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Who's found a good home screen method?

S

steffi

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 7, 2003
865
12
So are there any recommendations or common ways folks organize their home screens? I'm sure it's easy to obsess over this.
 
Do you mean the order of the apps? If so, I organized mine by categories so it was easier to locate things.
 
I won't claim that it's 'good', but my method for organization is as follows:

Home screen: Apple-provided apps plus Apple apps that I have installed.

Screen 1 thru n: iPad apps in alphabetical order.

Screen n+1 onward: iPhone apps that I have installed on the iPad, in alphabetical order.

A.
 
It's a mistake that Apple doesn't make it easier to identify apps that are optimized for the iPad.

I should easily be able to swap out apps for the iphone that now can be replaced by apps for the iPad. But on the home screens I should easily be able to identify apps optimizing for the iPad.

Alrescha said:
I won't claim that it's 'good', but my method for organization is as follows:

Home screen: Apple-provided apps plus Apple apps that I have installed.

Screen 1 thru n: iPad apps in alphabetical order.

Screen n+1 onward: iPhone apps that I have installed on the iPad, in alphabetical order.

A.
Click to expand...
 
steffi said:
So are there any recommendations or common ways folks organize their home screens? I'm sure it's easy to obsess over this.
Click to expand...

Yes! I am obsessed with the order of these apps!

The following is how I organize mine:
Dock - Safari, Mail, iPod, iBooks, Kindle
Page 1 - Apple apps, Streaming Apps (eg: AirVideo/Youtube/Netflix/WunderRadio), News and reference apps (eg: Bible, Wikipedia, AP News, BBC, Bloomberg), TweetDeck.
Page 2 - Notes and productivity apps, Photos apps (eg: Picasa Web Albums, Photopad), Location apps (eg: Urbanspoon), Eyecandy apps (eg: Star Walk, Guardian Eyewitness)
Page 3 - Games
Page 4 - iPhone Apps (Skype, Remote, Meebo, Speedtest)
Page 5 - Useless Apps (Contacts, Videos, iTunes)
 
I'm a neat freak so it is freaking me out that the iPad varies the number of apps. in a row depending on if you are viewing it portrait or landscape. I like my dock apps to be in alignment but in one or the other formats it won't be.

Is it just me???


Oh, and I try to organize them by function.

Utilities (notepad, calendar, pis, maps, contacts, weather, calculator)
Newspapers (times, usa today, wsj, bbc news)
Entertainment (youtube, abc, netflix, yahoo, ew)
Fun Stuff (piano players & crap)
Games (games!)

But I don't separate them by pages. My neatfreakness does not allow me to have pages with apps missing. Each page must be full before I can start a new one. :eek: :eek: :eek:
 
I have all apps sorted by alphabetical order, no matter if it's an Apple stock app or something I bought. I find this the easiest as doing it by category means that I have to remember what category a certain app is.

In the dock I have my most used apps...Mail, Maps, Atomic, Mail, App Store and Settings.
 
Right now, I have Apple apps + my most frequently used (multiple times per day) on the home screen. On the remaining screens I have iPad apps in alphabetical order then iPhone apps in alphabetical order.

I find that as long as my key apps are at my fingertips, the spotlight search is great for evereything else.
 
Here's looking forward to the Fall when iPhone OS 4 hits the iPad and we have folders to tidy up the cluster@#$k that we know as the Springboard.

Until then, the most frequently used apps are kept as close to screen #1 as possible. I keep the most frequently used apps with badges in the Dock (Mail, SMS, BeejiveIM, etc). If there's an app on page 7 or 8 it probably shouldn't even be on my iPad. ;)
 
Wait until 4.0, and you'll have a folders option. Then you can simply create seperate folders on the home page for each type of app, apps named A-D/E-H/I-L/, or any other organization strategy. Very desktopish. :D
 
DOCK - Atomic, Mail, Notes, App Store, Settings, iPod
HOME - Fifteen More Often Used Apps
PAGE 1 - Utilities
PAGE 2 - Books, Newspapers, Magazines, Document readers
PAGE 3 - Apps for photo and art manpulation
PAGE 4 - Apps relating to video and music
PAGE 5 - Games and goofy apps
 
I sort by usage. Most common 6 in the dock of course. Also since there are so many they are in sub catagories. First row are general Apple apps, next are video players like NetFlix, then games and such! Next pages are just a jumble sorted by general likelyhood of being used.
 
steffi said:
It's a mistake that Apple doesn't make it easier to identify apps that are optimized for the iPad.
Click to expand...

I agree it is not easy to tell the difference on the iPad itself, but it's trivial within iTunes, which is where I do all this organization.

A.
 
How are you able to make this distinction in iTunes? The reason I have to launch them on the iPad is to see if they using the iPad display or not. I don't see anything on the SyncApps screen that tells me an App is written for the iPad vs iPhone vs Universal.

Alrescha said:
I agree it is not easy to tell the difference on the iPad itself, but it's trivial within iTunes, which is where I do all this organization.

A.
Click to expand...
 
steffi said:
So are there any recommendations or common ways folks organize their home screens? I'm sure it's easy to obsess over this.
Click to expand...

I only put the most used daily apps on the first page. Everything else, I don't care because I use spotlight to find them. So I'm always on the first page.
 
LOL, I thought I was the only one obsessed about this. I'm still reefing my system, but I went with categories also:

Dock (6)
Mail,*Atomic Browser,Calendar, Settings, Alarm Clock,*Skype,*

Common/Usuable (15)
Video,*
iPod, *
Maps ,*
Notes, *
Pad Notes, *
(weather Channel (or) weather HD (or) Weather Bug),*
Evernote,*
my lite Flashlight,*
Safari,
Opera,*
Atomic Browser,
Adobe Ideas,*
Sundry Notes,*
Pages,*
Numbers,*
App Store
iTUnes
school notes pro,*

Viewing/Communication (6)
You Tube,*
ABC,*
NetFlix,*
Pandora,*
Sling Player(P),*
AIM,*

Occasional/Usuable (12)
Desktop,*
Offline Pages,*
Contacts,*
iDisk, *
Dragon Dictation, **
(Readable Docs),*
Air Sharing(P),*
Voice Memos,*
Calculator,*
(Draw),*

Reading/Study (15)
iBooks,*
Good Reader,*
iPDF Reader,*
Kindle,*
Marvel,*
Classcs,*
Pocket Korean 1,*
Pocket Korean 2,*
Word Power -Korean (P),*
101 Classics(P),*
Instapaper,*
free books,*
Toy Story Read Along,*
Alice for iPad Lite,*

Novelty (9)
Beautiful Planet,*
Colorful Aquarium,*
Shazam,*
Sky Grid,*
Star Walk,*
Talking Carl(P),*
Pro Keys,**
Holotoy,*
NY 3D Rollercoaster Rush
Functionality (7)
extra weather app,*
extra weather app 2,*
Backgrounds,*
+300 WallPaper,*
Remote(P),*
speedtest.net,*
iPad info
Motion X GPS

News (12)
CNN,*
BBC News,*
Men's Health,*
NPR,*
NYT,*
Yahoo Entertainemnt,*
AccuRadio,*
Fluent News,*
Broadway,*
Rachel Maddow(P),*
tv.com(P),*
Reuturs

Reference (13)
Kor Subway, *
Constitution,*
Dictionary,*
Periodic Table,*
World Atlas,*
World Book, *
App Box PRo(P),*
Docmemnts,*
Free WiFI (P),*
Seoul Metro(P),*
Subway in KR(P),*
Kayak,*
Articles for iPad

Action Games (14)
AirCoaster,*
Aqua Moto Race(P),*
Audi A$ Driving(P),*
Mirror's Edge,
Top Gun(P),*
Wave Blazer(P),*
Word Girl(P),*
x-plane Trainer(P),*
2XL Supercross(P)
Karate Kid
Tilt HD
Cocoto Kart HD
Heavy Gunner HD



Arcade Games (8)
Touch Hockey Extreme
Pinball HD
Arcade Slingshot HD
Zen Pinabll(P),*
Vegas Pool Shark(P),*
Missile Pad,*
Tap Tap Radiation,
Tetris(P),*
Touch Tank Online

Table Games 1 (11)
Tic Tac Toe,*
Backgammon(P),*
Boggle(P),*
Trivial Pursuit(P),
Jumbalaya
War Chess HD
Table Checkers HD
Yahtzee Adventrures
Labryinth,*
Big Bad Sodoku book
Clickomania HD

Card Games/Misc (9)
Black Jack,*
Shanghai Majong,*
Poker Odds(P),*
World Series of Poker(P),
the solitaire
Solitaire Fantastic
Bubble Rap,*
GodFInger,*
What's the Difference
 
steffi said:
How are you able to make this distinction in iTunes?
Click to expand...

Sorry, I was referring to the Apps page under Library, where they are broken out by type.

A.
(who doesn't have so many iPad-only apps that this is a hardship)
 
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