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Mobile device users can use the Menu to access applications. Pressing the Home / Menu key opens the Menu, where the user may browse and select an application. The Menu was previously called Application Shell and the Home / Menu key was called Applications key. In addition to direct access to applications, related applications can be collected in folders.

Applications are presented as a grid of items by default. User can select a customized version of the Menu layout, such as a list. The default grid layout is 3 x 4 (portrait) or 4 x 3 (landscape), that is 12 icons. Pressing the Selection key opens an application and closes the Menu.

Figure 1. Menu with a 3 x 4 grid in portrait (left) and 4 x 3 grid in landscape (right)

For more details on the landscape orientation, see Symbian UI with rotation.

Shortcuts

When the Menu is opened, numeric keys 1-9 can be used as shortcuts to select an application. The keys are mapped directly to the nine icons in Menu’s initial view, so that the Numeric key 1 corresponds to the top-left application and the Numeric key 9 to the bottom-right one.

Customizing Menu

The user can organize the order of applications, create folders and move applications into folders within the Menu. The folders created in a Menu are customizable (the user can add and remove folders) and can have unlimited sub-folders to allow a hierarchically organized structures. The customizing functions are available in the Options menu. In addition, the layout of the Menu can also be customized.

Parent topic: UI components