One of the best features of Google Android is that the OS makes it easy to customize your home screens with widgets, app shortcuts, and even folders which you can tap to open a list of applications. Say you want to create a folder with all of your audio and video apps? No problem… well, slight problem. It kind of takes a while to set up a folder, and if you accidentally delete it, you have to start over from scratch.
Here’s how it normally works. You tap and hold a blank spot on the home screen and then select Folders from the pop up menu. You create a new folder by tapping the “New Folder” option and it will appear on your home screen. Then to name the folder, tap the icon on your home screen and then press and hold the menu bar at the top (where it says “Folder” and enter a new name in the dialog box.
Whew. Finally, you can start adding program icons by bringing up the app launcher and then tapping and holding the icons of apps you want to drag to that folder. Like I said, it’s a lot of work.
Apps Organizer is a free app that makes the process much easier. Here’s how it works. You install Apps Organizer and then fire up the utility. It will show you a list of installed applications. Tap on one to open a label dialog box. Just check the box next to the label or labels you want to apply to it.
By default you get a few useful labels such as Games, Internet, Multimedia, and Tools. But you can add as many new labels as you like.
Once you’ve applied labels to a few of your apps, the real fun starts. Now you can go back to your home screen and tap and hold a blank spot. Instead of choosing Folders from the pop up menu, select Widgets. Then select Apps Organizer and choose a label.
Apps (
http://sites.google.com/site/appsorganizer/) organizer will add an icon to your desktop — and when you tap it, a box will open up with icons for all of the apps matching that label. No dragging, dropping, and rearranging necessary.
If you decide that you want to change the labels that apply to an app, you can do that using the Apps Organizer settings. You can also customize the icon for each label. And best of all, if you decide you want to have an icon for games on each home screen, you can do that without manually creating 3 to 7 folders (depending on which version of Android you’re using) and filling them with shortcuts to your favorite games. Just add an Apps Organizer widget to each screen and select the Games label — although I don’t know why you’d really want the same label on all of your home screens. Just saying, it’s easy to do if you want.
