scroll all the way down, tap save, then OK. The Preferences menu closes and you will see a basic MT Clock on your screen.

Customizing your MT Widget: Here I'll walk you through setting up a cutomized widget.

1. Tap Screen, open an MT widget and we'll click MT 4x1. (4x1 and 4x2 will be the biggest widget you can use on a phone. The 5x1 and 6x1 is for Tablets)

2. If you want a background for the widget, click Show Background. Then click the Square underneath. You'll be taken to the color menu where you can choose the color of your background. I use the RGB screen. The A slider at the bottom will determine how transparent the background is.

3. Once you choose a color, the next setting is Shadow settings where you can add a shadow effect to the background.

4. Orientation.

- Horizontal widgets are defaulted left to right.

- If you are wanting a vertical widget, you can set the text to either start from the bottom and go up or from the top and go down.

Horizontal Block - do you want the text sitting at the left, center, or right of the widget?

Vertical Block - Do you want the text sitting closer to the top edge, Center or bottom edge of the widget?

Horizontal Text - do you want the text at the top, centered or at the bottom of the widget.

(if you're using a transparent background then these settings really don't matter)

5. Layout.

- choose a predefined default layout or a custom.

- if you choose a custom layout, then click on custom layout. You'll be taken to the Custom Layout screen where you can set up your widget however you want with what ever you want.

The 3 blocks are the default blocks which created the MT Clock earlier. Now tap and hold Hour text(12h) a trash can will pop up and drag that block to the trash. Do that for all 3 blocks.

Say you just want to have a MT calendar/date widget. Click the

+ and another menu will pop up. You can choose how to customize the date. Tap Year text 'decade' then drag and drop it up to the custom layout block. After each drop, click the green + to open menu again. Now go through the menu that scrolls left to right and choose however you wish to set up your calendar.

if you want, you can fill the top 3 blocks however you want, but say under the calender you want the weather.

Click the green - and another block opens up; click Weather and you can set up the weather how you want by drag and drop.

6. Once that's done, you can customize the text. Tap Year text 'decade' and you can then choose the style of font you want to use. Accented, non-accented etc...you can even override the font size.

7. back out of that menu and set up your text styles. Accented, Non-Accented and Normal. (Both step 6 and 7 kinda go hand in hand) You can use the default fonts or if you have any loaded on your phone, you can use custom fonts.

8. Widget Content. Pretty self-explanatory.

9. Tap Behavior - This is where you can set it up to launch apps if you tap it or even have your phone speak the Time, Date or weather if you tap it.

10. Global settings allows you to set up your weather service and settings for every widget you create.

11. Then you can save your newly created widget and then go look at it on the home screen and see if you like it or not. If you don't like it, simply tap on the widget and you'll be taken to the preferences menu to make whatever changes you want. (If you created a Launch Widget, you have to go into the MT Settings from the app drawer and load the Widget you created. Then make your changes.)

- Restore is for loading a widget you have already created if you've lost or deleted it from the screen. Restore settings and then ok and your widget should reappear on the screen.

Alot of this is just playing around with the MT widget and eventually you'll get the hang of it. I messed with it for several days before I figured it out.

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Creating a launch widget with MT: I'll guide you through setting up a text widget that opens your dialer to make calls.

Go through steps 1 thru 5 from the above post.

When you get to 5...Choose Custom layout, move the 3 blocks to the trash. Click the green +, then tap misc.

Grab Static Text and drag to the main block. Tap static text. Type "Calls" in the text menu and set it up (or whatever you want to use: Dialer...Phone..)

Back out of that to the main menu and scroll down to Tap Behavior.

Tap "Start another Activity" Then tap "Select an activity or shortcut"

A menu will pop up that displays all your apps or shortcuts. Scroll down to Dialer then tap it. Now you just linked that app/action/shortcut with the text widget.

Hit OK.

You'll be taken to your home screen and when you tap Calls (or whatever you named it) it should open up the Dialer so you can make a phone call.

You can set up any text widget to launch any app using that method. Set up your Weather text to open your Weather app. You can create a Message text widget to open up your Texting app. Create one that says "Birds" to open Angry Birds if you wish.

I hope I didn't break any rules here...If this isn't the right thread for it...point me to the right one and I'll move it over there.