Hi and welcome to the XDA community
First a massive thank you to everyone's work for docks, icons, threads and wallpapers in this thread ..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
INDEX
Post 1
My home screen
Minimalistic Text
Simi Clock
Advanced Clock
Docks for Launchers
Post 2
More Docks - Around 700
Simple Text
Icon Packs
Toggles
SMS Unread Count
GMAIL Unread Count
Galaxy S 2 Cases
Galaxy S 2 Screen Protectors
Desktop Visualizer - Plus Amazing Home screen
My second Home screen plus everything you need to make it
Post 3
Wallpapers
Link to people's Home Screens
Post 4
List of Launchers and descriptions
Web Browser Thread
Third Home Screen for Black Android
Widget Locker plus How to guide and lots of themes
My themes NEONGT and Beautiful Honeycomb
------------------------------------------------
This is for beginners who are new to android on how to setup a home screen using ADW Launcher EX and minimalistic Text widget plus more ......
THIS THREAD IS NEW AND BEING CHANGED AND UPDATED EVRYDAY.....LOTS MORE I HAVE TO ADD ..
Im aware there are a few threads that cover launchers and widgets but seems to get lost in the thread pages and the Questions keep getting asked over and over again..
Ive had many many requests and Questions on how to setup my homescreen pictured below..
Please remember this is a basic guide for beginners ..
MY HOME SCREEN GUIDE ...
ADW LAUNCHER EX.. PAID APP ! but worth it
This is my favourite Launcher that I always come back to and is what I use to setup my home screen up pictured abouve..
Download and purchase from the market (please note there is a free version of this Launcher call ADW LAUNCHER ...)
When the download is complete go back to your home screen and press the bottom middle button ...this should bring up the option to set your defualt Launcher...tick the box and select ADW LAUNCHER EX...
If you dont see this option when pressing the button you can download home switcher for free and use that app to set your default Launcher.
The rest of this guide is based on setting up my home screen and will give you the basic idea on how to use it ..
Ok place the icon pack, wallpaper and dock onto your sd card ..external or internal ..choice is yours ..
THE DOWNLOAD PACK HERE - http://www.multiupload.com/ZJCEOT2ESB
Now press the menu button (bottom left) and select more/ADWSettings/UI Settings/Main Dock/Main Dock style and select 5 icons.
Go back a page (bottom right button)
Press Screen Preferences and change the Desktop rows to 10 and the Desktop columns to 7 ( I use 7 as it gives you a central point on your homescreen if you want to use simi clock...more on that later)
Scroll down and tick Overlap widgets, once ticked selected back..
Press Drawer settings/App Draw Settings, from here you can choose the way the apps move and look in your app draw ...try out different ones ..I use Vertical new as its nice and smooth...
Tick Full Screen ..Now go back to your homescreen ...
Press and hold the screen and select wallpaper (gallery) ..you should see my wallpaper you put on your sd card earlier ...select the picture and make the square as big as it will go and move the square to the top..press menu buttom (bottom left) and save..
You should now have the wallpaper on the homescreen ..get rid of all the icons on your screen for the moment ..press and drag them to the bin at the top..
You should be left with something that looks like this ..(Please note my phone is themed so your internet icon will be blue )...You get the idea though..
Now long press the screen and select shortcuts/applications/messaging.
Drag the icon into the dock (next to the internet icon)..
Repeat the above for contacts and phone so you have all four icons in the dock..
Now repeat the above again but leave these icons on your homescreen....
Market,music,camera,xda (download from the market), email, gallery..
So you layout on your homescreen is like this ..
CAMERA GALLERY
MUSIC EMAIL
MARKET XDA
Now we are going to change these icons into the side icons you put on your sd card earlier ..
Long press the market icon and press edit, click on the market text and delete..now click on the market icon/setect picture/gallery ..
Select side icons ..now this is a pain because the left hand side icons are black and on mine you cant see which is which haha ...its a little guess work to find the market one ..if you select the wrong one you will have to repeat as above again ..as in delete text and press one the market icon again ect ect ..when you have the right one press OK...
