How to Kill The Gallery Button
Sure, everyone has picked up MagicKey and tried to use it to change the gaming key layout on Nseries, like the N73 and the N95. Sure, the functionality is great and allows to use these devices efficiently in landscape mode, but when I installed MagicKey on my N95, I had something else in mind.
Ricky has already gone on and off about how annoying the Gallery button is. He even proposed a suggestion to solve its problem. At the time, I had just got my N95 and it hadn’t pissed me off, YET. But day after day, I started getting bothered then annoyed then revolted by that button. Sure the quick access to the Gallery is good, but everytime I slip my N95 in my small car holder, or each time I hold the N95 firmly in my hand, the button gets pressed. And it does take some time to wait for the Gallery to load, then to close it. Not convenient. So when I installed MagicKey on my N95, this is the first thing I wanted to do: kill the button. Rather radical, yes, but I am sick of it. Of course, it worked.
How To?
- Download MagicKey 1.0 (the link is provided by Voice of Teenagers)
- Sign the application. If you don’t know how to, just don’t bother: it’s a long and tedious procedure.
- Install MagicKey and Open it.
- Navigate left to go to the KeyMap List.
- Press the Center button to open the Default KeyMap.
- Press the Center button again to Add a Key Pair.
- In the Original Key window, press the Green Call button. The numbers shown will be switched to 999. Now press the Gallery button, ie the one we want dead. You will most likely see 230 now.
- In the Maps To window, press the Green Call button again. 999 will appear. Now press the Pen key. I chose this one because it’s the least offensive key by its own. You will probably see 18 now.
- Now choose OK, then Back.
- Click on Options and select Start on Boot.
- Exit.
Well, now just for the fun of it, go ahead, press that Gallery button, then press it again and again. Oh, nothing. Voilà. My job is done. Peace.
Cool little app.
Do you know if you’re able to map the multi-media keys too?
You know, the ones on the other s(l)ide?
I want to use them for non-n-gage gaming.
Cheers,
magic key is really cool, i use it a lot for emulators
but for me.. gallery button is very useful
i’m one of the weird few that doesnt mind the gallery button, but i guess the majority wins on this and nokia will phase it out.
well i am not that annoyed with gallery button, in fact i use it quite often, but i wanted to have pencil key back, and didnt really need mutlimedia menu, so have turned multimedia menu key into a pencil key using “The pancil” app, but i just wanted to ask, if the same thing is possible using magic keys?
@Chirantan
yes with magic key you can turn any key to any other key (or none key if you want, for disable a button for instance)
and the good thing is that you can make a lot of keymaps and specify wich apps will use it
so.. theres no limit
plus you dont need to have the app running
I personally *love* the gallery button and it pains me knowing that future Nseries devices that I buy won’t have it.
As far as accidental presses go, simply locking the keypad is enough. Moreover when kept in the pocket the chances of it getting pressed are far lesser that any other key owing to its location.
Plus, since its on the bottom half, I rarely, if at all, hold the phone tightly in that position. I might use this app, not to disable it, but to create one if it were possible! :)
[...] By mapping it to replicate the pencil key (the ‘least offensive’ of all the keys!) problems with mistaken key depressions are all but gone. [...]
Been using it for a while to test it.
It is a little nice piece of software, just too bad that you can’t use it to map keysettings in N-gage games. (Have hacked my phone to be able to use landscape mode in N-gage games)
I do understand that people can be annoyed by the gallery button especially when using a carholder and when using the phone such as GPS, navigation or placing the phone in the holder during a call on one’s way out.
Offtopic:
The issue with the pencil key was also an issue of mine, but later I found that it was ok to press the * to get the options up.
(The same as using the pencil key)
When holding the # you can mark texts, but that doesn’t necessarily work as it depends on the application.
So you still have to press * and then choose cut / copy and then press ’start’.
As a matter of fact I wouldn’t be suprised if Nokia chose to take away the gallery button too.
Some thinkg it is convenient while other thinks it is a bother and don’t use it. Much like the pencil button which people didn’t use much. (Hardcore users and people writing documents will of course use it).
Who wouldn’t follow the large group of users to satisfy their needs instead of a small usergroup?
Guys, I love the functionality too, but the problem of it getting inadvertently pressed became VERY annoying. I used to think that I was one of the rare people who enjoyed that key, but by putting the Gallery on my standby screen, i relatively have the same speed of access.
I think I will use this same procedure on my hopefully-soon-arriving n82 to map the multimedia button to the pen key. I know I will hate the multimedia button, and will never use it, much like now with my n95.
remapping the multimedia key stops it from opening when sliding n95 landscape. Thanks ^_^
The Gallery Key is not just annoying when it ruins a good camera shot if I accidently press it, but I just find the Gallery itself plain annoying.
As a dedicated Lifeblog and ShoZu fan, every item I would want to see or do something with I will see/do in Lifeblog or ShoZu. The Gallery is wasting space.
Basically, I would love to have the ability to just axe it entirely.
I have considered taking out the Gallery key and filling the space on the cover with a bit of plastic and glue.
N96 and N78 do not have it ;)
hey.
i use the nokia SU-8W for tv out gaming on my n82.
is there any way i can use magic key to map keys onto the BT keyboard?
as in individual alphabets for functions, not just numbers ?
With this program you can also totally disable gallery key, without sacrifising another precious key(Pen key in the above example).
In the step 8, you just have to enter in the field “Maps to” the number of the key that doesn’t exist(i have chosen number 22. This way you are just remapping Gallery key to nothing.
And voila, Gallery key has no function anymore!
Kudos to all N82 users out there;-)
[...] button (which many people replace) you can change the button layout using the magickey program How to Kill The Gallery Button there it shows about [...]
Is this app running in the background all the time? Will it drain the battery juice even greater with this on all the time? I used it to change my N82’s gallery button into a music player button :p
Vincent,
I have been using this app for quite a while and I don’t believe it has any effect on battery life.
Thank you, you saved my life ! Cool nice little app that kill the gallery (gallery is not a 3 or 5 sec button push like take photo to start the camera viewer).
NKVD,
Great to hear that :D
It works great and I’m so happy. Thanks, many many thanks for this HowTo.
[...] application entitled Magic Key which allows me to remap buttons to different functions, and which I told you how to use and how I set it up on the N82. I had one objective in mind with the E71: make use of the volume [...]
Sorry, but I tried to map my N82 galery button(86)to the button next to the camer-shot(230) – but it does not work ! Can anybody help ?