Using gestures
Gestures are an important, basic part of using your
phone. They’re easy to learn, and they make working with the phone
fast. You make most gestures with one finger. You make a few with
two. Do not use your fingernail. Don’t bear down.
To see short animations illustrating how to make gestures,
select the Learn tab at the top of the page.
You make gestures in two areas on your phone: the touchscreen
and the gesture area. The gesture area is the black area extending
from the bottom of the screen to halfway down the Center button.
* Gesture area
Here’s how you use the center button:
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When you’re working in an application, press center to
see Card View. Card view shows you all the applications that are
currently open, displayed as a series of cards (small active windows).
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When you’re in Card View, press center to
maximize the app in the center of the view.
Check the following topics for more information on gestures:
Basic gestures
Tap: Tap with the tip of your finger—not
the fingernail. Tap fast and firmly, and then immediately lift your
fingertip off the screen. Don’t bear down on what you’re tapping. Don’t
wait for a response; the response comes after you lift your finger.
Don’t linger on the gesture; a tap takes only a split second.
Swipe: A swipe is usually a horizontal gesture,
from right to left or left to right. Do it fast and lightly. In
a swipe, your fingertip just skims the surface of the touchscreen
or gesture area. You can swipe down vertically from the upper-left
corner of the screen to open the application menu or from the upper-right
corner of the screen to open the connection menu.
One kind of swipe you’ll use a lot is back. Make the back
gesture from right to left anywhere in the gesture area. Back takes
you up a level from a detailed view to a more general view of the
application you’re working in. For example, when you finish reading an
email message, make the back gesture to close the message and return
to your list of messages. Or when you finish writing a memo, make
the back gesture to close and save the memo and return to the display
of all your memos. When you make the back gesture in an application
and only one screen of that app is open, you minimize the app and
go back to Card view.
In Web, the back gesture performs the same function as the
back button on the browser, allowing you to move back through previously
viewed pages.
The forward gesture, which is a swipe from left to right anywhere
in the gesture area, allows you to move forward through previously
viewed Web pages. Forward is available in Web only.
Drag : Drag is the gesture you make for a
slow scroll up and down a list. Slide your fingertip slowly along
the surface—there is no need to bear down.
One kind of drag that you’ll use a lot brings up Quick Launch
when you’re in an application. This drag gesture begins in the gesture
area and ends on the touchscreen. As your fingertip slowly crosses
the border between the gesture area and the touchscreen, it drags
Quick Launch into view. To open one of the apps in Quick Launch, move
your finger to its icon. When you see the app name appear, lift
your finger. The application opens.
You also make the drag gesture as part of a drag and drop.
Flick : As its name tells you, flick is a
quick gesture, and it’s great for scrolling long lists. Do it fast
and lightly; as with a swipe, your fingertip should just skim the
surface. The faster you flick, the faster and farther you scroll
up or down a list.
To close an application in Card view, flick the card up toward
the top of the touchscreen. This gesture is called throwing the
card off the top of the screen.
In some applications, such as Email and Messaging, you can
throw a list item off the side of the screen to delete the item.
If an application is maximized, you can flick up from the
gesture area to the screen to minimize the app and display Card
view. This is the up gesture. If you make the up gesture when Card
view is displayed, you open the Launcher.
Scroll gestures
Scroll a specific amount: Drag the
screen in the desired direction. |
Scroll fast: Flick the screen in the
desired direction. |
Stop scrolling: Tap or drag the screen
while scrolling. |
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Zoom gestures
Zoom in (Email, Web, Photos, Doc
View, PDF View, Google Maps): Pinch out: Place two fingers on the
screen, and spread them slowly apart. |
Zoom out (Email, Web, Photos, Doc
View, PDF View, Google Maps): Pinch in: Place two fingers on the
screen, and bring them together. |
Zoom in or out a fixed amount (Web,
Photos, Doc View, PDF View): Double-tap the screen. |
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Text selection gestures
Place the cursor in a text field: Tap
the location. |
Move the cursor: Tap the location
to insert the cursor. Press and hold Option  . Place
your finger anywhere onscreen, and drag your finger in the direction
you want to move the cursor. |
Select text: Tap the location to
insert the cursor. Press and hold Shift  .
Place your finger anywhere onscreen, and drag your finger in the direction
you want to select text. Tap the highlighted text to deselect it. |
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Select a paragraph of text: When you insert a cursor in the
text—for example, on a Web page or in an email message you received—the
smallest amount of text you can select is a whole paragraph. Press
and hold Shift ,
and then tap a paragraph. Tap an adjacent paragraph to add it to
your selection (you can’t skip around). If you need to scroll down
to select the next paragraph, release Shift ,
scroll, press Shift ,
and tap the paragraph. Tapping any part of the highlighted selection
deselects it.
Drag and drop
Tap and hold the item, drag it, and then lift your finger
to drop it. Sometimes you get a visual cue that the item is ready
to be dragged. For example, an icon in the Launcher is ready to
be dragged when you see a halo radiating from the icon. A card in
Card view is ready to be dragged when it changes size and becomes
transparent.
Delete a list
item
You can throw to delete list items in applications such as
Email, Messaging, Tasks, Music, and Bluetooth.
Throw the item off the side of the screen. If prompted, tap Delete to
confirm the deletion.
Tip To delete multiple list items, throw each one off the screen.
If you get the Delete confirmation prompt
after throwing the first item, you don’t need to tap it—just throw the
second item, and the first deletion is confirmed automatically.
If you can’t delete a list item by throwing it, open the item, and
look in the application menu for a delete command. See Using
menus .
Turn advanced gestures on/off
Turning on advanced gestures gives you two new gestures, previous
and next, and also changes the way you make the back gesture, and
the forward gesture (in Web only).
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New gestures: The new previous gesture
is a full swipe to the right across the entire length of the gesture
area. The new next gesture is a full swipe to the left across the entire
length of the gesture area. Use these gestures when you have several
apps open and one app is displayed in full-screen view. By making
the previous and next gestures, you can move among your open apps
without first going to Card view—you go from full-screen view to
full-screen view of each app. The order of the apps is determined
by the order in which you opened them or arranged them in Card view.
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Change to back gesture: The back gesture still
goes from right to left in the gesture area, but you must make a
shorter swipe, from the center outward.
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Change to forward gesture: The forward gesture
(available in Web only) still goes from left to right in the gesture
area, but it’s a shorter swipe, from the center outward.
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Open Screen & Lock
.
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In Switch Applications, tap On or Off.
