Help Navigating Windows

[ralber]

Maybe I'm still not understanding the Android Windows model, but can anybody help me with this navigation problem? I open up Google Reader to read my RSS feeds and accidentally hit the wrong button (usually because the Reader app won't zoom up to a legible size for my middle-aged eyes). To backtrack to where I was, I make the grievous mistake of pressing the back button on my T-Mobile G1. That takes me to my desktop with all of my apps floating above the wallpaper image.

How the #$@##$@ do I get back to the Reader app at this point? Pressing the menu key doesn't reveal a Window key which I could use to jump between open windows. Pressing the Reader app icon merely opens a new instance of the Reader, not the one that was already open. There must be a way to navigate between windows when you're parked at the homepage but I can't find it. I must be the world's dimmest Android user.....

---------- Rick

 

[ralber]

Press and hold on the home key brings up a window showing Browser, Dialer, Messaging, Dialer, Pictures and YouTube app icons. Why just these? Where is this list of applications defined?

What I'd like to see is a list of open windows so I can hop back to the Reader at the place I left it. No button push or gesture seems to get me there. The best I can do is start a new instance of Reader by tapping once on its icon on my desktop. If I do open a instance of Reader (or any other application) then I can press the Menu key and select "Window" to navigate to the instance of Reader I was using before. Why can't I easily get to the Window selection screen when I'm at the desktop?

Anybody straighten me out on this? It must be user airer.

--------- Rick

 

[RozzaC]

It sounds like the Reader application doesn't run in the background when closed...

So that means you can't just continue from your last spot...

 

[ralber]

Not a bad guess, but the Reader app does run in the background. I know this because when I'm at the desktop I can open another app like my calendar and when the calendar opens I can hit the menu key and bring up a list of all open windows. The Reader app is one of the open windows and I can tap on that to return to the place I was at in the Reader app. I don't understand why Android doesn't give me a way to see all open Windows when I'm looking at the desktop. Maybe they do and I'm just overlooking it?

----------- Rick

 

[punkzanyj]

Press and hold on the home key brings up a window showing Browser, Dialer, Messaging, Dialer, Pictures and YouTube app icons. Why just these? Where is this list of applications defined?

What I'd like to see is a list of open windows so I can hop back to the Reader at the place I left it. No button push or gesture seems to get me there. The best I can do is start a new instance of Reader by tapping once on its icon on my desktop. If I do open a instance of Reader (or any other application) then I can press the Menu key and select "Window" to navigate to the instance of Reader I was using before. Why can't I easily get to the Window selection screen when I'm at the desktop?

Anybody straighten me out on this? It must be user airer.

--------- Rick

Those are your most recently opened apps.

If you want to see currently running apps, there's an app in the market called "task switcher".

Hitting the back button actually closes some apps. So it's very possible that you closed the reader when you hit the back button.

Good rule of thumb -
Home key = Minimize
Back Button = Exit (especially if you keep pressing it)