a beginner's perplexities

[dgoods]

Hi everyone, I'm new here

I just bought a HTC Desire Z and this is my very first smartphone. I'm still getting used to it and while most things are intuitive and self-explanatory, others are a complete mystery to me. For example there are some tasks that were very simple to perform on my old phone that I'm unable to figure out how to do on the new Desire.

So I'm customizing my band new smartphone. One of the first things I attempted to do was changing the default sounds. No major problems with the ringtone, but the sms and notification sounds? No can do. Themes: downloaded a bunch of them, tried to install them and... nada. It gives me an error when I try to open them. I just can't figure out how to do this. I read that a root is not necessary, but I can't find any info on how to do it without rooting.

For my old phone I had downloaded a program on my computer that allowed me to see every file on my phone when connected and remove / add / configure anything I wanted. I can't find anything similar for android. To further complicate things I just found out that my smartphone isn't really all that compatible with my Mac.

So, to sum everything up:
1) do I have to root my smartphone to install custom content on it?
2) is there any nice program for Mac that would make sharing, managing and configuring my smartphone easier?

Sorry for the stupid questions, I did search the forums before posting, but couldn't find any specific beginners guides... Please help out a noobie

 

[Stuntman]

For the SMS notification sounds, you need to go into your Messages app to change it. In your Messages app press the Menu button, then Settings | Notifications. There you can change your notification sound.

For managing files, you can try Adao File Manager. That's what I use.

If you want to manage files from your PC, you can just mount it as a USB storage device when you connect your phone to your PC. When you make the connection, you should get the option to do that on your phone.

I cannot help you with themes since I don't use them.