Repeat for all the icons so your screen looks something like this ...
Again my dock icons will be different to yours ...
Now lets change the dock...
From the homescreen press menu (bottom left button) /more/ADWSettings/Themes Preferences.
Scroll down to the main dock and press the arrow...select custom/gallery and choose the dock you downloaded earlier...now press back to get to your home screen..
Now we can see the icons over the dock...here we are going to replace the icons with the blank icon download earlier..
Long press on the internet icon ...select edit and then press on the icon in the pop up screen (no need to delete the text) ...Select picture/gallery and select the blank icon ..should look all black...when selected you should see NO icon in the pop up screen....press OK..
Now you can see in the dock that the Internet icon has gone and you can see the dock text...now you can press on it for internet ..
Repeat the above for messaging, apps, contacts and phone icon..
Ok we have now set the home screen up ..we now need a clock and the date..
MINIMALISTIC TEXT
For this we are going to use Minimalistic Text ..Download it from the market (free)
Once downloaded go back to your homescreen...
Long press the home screen and select Widgets/Mininalistic Text/Minimalistic Text (hor) 3 x 1
Untick background
Press shadow settings ...tick Show shadow the press on Show colour..
You should see this ...
We need a light blue colour to match the left side of the wallpaper face and the side icons ..
Move the colour slider to the blue and then in the main square move the dot to the top right hand corner and select New colour..
Now click on Shadow Radius.. and set to 5 .press OK..
Press the back button (bottom right button) and scroll down to Predefined layout and press it..
Scroll to the bottom and select custom ..Now press Custom layout..
You should see this ..
We need to get rid of the three boxes..press hold and drag them into the trash bin...so they are all gone..
Now press the green plus + button and select clock...scroll through the boxes above the clock button you just scroll to find Hour (24) press and hold it and drag it into the above box. ..press the back button and scroll down to (text style) and select Non accented
This is the screen you should be on ..
So press Non accented ...press size and change to 55 and press OK..
Now press on Colour and change it to Black and press New colour
Now tick the Bold and Italic boxes and press the back button (bottom right button)..and press OK...it may ask if you want to set 3 x 1 ect ..just press ok again ..
Now you should see half the clock on the home screen (the 24 hour part) ..long press the number/clock and select edit...Note this may take a few attempts)..
Now you should see this
Now using the arrows move the clock to the top left ..so it looks nice
Now we need to repeat all the above steps for the right hand side of the clock but instead of selecting Light blue in Shadow Settings you need to select RED..
Also you need to select Minute (2 digits) instead of hour 24 which well ...would be silly haha..
Like this ....
Also remeber that the right side of the clock need to be white so no need to set it to black like before ..
Apart from those things just follow what you did for the left hand side of the clock ...
You have now set the clock ..
For the date its also the same ..left side blue shadow, black text ...right side red shadow, white text....
I'll guide you through the left hand side of the date...
Long press the home screen and select Widgets/Mininalistic Text/Minimalistic Text (hor) 3 x 1
Untick background
Press shadow settings ...tick Show shadow the press on Show colour..
We need a light blue colour to match the left side of the wallpaper face and the side icons ..
Move the colour slider to the blue and then in the main square move the dot to the top right hand corner and select New colour..
Now click on Shadow Radius.. and set to 5 .press OK..
Press the back button (bottom right button) and scroll down to Predefined layout and press it..
Scroll to the bottom and select custom ..Now press Custom layout..
Again drag and delete whats in the boxes and press the back buttoin..
Press the green plus button
Now we need to select and drag DAY ..then press the plus button and select and drag Month Text ..
Like this ..
Press the back button and select Accented and set to 25 ..press OK
Now tick the Bold and Italic boxes ..
Again we need to now change the colour to black so press on Colour...change to black and press new colour..
Press the back button and press Non accented ...repeat the steps above..as in set to 25 ...tick bold and Italic and change the colour to black..press the back button and press ok and set 3 x1 widget..
Now on the homescreen press and hold /edit ...move with arrows down to the bottom left ..
