MIUI Super-Userguide: How To and 101s [2/24 -> Post #3]

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After seeing the CM9 threads here, I decided to do one for MIUI. I wanted to make a guide for us Epic users who don't know about MIUI which is officially available for us. I will try to keep this post updated and clean as possible.. this is going to be community driven so help make this the most complete MIUI guide here on xdA!

Post 1: How MIUI User Interface looks (thnx Framework43 @rootzwiki)
Post 2: How to use MIUI
Post 3: Tips/tricks
Post 4: Themes

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MIUI HOME

Two-layer shortcuts and program icons are integrated into one-layer desktop.
Long press on an icon to enter edit mode, open Widgets and drag it to the target screen.
Drag the app you want to uninstall to the top of the trash box to delete it.
Eight kinds of flipping screens effects are available with gorgeous animations.



T9 dialer

T9 dialer is applied for smart dialing. It supports searching by contact name and phone number, and the results are listed according to contact frequency.
The default setting is to forbid any third-party app to monitor users’ calls.
Currently, there are 230301 attribution logs. The attribution data will be updated continuously, codes of foreign countries are supported as well.



SMS

Compared with native Android system, 7 major optimizations on SMS are made:
Adding contacts in short messages;
Adding names in group sending messages and automatically adding the names to Contacts;
Easier taking of numbers, urls and email addresses from short messages;
Optimization on mobile newspaper reading;
Collection of important messages;
Recommended messages for holidays;
Quick reply and view window.



Contacts

Quick location of contacts;
Faster to add new contacts;
Contacts group management supported;
Contacts' large images supported.



Themes

The third edition UI loading engine makes it faster and easier to change themes;
Partial theme customs are more flexible and comprehensive. Rich online wallpapers, ringtones, fonts and so on are available.



Camera

Faster loading speed enables you to take photos immediately.
More professional modes such as continuous shooting, timing and special effects supported.



Gallery

Faster picture browsing speed than that of native Android system;
Brand new view mode supports to view the pictures by folder path.



Music

Simultaneous enjoying and downloading massive online music. Music chart live playing and bulk downloads supported;
Automatic connection of lyrics and album covers. ID3 information editing supported;
Changing songs by swinging the phone and sleep mode supported.




Notifications

After pulling Notifications and Toggles panel down, changing panels by sliding the screen supported.

How to use and functions:


The first step: selecting apps

Various apps will greatly enrich your cell phone, so firstly let’s select the apps to your taste. Use the Android Market and download what you would like. If you are using a backup app and restoring apps from a previous ROM, only restore the apps and not the data. Otherwise that will create a lot of force close issues.



How to copy files from the computer to the phone? First connect your phone to your computer via data cable, pull down the notification panel from the top of the phone, click “USB connected”, and then click "Turn on USB storage”.

After copying, do not forget to select the option of “Turn off USB storage”, otherwise "File Manager” in the phone will not be able to find the sd card, as it is being occupied by the computer.

Now I have a lot of apps, how to put them in order?

All apps successfully installed are listed on the desktop, however, they may not be in the order you want, how to put them in order?



Long press an app icon and then you may move it freely. When it is moved to the screen border, the screen will automatically switch to the next screen.

How to add a screen? Use two fingers to pinch on the desktop to enter screen thumbnail mode. Then you may add or delete screens.

How to delete an app? Long press the app icon you want to delete, drag it on top of the trash box and click OK to delete it.

The second step: let's make your phone different.

A phone without style is nothing remarkable, so let’s make your phone different!



Changing wallpaper: Click Menu button on the desktop, select “Change Wallpaper” to replace the wallpaper. In addition to the existing wallpaper in the phone, thousands of pieces of wallpaper are also available online.
Changing theme: Themes make great changes to your interface style. Click “Theme Manager” on the desktop to select the theme you like. Also, more online themes are available online.

Selecting ringtones and more: click “Settings” on the desktop to set call and notification ringtones. In “Personalization” under “Personal” tab, you may find more options.

The third step: it’s time for some advanced techniques!

Adding widgets on the desktop: press the Menu button on the desktop, select "Edit Mode", and then click the icon on the upper right corner to access the interface of “Add Widgets”. Choose your favorite widget on the top, and then drag it to the screen below.

Using folders to manage desktop apps: in the interface of “Add Widgets”, drag [Folder] to the desktop. You may drag multiple apps into folders to classify them. After opening the folder, you may click the edit icon in the upper left corner to rename the folder.

Using toggles panel to improve efficiency: drag the notification panel down from the top, click "Toggles" to go to the toggles panel (It goes to the toggles panel in default of notice.) On the panel are listed the most commonly used toggles, you may click to quickly enable or disable a toggle. Long press on the icon will launch the settings for that icon.

Guest mode: enable the “Guest Mode” toggle in the panel, and your calls and text messages logs will be hidden, and all installed applications cannot be removed. You may have a try when you need to show your phone to guests or children.

Importing contacts or binding accounts: you may use some apps to import a batch of contacts, or bind Google account directly in "Settings"> "Personal"> "Accounts & Sync Settings" to sync contacts at any time.
How to print screens? Press "Menu" key and "Volume Down" key at the same time to print a screen. The printed image is saved in the directory of MIUI in the SD card.

How to copy files from the computer without using the data cable? In case of a Wi-Fi connection, enter “File Manager” on the desktop, select the tab of "Remote Administration" to start the service, and then you will get an address. Enter the given address on the computer, then you may copy files without using a data cable!

Tips/Tricks [updated 2/24] - New tips are at the bottom of this post!


