Help Perplexing Thunderbolt phone dialer

[jackftb]

I like my new Thunderbolt but have found the phone dialer to be frustrating. I hope I am just uninformed. Here are two issues I have:
1) When I tap "phone" I usually want to type in the 1st letter of someone's name and see the list of contacts scroll to those beginning with that letter. All my previous smartphones operated this way. Tap phone, touch a letter, tap a name and it was dialing. In this case I must thumb through the entire call log and contact list or use the numeric keypad to tap away to eventually input three letters of someone's name like we used to text on our flip phones back in the day. It's a pain and I hope there is another way. Any suggestions?
2) On the dialer screen below the recent call log is a contacts list but any name that appears on the call log above seems to be temporarily deleted from the contacts. I can see no useful reason for this to occur and it makes me guess which list it will be on. I know it can't be intended that way- what am I doing wrong?

Thanks for letting me vent!

Jack

 

[kraftydevil]

#1 I think you might be in the "View People" section. I believe you can go back to the normal Phone screen with the back button. You should then have a screen that allows you to start typing in letters with the letter to number system.

#2 I can't figure out what you're referring to. Can you list the steps you took to get there?

...

I don't think it's a great implementation either.

Someone tell me how this is an efficient way of speed dialing:

1. Phone button
2. Menu
3. Speed Dial
4. Select a speed dial

 

[jackftb]

Thanks- the screen I see has a numeric keypad on the lower half and the top little bit of my recent call log shows in the upper half. In the center it says "enter name or number". My point is since i use contacts far more often than I manually enter a phone number I need the dialer to default to an alpha keypad.To call a contact named Jones I would only have to tap J then would see all names beginning with J. Instead I am stuck with a numeric pad to hunt for J via the 5 key. Then it displays random contacts that have a j,k, l or a 5 in them. I have to keep fiddling with the numeric keypad to find o then n to narrow that down.

 

[WizeGuyDezignz]

Get RocketDial Pro from the Market and thank me later.

 

[MustangChris04]

Thanks- the screen I see has a numeric keypad on the lower half and the top little bit of my recent call log shows in the upper half. In the center it says "enter name or number". My point is since i use contacts far more often than I manually enter a phone number I need the dialer to default to an alpha keypad.To call a contact named Jones I would only have to tap J then would see all names beginning with J. Instead I am stuck with a numeric pad to hunt for J via the 5 key. Then it displays random contacts that have a j,k, l or a 5 in them. I have to keep fiddling with the numeric keypad to find o then n to narrow that down.

If you want to find Jones, then type 5 6 6 3 7 (Jones)

Every time you type the next letter, it will narrow down the search even more.

If you want to call Chris dial (2 4 7 4 7)

as you enter more and more digits it will narrow down the search.

Its the best thing about this phone

 

[elements]

Thanks- the screen I see has a numeric keypad on the lower half and the top little bit of my recent call log shows in the upper half. In the center it says "enter name or number". My point is since i use contacts far more often than I manually enter a phone number I need the dialer to default to an alpha keypad.To call a contact named Jones I would only have to tap J then would see all names beginning with J. Instead I am stuck with a numeric pad to hunt for J via the 5 key. Then it displays random contacts that have a j,k, l or a 5 in them. I have to keep fiddling with the numeric keypad to find o then n to narrow that down.

Could not agree more. Its been driving me nuts. This is the only thing I miss about my blackberry. Takes me forever to find contacts. I have started to try to memorize the first3 numbers of all my address book

 

[kramerica]

Get RocketDial Pro from the Market and thank me later.

Does this phone dialer work in landscape mode (car dock)?

 

[elements]

You're not using the keypad properly. Here's how it works:

If you want to find Jones, then type 5 6 6 3 7 (Jones)

Every time you type the next letter, it will narrow down the search even more.

If you want to call Chris dial (2 4 7 4 7)

as you enter more and more digits it will narrow down the search.

Its the best thing about this phone

I find that really hard. I was not able to text without a keyboard its simpler to find the letter M then to figure out what number it is under

 

[MustangChris04]

I like how my other htc phones such as the TP2 and Imagio had the alphabet on the right hand side of the contact list and you could just click and go to a certain letter, just like the iphone.

 

[brain550]

#1 I think you might be in the "View People" section. I believe you can go back to the normal Phone screen with the back button. You should then have a screen that allows you to start typing in letters with the letter to number system.

#2 I can't figure out what you're referring to. Can you list the steps you took to get there?

...

I don't think it's a great implementation either.

Someone tell me how this is an efficient way of speed dialing:

1. Phone button
2. Menu
3. Speed Dial
4. Select a speed dial

You don't need to go to the speed dial menu every time, just long press on the dedicated number to call the specified contact.

 

[plim]

or create a direct dial shortcut. that's the fastest speed dial...

 

[Toose]

I have Gesture Search on my home screen. Tap it and with your finger write the first letter for your contact. Add a additional letter for a more refined search. Works OK but I do miss the simplicity of other phones!