Now we just have to set the year ...by now you should know what your doing ..if not then read through my guide again..
So for the year we need to set the shadow as red ...the text as white ...Non accented as 25 tick bold and Italic ..
Heres the screen of the custom box you need ...
IMPORTANT NOTE - With the white text ..when you set it it maybe on the left hand side of the home screen and is sometimes hard to see..long press and move it to the black before editing it...
Also if you set something wrong you can always press on the widget to open it back up into settings !! ..
That has given you some idea of ADW LAUNCHER EX AND MINIMALISTIC TEXT ...You can now make your own home screen or select different options in the widget..
I really hope that has got the beginners off to a start..
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIMI CLOCK WIDGET
Ok this is a little guide to use simi clock ..its pretty basic and easy to use..
I want an orange clock to go with this theme ...This guide is how to get simi clock to look like this ..
Heres the home screen with the clock ...
So download simi clock from the market place.
Long press on the home screen and select Widgets/gTabSMiClock - choose 3 x 1
Untick Display Week of Year
Press date format and change to 30/05/2011
Press on Textcolour and move the sliders until you have an orange colour.
Press on Divider colour and change the colour to orange ...just a little lighter
Press Background colour and move the alpha slider all the way to the left and press OK..
Now press save ..
It will be on your home screen ...I use ADW LAUNCHER EX.....long press on the clock on the home screen and press edit ...move the arrows so it looks like the one pictured above ...
Its that easy ..
The bottom showing the day is a widget called ONESEVEN ...no need to explain that really ..just make it transparent and set to large ..
Done.......
Advanced Clock
This is another great clock widget ....show weather, date, free ram, battery ect ... lots of different styles ..change the text or background ...even make it transparent or semi transparent ...
Got to love this one . ! Free from the market
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DOCKS
Here is a really fantastic selection of docks ...just right click them and save image to pc, then transfer to sd card and use with Launcher ...LOTS MORE TO UPLOAD !
BLANK ICON to use with some of the docks ...Instructions are above which gives you an idea of how to use it..
Blank Icon HERE -
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
First a massive thank you to everyone's work for docks, icons, threads and wallpapers in this thread ..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
INDEX
Post 1
My home screen
Minimalistic Text
Simi Clock
Advanced Clock
Docks for Launchers
Post 2
More Docks - Around 700
Simple Text
Icon Packs
Toggles
SMS Unread Count
GMAIL Unread Count
Galaxy S 2 Cases
Galaxy S 2 Screen Protectors
Desktop Visualizer - Plus Amazing Home screen
My second Home screen plus everything you need to make it
Post 3
Wallpapers
Link to people's Home Screens
Post 4
List of Launchers and descriptions
Web Browser Thread
Third Home Screen for Black Android
Widget Locker plus How to guide and lots of themes
My themes NEONGT and Beautiful Honeycomb
------------------------------------------------
This is for beginners who are new to android on how to setup a home screen using ADW Launcher EX and minimalistic Text widget plus more ......
THIS THREAD IS NEW AND BEING CHANGED AND UPDATED EVRYDAY.....LOTS MORE I HAVE TO ADD ..
Im aware there are a few threads that cover launchers and widgets but seems to get lost in the thread pages and the Questions keep getting asked over and over again..
Ive had many many requests and Questions on how to setup my homescreen pictured below..
Please remember this is a basic guide for beginners ..
MY HOME SCREEN GUIDE ...
ADW LAUNCHER EX.. PAID APP ! but worth it
This is my favourite Launcher that I always come back to and is what I use to setup my home screen up pictured abouve..
Download and purchase from the market (please note there is a free version of this Launcher call ADW LAUNCHER ...)
When the download is complete go back to your home screen and press the bottom middle button ...this should bring up the option to set your defualt Launcher...tick the box and select ADW LAUNCHER EX...
If you dont see this option when pressing the button you can download home switcher for free and use that app to set your default Launcher.
The rest of this guide is based on setting up my home screen and will give you the basic idea on how to use it ..
Ok place the icon pack, wallpaper and dock onto your sd card ..external or internal ..choice is yours ..
