OPM is available specifically for Nokia phones (even regular “non- smart-phones”) and for Symbian phones in general. Visit www. oxygensoftware.com and click on “More” under each section to see if your model is supported, and download the appropriate version. We’ve used the Symbian version for this workshop.
Connect The Phone
Once you open OPM on your PC, go to Tools, and under the “Connection and Common” heading, click on the kind of transfer you want to use-USB Data Cable, infrared, or Bluetooth. If you are using a data cable to connect the phone to the PC, OPM will automatically detect it.
If you are using infrared or Bluetooth for connection, you must install the OPM Agent on your phone. This is available as a .sis file (which installs the OPM Agent on the phone) and can be found in the “Agent” sub-folder under the installation folder.
There are separate files for Series 60, 80 and 90-transfer the relevant file to your phone and install it. Once it is installed on the phone, open the OPM Agent, and under Options, select “Start IrDA Exchange” or “Start Bluetooth Exchange”, as the case may be.
Oxygen!
Once your phone is connected, it’s time to explore the features and functions of Oxygen! You can view, modify, and save locally on your PC the Address Book, SMS, To-Do list, Calendar, and of course, pictures and videos. To the left of the window, you’ll find the various headings in a tree structure similar to that of Windows Explorer. When you click on a heading, the relevant interface opens up to the right of the screen along with a toolbar at the top. Click on the left-most button to start transferring data from your phone to your PC.
The button next to it is used to transfer any edited data back to the phone. You can hover the cursor on the toolbar buttons using the mouse to get a prompt that tells you the function of particular buttons.
SMSing
An interesting and useful feature of the software is the ability to type an SMS, which can be sent through the phone-particularly useful if you need to send an urgent message while working on an equally urgent document. Go to SMS > Send SMS. In the box that follows, you can enter the number you want to send the message to, or simply click on the “To” button to select individual recipients / groups from the phonebook.
Exploring
Navigating to various folders in the phone is similar to the way you do it in Windows Explorer. Click on Gallery in the menu and then select Images, Sounds, or Videos, depending on the content you want to copy. You can copy media files between the PC and the phone, and also transfer from the main memory to the add-on memory card and vice versa.
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| You can restrict access to your phone by assigning a password. Go to Phone> Phone Access> Set Password. You will need this password to access your phone though Oxygen Phone Manager later. |
If you want all the phone data to be read in one go, go to File > Read all data (if you are on a Bluetooth or IrDA connection, this may take some time). You can then choose the type of data you want to access and back up (Phonebook, Messaging, Gallery, etc.) without waiting for the data to load onto the PC.
Saving And Restoring The Phonebook
How often have you heard someone who has lost or damaged his mobile phone say, “I lost all my contacts!” Backing up your phonebook is just a few clicks away with OPM.
In the main window, go to Phonebook > Save to file. Choose the Symbian phone format if you want to be able to export the contacts to another Symbian phone. To add contacts from an already saved file, go to Phonebook > Load from file, and choose the file that contains the contacts saved earlier.
Managing PIM Functions
If you use your smartphone as a mini secretary setting reminders for various events, you might find it inconvenient to manage many appointments given the screen size and the small keypad. With Oxygen, you can manage all the appointments and even sync it with your Outlook reminders. Click on the “Calendar” heading at the left of the screen to open it up.
You’ll be presented with a calendar-like view, along with timelines for you to easily set your reminders and events. Once you’ve set all your desired reminders, you can export it in to various formats such as RTF, HTML, and more, and take a printout with the formatting intact. These functions are available through the little toolbar.
Depending on the calendar service offered by your Symbian phone, Calendar entries can be of three types-Meeting, Memo, and Anniversary. You can also import birthdays from the phonebook by clicking on Import and selecting “Import Birthdays from Phonebook”.