Droid X: The Missing Manual

Controlling the Droid X with Your Fingers

With the Droid X, your fingers do the walking. They do all the work that you do on a computer with a mouse or keyboard. Here are the eight finger strokes you can use on the Droid X’s screen.

Tap

Tapping is as basic to the Droid X as clicking is to a mouse. This one simple gesture is how you press onscreen buttons, place the cursor for text entry, and choose from menus. Note that’s a finger tap; the screen is designed to detect a fleshy fingertip, not a stylus.

Touch and Hold

Touch an object and hold it for several seconds, and depending on what you’re holding, an option menu may appear. (For example, when you touch and hold the Home screen, a menu appears that lets you add an object such as a widget, change your wallpaper, and so on.) You also touch and hold an object as a way to grab onto it if you then want to drag the object somewhere.

Drag

After you’ve grabbed something, you can drag it with your finger, such as dragging an icon to the Trash.

Slide

Slide your finger across the screen to perform some specific tasks, such as unlocking your phone after it’s been put into Sleep mode, or to answer a phone call on a locked Droid X. You’ll also use the sliding motion to move through all six of the Home screen’s panes.

Flick

Think of the flick as a faster slide, done vertically when scrolling through a list, such as a list of your contacts. The faster you make the flicking motion, the faster your screen scrolls—sometimes too fast. You can stop the motion, ...