THE DOWNLOAD PACK HERE - http://www.multiupload.com/ZJCEOT2ESB
Now press the menu button (bottom left) and select more/ADWSettings/UI Settings/Main Dock/Main Dock style and select 5 icons.
Go back a page (bottom right button)
Press Screen Preferences and change the Desktop rows to 10 and the Desktop columns to 7 ( I use 7 as it gives you a central point on your homescreen if you want to use simi clock...more on that later)
Scroll down and tick Overlap widgets, once ticked selected back..
Press Drawer settings/App Draw Settings, from here you can choose the way the apps move and look in your app draw ...try out different ones ..I use Vertical new as its nice and smooth...
Tick Full Screen ..Now go back to your homescreen ...
Press and hold the screen and select wallpaper (gallery) ..you should see my wallpaper you put on your sd card earlier ...select the picture and make the square as big as it will go and move the square to the top..press menu buttom (bottom left) and save..
You should now have the wallpaper on the homescreen ..get rid of all the icons on your screen for the moment ..press and drag them to the bin at the top..
You should be left with something that looks like this ..(Please note my phone is themed so your internet icon will be blue )...You get the idea though..
Now long press the screen and select shortcuts/applications/messaging.
Drag the icon into the dock (next to the internet icon)..
Repeat the above for contacts and phone so you have all four icons in the dock..
Now repeat the above again but leave these icons on your homescreen....
Market,music,camera,xda (download from the market), email, gallery..
So you layout on your homescreen is like this ..
CAMERA GALLERY
MUSIC EMAIL
MARKET XDA
Now we are going to change these icons into the side icons you put on your sd card earlier ..
Long press the market icon and press edit, click on the market text and delete..now click on the market icon/setect picture/gallery ..
Select side icons ..now this is a pain because the left hand side icons are black and on mine you cant see which is which haha ...its a little guess work to find the market one ..if you select the wrong one you will have to repeat as above again ..as in delete text and press one the market icon again ect ect ..when you have the right one press OK...
Repeat for all the icons so your screen looks something like this ...
Again my dock icons will be different to yours ...
Now lets change the dock...
From the homescreen press menu (bottom left button) /more/ADWSettings/Themes Preferences.
Scroll down to the main dock and press the arrow...select custom/gallery and choose the dock you downloaded earlier...now press back to get to your home screen..
Now we can see the icons over the dock...here we are going to replace the icons with the blank icon download earlier..
Long press on the internet icon ...select edit and then press on the icon in the pop up screen (no need to delete the text) ...Select picture/gallery and select the blank icon ..should look all black...when selected you should see NO icon in the pop up screen....press OK..
Now you can see in the dock that the Internet icon has gone and you can see the dock text...now you can press on it for internet ..
Repeat the above for messaging, apps, contacts and phone icon..
Ok we have now set the home screen up ..we now need a clock and the date..
MINIMALISTIC TEXT
For this we are going to use Minimalistic Text ..Download it from the market (free)
Once downloaded go back to your homescreen...
Long press the home screen and select Widgets/Mininalistic Text/Minimalistic Text (hor) 3 x 1
Untick background
Press shadow settings ...tick Show shadow the press on Show colour..
You should see this ...
We need a light blue colour to match the left side of the wallpaper face and the side icons ..
Move the colour slider to the blue and then in the main square move the dot to the top right hand corner and select New colour..
Now click on Shadow Radius.. and set to 5 .press OK..
Press the back button (bottom right button) and scroll down to Predefined layout and press it..
Scroll to the bottom and select custom ..Now press Custom layout..
You should see this ..
We need to get rid of the three boxes..press hold and drag them into the trash bin...so they are all gone..
Now press the green plus + button and select clock...scroll through the boxes above the clock button you just scroll to find Hour (24) press and hold it and drag it into the above box. ..press the back button and scroll down to (text style) and select Non accented
This is the screen you should be on ..
So press Non accented ...press size and change to 55 and press OK..
