Day 4: Dial by Name
One of the coolest features of the Treo has been the ability to dial a telephone number by using someone's name. (This is at least true for the Treo 600 an later.) No longer will Treo owners need to remember someone's telephone number. They only need to remember their name.
You see, on the Treo, once you have populated your Contacts database, all you need to do is type a name to call up all of the matching telephone numbers. If I wanted to call John Doe and I can't recall his phone number, from the Phone screen, select the Contacts button, and then start typing "Doe"and your contacts are filtered based on the information you type.
As the database is filtered, you will see names from your contacts database on the left, and below the name, and to the right, you see all of the phone numbers for that person. To make the call, use the navigator to select a number and then press the center button. BOOM! Your call is made.
If you don't want to keep typing out "John Doe" to see his phone numbers, another easy way to access the information is to simply type "jd". All of the contacts in the database that match the first initial, last initial or last initial, first initial of "jd" will be displayed. Select the number you want and press the center button. Now you're off and running.
But wait! There is yet one more way to access frequently accessed phone numbers. Let's say that you want to have someone's phone information at the ready all the time and with minimal typing. When you are in the Phone application (press the Phone button), you can define a favorite. A favorite can be just about anything: an application, a web page, and application, or even a contact.
On Treo smartphones running the Palm OS, there will be four blue rectangles just about the navigator. Press down twice to expand the list of favorites. Scroll around the favorites tabs until you find and select an empty slot. Press the Menu button, and then select "Edit Favorite Button..." from the Record menu.
Now, enter the specifics of the favorite by setting the Type to be "Speed Dial". Tap or select the "Lookup" button and find the phone number you want to link the speed dial to. Optionally, you can select a key on the keyboard to be the "Quick Key", a key you can press and hold to automatically dial the number with out further keystrokes. When you are done, tap or select the OK button. Now, when I need to call John Doe, I can select his speed dial button, or I can press and hold his quick key to dial the number which was selected from my contacts database.
But what if John has two or three numbers? Do I need to create a speed dial entry for his office phone and his cell phone? The answer is no. If you select John's favorite button and press the space bar rather than the center button, a window pops open and show you all of John's phone numbers. Just highlight the number you need to call (W=work, H=home, M=mobile) and then press the center button.
Labels: palm, tips, treo
