On Home screen - long press menu key function?

[AndroidHero]

I tried searching for this, to no avail, but here is the situation. I was on my main Home screen and just trying to figure stuff out and when I long press the menu key it brings up the onscreen keyboard. I figured it was for contact search or something, but it did nothing when I typed...or so I thought. Now everytime I back out to the Home screen a little transparent "window" displays with letters i first typed. I cant type new letters to display or even use the backspace key to erase. Any one know what Im talking about?

 

[AndroidHero]

anyone?

 

[pking]

I believe that 'phone search' was the intended function here, but it wasn't implemented properly. Rumor has it the patch is supposed to fix this, but rumor has a lot of things regarding the patch. At the very least, it should be implemented as part of 2.0

 

[AndroidHero]

okay cool thanks! i ended up just resetting my phone to factory settings for a few reasons so its been fixed.

 

[jbc77]

I made the mistake of downloading a wallpaper I liked trough the market. Now when I long press the menu button it brings up the keyboard and it used to bring up settings, themes, and wallpaper. Now it just brings up the keyboard. Rather annoying.

Any tips on how to fix this without restoring factory settings? Is restoring the factory settings the only resolution and will I lose anything by doing so? Would really like to have the menu long press function back.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks people.

 

[AndroidHero]

i think your just confused. long pressing the menu key is supposed to bring up the keyboard(not sure why) but just a simple standard press of the menu button while on the home screen will bring up your settings menu interface.

 

[BiGMERF]

when i long press the home key i get a box with some apps in it, what does it mean?

 

[AndroidHero]

the long press on the home key is like ALT+TAB on your pc. Its top 6 or so currently running apps. using that allows you to switch to different apps quickly while running other apps.

 

[pking]

the long press on the home key is like ALT+TAB on your pc. Its top 6 or so currently running apps. using that allows you to switch to different apps quickly while running other apps.

Correction - long press on the home button brings up the 6 last used apps, not currently running apps - easy to confuse since the last 6 apps are usually still running.

 

[AndroidHero]

true! thanks for the correction!

 

[dmm5157]

i think your just confused. long pressing the menu key is supposed to bring up the keyboard(not sure why) but just a simple standard press of the menu button while on the home screen will bring up your settings menu interface.

The press/hold Menu button is handy for some apps that don't toggle the virtual keyboard, such as Opera Mini. Coming from a Windows Mobile phone, I was used to using the browser and using the number pad to quickly maneuver screen settings and bookmarks. I was starting to think I was going to be unable to do that with the hero, then I realized holding MENU brings up the keyboard. Sure enough, the the number pad will work in Opera Mini and allowed me to navigate similarly (although not as quickly) as my old WM phone with full QWERTY keyboard.


I can't remember if there are other apps where this has been the case, but they were likely apps not designed for a virtual keyboard (like Opera Mini).


Hope that helps.