Now press on Colour and change it to Black and press New colour
Now tick the Bold and Italic boxes and press the back button (bottom right button)..and press OK...it may ask if you want to set 3 x 1 ect ..just press ok again ..
Now you should see half the clock on the home screen (the 24 hour part) ..long press the number/clock and select edit...Note this may take a few attempts)..
Now you should see this
Now using the arrows move the clock to the top left ..so it looks nice
Now we need to repeat all the above steps for the right hand side of the clock but instead of selecting Light blue in Shadow Settings you need to select RED..
Also you need to select Minute (2 digits) instead of hour 24 which well ...would be silly haha..
Like this ....
Also remeber that the right side of the clock need to be white so no need to set it to black like before ..
Apart from those things just follow what you did for the left hand side of the clock ...
You have now set the clock ..
For the date its also the same ..left side blue shadow, black text ...right side red shadow, white text....
I'll guide you through the left hand side of the date...
Long press the home screen and select Widgets/Mininalistic Text/Minimalistic Text (hor) 3 x 1
Untick background
Press shadow settings ...tick Show shadow the press on Show colour..
We need a light blue colour to match the left side of the wallpaper face and the side icons ..
Move the colour slider to the blue and then in the main square move the dot to the top right hand corner and select New colour..
Now click on Shadow Radius.. and set to 5 .press OK..
Press the back button (bottom right button) and scroll down to Predefined layout and press it..
Scroll to the bottom and select custom ..Now press Custom layout..
Again drag and delete whats in the boxes and press the back buttoin..
Press the green plus button
Now we need to select and drag DAY ..then press the plus button and select and drag Month Text ..
Like this ..
Press the back button and select Accented and set to 25 ..press OK
Now tick the Bold and Italic boxes ..
Again we need to now change the colour to black so press on Colour...change to black and press new colour..
Press the back button and press Non accented ...repeat the steps above..as in set to 25 ...tick bold and Italic and change the colour to black..press the back button and press ok and set 3 x1 widget..
Now on the homescreen press and hold /edit ...move with arrows down to the bottom left ..
Now we just have to set the year ...by now you should know what your doing ..if not then read through my guide again..
So for the year we need to set the shadow as red ...the text as white ...Non accented as 25 tick bold and Italic ..
Heres the screen of the custom box you need ...
IMPORTANT NOTE - With the white text ..when you set it it maybe on the left hand side of the home screen and is sometimes hard to see..long press and move it to the black before editing it...
Also if you set something wrong you can always press on the widget to open it back up into settings !! ..
That has given you some idea of ADW LAUNCHER EX AND MINIMALISTIC TEXT ...You can now make your own home screen or select different options in the widget..
I really hope that has got the beginners off to a start..
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SIMI CLOCK WIDGET
Ok this is a little guide to use simi clock ..its pretty basic and easy to use..
I want an orange clock to go with this theme ...This guide is how to get simi clock to look like this ..
Heres the home screen with the clock ...
So download simi clock from the market place.
Long press on the home screen and select Widgets/gTabSMiClock - choose 3 x 1
Untick Display Week of Year
Press date format and change to 30/05/2011
Press on Textcolour and move the sliders until you have an orange colour.
Press on Divider colour and change the colour to orange ...just a little lighter
Press Background colour and move the alpha slider all the way to the left and press OK..
Now press save ..
It will be on your home screen ...I use ADW LAUNCHER EX.....long press on the clock on the home screen and press edit ...move the arrows so it looks like the one pictured above ...
Its that easy ..
The bottom showing the day is a widget called ONESEVEN ...no need to explain that really ..just make it transparent and set to large ..
Done.......
Advanced Clock
This is another great clock widget ....show weather, date, free ram, battery ect ... lots of different styles ..change the text or background ...even make it transparent or semi transparent ...
Got to love this one . ! Free from the market
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
DOCKS
Here is a really fantastic selection of docks ...just right click them and save image to pc, then transfer to sd card and use with Launcher ...LOTS MORE TO UPLOAD !
BLANK ICON to use with some of the docks ...Instructions are above which gives you an idea of how to use it..
Blank Icon HERE -
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last edited: