How do I re-assign buttons on my Nokia?

October 29, 2007 3:03 PM

How does one go about re-assigning the functions of the "soft" buttons on a Nokia (Symbian, S60) phone?

I'm finally retiring my much-beloved Nokia 6682 in favor of a shiny new Nokia N75. When I first got the 6682 two years ago, i re-assigned the functions of the d-pad and the two adjoining soft buttons to point to my apps (Opera instead of Cingular MediaNet, etc). I have since forgotten how to do this, and my google-fu is failing me. Do any of the mefites here with a Nokia S60 phone remember how to do this?

posted by Oktober to technology (10 comments total)

I know that with older Nokia phones there is an option under "Settings" for "My Shortcuts" (or something like that). I can't speak for newer phones, though.
posted by cholly at 3:24 PM on October 29, 2007

"Menu" -> "Tools" -> "Settings" -> "Phone" -> "Standby mode" -> "Left selection key" and "Right selection key" to change the soft buttons. In the same menu you can also change the shortcuts on the standby screen.
posted by rpn at 3:26 PM on October 29, 2007

Go to Tools --> Settings --> General --> Personalization --> Standby Mode --> Shortcuts

This gets you to configure Left and Right softkeys.
If you got to "Standby apps" rather than "Shortcuts" you can configure shortcuts available in the active menu.

I've been an S60 fan for years, but this is always one of the things that annoys me, 'cause I always forget how to do it and it's not intuitive.
posted by donovan at 3:27 PM on October 29, 2007

Didn't see rpn's comment. . . the path I provided is for my N95, which is S60 3rd edition (I think N75 is on same version)
posted by donovan at 3:29 PM on October 29, 2007

Hi Oktober,

I believe that the N75 may come with the S60 "Active Standby" feature enabled by default. That allows you to have an upcoming calander/mail view and 5 icons along the top in a row which you can navigate with the direction pad and launch with the center button.

To enable the feature you're looking for you need to DISABLE "Active Standby". Try looking in: Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> Phone -> Standby Mode -> Active Standby -> Off. This should allow you to assign actions to your navigation key up, down, left and right.

If you like the active standby feature, in that menu you can customise the 5 icons show in a row above the calendar view to launch whatever you want. I have mine set to Contacts, New Message, Clock, Gallery, Bluetooth.

This was the case on both my 6680 and my N70 so it should be the same on your N73 but it may differ as it's a flip phone.

Let us know how you get on.
posted by puddpunk at 3:29 PM on October 29, 2007

On my N95, it's Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> General -> Personalization -> Standby Mode -> Shortcuts -> {Left,Right} Selection Key.

Similar to rpn's, but different enough that it might be confusing for some.
posted by Nelsormensch at 3:29 PM on October 29, 2007

Doh, didn't see donovan's on preview.
posted by Nelsormensch at 3:30 PM on October 29, 2007

I've got an N75 and the path is:

Menu -> Settings -> Configuration -> Phone -> Idle Screen Mode

That'll also bring you to an option to turn on Active Idle, which wasn't enabled on my phone when I first started using it.

I don't think you can reassign the D-pad buttons on the N75, which made me very sad, but the extensive options for Active Idle icons more than made up for it.
posted by phatkitten at 4:40 PM on October 29, 2007

Oh, it turns out you can customize the D-pad buttons -- just turn off Active Idle. I wish I realized this earlier.
posted by phatkitten at 4:43 PM on October 29, 2007

phatkitten has it exactly right, thanks everyone
posted by Oktober at 5:03 AM on October 30, 2007