Folders on the Android desktop, and how to rename them
Thanks to Matt Miller at ZDNet’s The Mobile Gadgeteer, I now know how to rename a folder on the Android desktop. It isn’t rocket science, and I’m sure plenty of you out there stumbled upon it on your own. But since it’s not obvious, I thought it might be worthwhile to share how it works – and what folders are good for in the first place.
For starters, create a folder on one of the three desktop panels by long pressing somewhere on the screen and selecting Folder from the Shortcut menu. Move it to a better position on the desktop, if you like. We’ll all wait for you.
Now that you have the folder, open it up by taping on it. If you then long press on the title bar of the window that pops up, Android will prompt you for a new folder name. That’s the secret sauce ingredient you need to know if you don’t want a desktop full of folders all cleverly named “Folder.”
Now that you have your folder, you can start populating it. I like to use one for my most common browser bookmarks, but you can also put applications in them as well. That would be a good way to organize all of your games in one place, for example. The coolest thing with folders from my view is that their windows stay open even if you switch to a different panel of the desktop. You can therefore use them as a way to kinda add additional panels to the desktop. You could have your work apps and work bookmarks all in one folder, for example, and just by opening it up you’d have a nice little work desktop on your phone that would stay open until you were ready to start goofing off again.
You can’t put widgets like the clock or Google search bar in a folder, but all of the other desktop creatures seem to be quite at home in them.
If you have any other tips that you think others might like to hear about, let us know.
-
- The folder
-
- Long press the title bar to rename it
-
- The default folder name
-
- Renaming the folder
-
- Your newly renamed folder
Keep up the good work guys, loving your site!
A great site for all the latest android videos is http://www.g1tube.com
I use folders a lot, but I’ve found that if the desktop is full (even if the folder isn’t), you can’t add anything to the folder, because you have to first put in on the desktop…. kind of annoying. Also, you can’t rearrange the items in the folder… hopefully those will be fixed soon.
Great tip, thanks!
JK: What about if you first go to the desktop where the folder is, then open the menu and hold the app, then it should drop down to the desktop and allow you to put it in the folder.
I long press and it just closes it like as if I’m pressing the X to close. I tried highlighting and downpressing the ball and it does the same action. Highlighting it pressing the menu button only sends me to desktop options. Any ideas or help? Thanks
Steve if you are using Freshface or aHOME that mght be your problem.
I have found that I can put new icons into the folder, but i need to hold the new icon slightly off-centre of the folder icon in order to drop it in. Not right in the middle of the folder icon, or the selection rectangle appears – showing that it thinks I’m trying to do something to the folder icon’s place on the grid.
Here’s the fast and easy way to deal with folders:
1. Touch and hold on your desktop. Make a new folder.
2. Open the folder.
3. Touch and HOLD on the folder’s title bar. Rename the folder.
4. Open the folder. Do NOT close the folder.
5. Open the app tray (or whatever it’s called)
6. Touch and hold the app you want. Drag it into the already open folder on your desktop.
Enjoy!
Thnx alex for nice step by step instructions. i think this is the easiest way to add apps in folder. one more think we can do is drag the app icon over the folder, hold it for a second then the folder icon opens up and you can drop it in.
now only problem with the folders is we still cant rearrange apps inside the folder???
Thanks for the article. Folder naming isn’t intuitive at all.
Thanks for this tip. I wasn’t holding quite long enough and starting to go mental with my Nexus One.
[...] has all that stuff natively plus more. You can use folders, arrange icons freely and use widgets on top of that. So i have one screen for game, one screen for [...]
thank you. I just learned something new for my new phone :)
Now how do I add bookmarks? I figured out how to add apps and organize folders, but the bookmark bit has got me lost.
Regards
Thanks pal…I really needed that tip!
Great tips, thanks!
Now, having made my folders, how do I get rid of unwanted duplicate app icons? They seem to multiply whenever I move anything anywhere else. I’m not a particularly a neat freak, but t is starting to bug me…..
I needed that, I’m a bit of a geek and I still struggled with it. I got as far as tapping the title bar, only not tapping and holding.
Thanks :)
Matt
Great tips, is it possible to add files to the folder ie a pdf or mp3? Cos u can’t put them (or shortcuts to them) on the home screens (or can u?)
Cheers y’all
Jc