1. Long press on the icon in Toggles to launch the settings for that icon.
When you pull down the notification bar, you will see the Toggle settings for plenty of options (such as WIFI, volume, backlight etc). Long press on any icon in the Toggle mode will launch the setting for that icon.

2. Built-in Screen Capture function
One of the lacking feature in Android is the lack of a built-in screen capture feature (like in iPhone). Not anymore. With MIUI, you can press the “Menu” key and “Volume Down” key at the same time to capture a screenshot. The printed image is saved in the “MIUI: directory in the sd card.

3. Press Home key to preview screens
Pressing the Home button once will bring you back to the Home screen. Pressing the Home button button will show you all the screen thumbnails. You can also ad/remove screens from here.


4. Slide from left to right to quickly delete a message or a call log.
In the SMS or Dialer app, swipe left or right any entry will bring up the Delete mode.

5. Move home screen icon easily
Hold down an icon by one hand to enter Edit Mode, and then use the other hand to slide the screen to move the icon to the target screen.

6. Launch Music Player in lockscreen
In the lockscreen, double tap the time zone to launch the Music Player. (The Music Player is hidden by default, unless a song is playing)


7. Quickly access the Dialer or SMS from the lockscreen
In the lockscreen, hold down the icon of Call or SMS, and you can enter the responding program.

8. Activate the torch from the lockscreen
In the lockscreen, hold down the Home button to enable the torch.

9. Access shortcut menu from contact image
In the Calls, SMS or Contacts app, tap the contact image and a shortcut menus will appear.

10. Running Apps List: Long press on the Home button can go to “Program Manager”. Click the “Clear up” button at the bottom left to clear the extra processes in memory. And the system will inform you of the released memory and current available memory.
Note: System processes will not be cleared so as to ensure the normal running of the system.

11. Switch the Battery UI to show percentage
The default battery UI can be switched to display percentage of left battery capacity. To do so, go to “Settings -> System -> Battery Settings -> Battery Indicator Style -> Percentage“.


12. Long press on the Home button to show History
Like any other Android ROM, long press on the Home button will show the recently used apps. However, in MIUI, there is also an App Killer and App Manager button. Swiping the popup left will show the search form.

13. Setting up IP dialing
If you need to add an IP prefix for a particular number in a strange land, you can set it in Settings -> Common -> Calls Settings. Turn the “Auto IP dialing” ON and set the IP prefix and current area code.

14. Send SMS for rejected calls
When you are not available to answer the phone, you may slide up the panel to reject the call and to send a message to the caller at the same time.

15. Enable 720P to record a video
If your phone comes with a camera that support HD recording, you can enable 720P in the Video mode. Run the Camera app and switch to Video. Select “High” -> “720P” in the pop-up menu of video quality.

16. Quickly uninstall an app
To uninstall an app, simply press and hold the icon until the trash bin show up at the top of the screen. Move the icon to the trash bin to uninstall the app.

17. Quickly read SMS and mark it read
In the lockscreen, press down the SMS button (without dragging it down) to reveal the new incoming message on the lockscreen. Once you have finished reading it, double tap on the SMS button to mark it read.


18. Important SMS: As for those important messages you want to add to your favorites, you may long press the message in the pop-up menu and select "Favorites". You may switch to "Favorites" tab in the main SMS interface to view collected messages.

19. Quick Delete SMS: You may slide from left to right on the item and click on the red "Delete" button when it appears.

20. Backup settings, wifi, themes, apps, data etc.
MIUI comes bundled with some MIUI apps. One includes Backup. This tool allows you to backup app+data, theme, homescreen layout, etc.. This is a very handy tool!!

21. When you hold down home, and bring up your taskmanager, you can long press on the app and it'll bring up extra info!

22. BATTERY SAVING TIP: IF YOU DON'T CARE FOR LED NOTIF., do the following:
a. Press the search button on your phone.
b. Once the miui search box comes up, press menu button on your phone, and hit settings
c. In the searchable items list, turn on "settings" and go back.
d. Search LED. Scroll down till you find LED pulse notif... click that and turn off LED notif. You'll notice decent battery increase!!!

Themes, themes, and more themes!

IMPORTANT TIPS
-Some times when you download themes, the browser changes the .mtz extention to .zip or .txt.. you have to rename it back to .mtz before next step.
-PLACE THEME (.MTZ) FILES ON YOUR SDCARD: /SDCARD/MIUI/THEMES
-You can backup your theme setup, which saves it as a .mtz file in the above directory, and share! --> There is a thread in the Android Theme section for this.. see below.

What does your MIUI look like? Creativity by xda users:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=990233

Lockscreens:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1288096

MIUI themes here on xda:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=527 --> search MIUI
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1509860 --> newest link 2/22

MIUI Themes elsewhere:
http://www.miuithemes.com/
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show...9&postcount=22

Create themes for MIUI for themers
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1342895

This is awesome thanks for taking the time to do this.

sent from the other woman

Wow! Looks great Omair! You went all out! Nice job!

Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium

This is freakin' awesome, thanks for putting the time and effort in.

are you kidding me ???

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This is friggn wicked awesome (if I may be so bostonian).

Thank you so much for putting this together, I've often wondered about MIUI. Seeing it all here like this (with outstanding presentation no less) is REALLY helpful.

Will we ever see 4G working on miui?

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by DaKillaWilla

Will we ever see 4G working on miui?

Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Maybe in the future when miui goes open source.. but so far only LTE is available on miui not wimax. xbox knows more about the situation..