There are numerous ways of displaying complex information on a limited-size screen. The idea of tabs began in the PC world, where even with the much great screen real estate it was still possible to have more information than could be reasonably presented on a single screen. Tabs were an alternative to simple scrolling.

The concept of a tab came from an idea long used in offices for segregating physical files in a filing cabinet. One could thumb through the tabs that stuck out of the file folders until the desired section was found. This idea is translated to the computer and cell phone world by presenting a screen with a series of tabs along the top, bottom, or sides. On a PC the user selected a new tab by clicking it with the mouse pointer.

On a phone without touch capability (in this case the Symbian S60 3rd Edition operation system) tabs are selected by using the left and right cursor keys. Tabs form a continuous loop, which means that you can rotate through them in either direction. Moving left from the first tab takes you to the last tab, while moving right from the last tab takes you to the first tab.

Each tab in a program contains information that is grouped according to a specific category. The information in that group may or may not fit on the screen and therefore might use vertical scrolling to allow the user to sift through it. For this the up and down cursor keys are employed.
 

ContactsEx employs the tab concept to organize the vast array of data in the contacts database. It begins with the home tab, which displays a list of contact names presented in alphabetical order (either by first or last name). This tab is the jumping-off point and it is so important that the right softkey has been dedicated to returning to this tab from any other tab. From this home tab (labeled "Names") contacts may be created, deleted, filtered, and manipulated. Contacts may be searched, and phone calls may be initiated. This highlights a division-of-labor philosophy that reduces the number of menu options available at any given time by moving each function into the tab where is makes the most sense.

Most, though not all, of the tabs in ContactsEx are directly influenced by which contact is selected in the home tab. Only the last 3 tabs are unaffected, because they represent global data that is not contact-specific.

Once a contact is selected (by moving the selection highlight down to the contact required) you are free to inspect other tabs to extract details on that contact.
 

First tab to the right of home contains a list of all the phone numbers and email addresses assigned to the contact. When multiple phone numbers and/or multiple email addresses are present for a contact, one of each type is designed as the default and may be identified by an asterisk next to its label. The default phone number is the one that determines the icon that appears next to the contact's name in the home tab, and is the number that will be dialed if you press the TALK key from the home tab. The default email address is the one that will be used if you send an email from the home tab.

The next tab to the right contains postal addresses for the contact. The S60 database allows the storage of up to 3 postal addresses, but it has no facility for displaying the various fields that make up an address in a manner that even remotely resembles an address. ContactsEx displays addresses as they might appear on an envelope, wrapping text as required so that the entire address is always visible. Multiple address that span more than a single screen can be viewed by scrolling vertically.

The fourth tab contains a collection of text notes that have been assigned to the contact. These notes may contain anything, which in turn may be formatted as required to convey meaning. Carriage returns and blank lines may be included to aid in the format. As with addresses, you may scroll vertically to view multiple notes that don't fit on a single screen.

The fifth tab contains sundry information related to the contact such as birthday, anniversary, spouse, children, job title, company name, etc. The information is presented in a listbox format with an appropriate icon for each type of data. Formatting for the various data types is also unique, as you can see from the example to the left. Birthdays are accompanied by the age of the contact, while anniversaries are accompanied by the number of years together. Unlike the native editor, ContactsEx allows you to assign multiple instances of various sundry items (such as birthdays and anniversaries).

The Picture tab allows you to assign a photograph to the contact that can be used with the program's Full Screen Picture ID feature. Unlike other programs that offer this feature, ContactsEx lets you crop the image to suit you needs, it lets you select colors and fonts for the text and you can move and anchor the text anywhere in the picture. A default image and text format can be created for contacts that don't have their own custom photograph, and you can also create a separate custom image and text format for calls from numbers that aren't in your phonebook at all. Finally, you can create a default image and text format for calls where the incoming phone number has been blocked or is unavailable.

The sixth tab is a list of all of the Groups defined in the database, with a group icon next to each group to which the current contact belongs. The contact can be easily added to or removed from a group by moving the selector down to the group in question and pressing the OK button. The icon will appear or disappear to denote membership in the selected group.

The seventh tab contains information that is not related to the current contact. It shows you how much data you've consumed since the beginning of the billing cycle. The data is separated into 2 broad categories representing packet data (that's what you pay your service provider for) and WiFi data (which you don't pay for service provider for). The line marked Consumed is calculated from a figure you enter telling ContactsEx how much data you get each month. The 15% in the example on the left was generated from a monthly allowance of 6 GB.

The eighth tab also contains global information. In this case it is the airtime used since the beginning of the billing cycle. The sample on the right contains all of the data shown separately, but Contacts Ex provides you with options to combine various values, depending upon how your service provider bills you. The plan for which the example to the right applied allows for 500 daytime incoming minutes, 100 daytime outgoing minutes, and 1000 combined evening and weekend minutes. It is quite obvious from these figures that none of those limits have been exceeded.

The ninth and final tab displays the call log. The Symbian O/S stores up to 30 days of log data (though the exact lifespan of the data is determine by an option you set in the O/S). The example on the left is set in 2-lines-per-item mode, with optional phone number labels. This is the maximum amount of information that be displayed at once, but as you can see if says a lot. We know the type of call (incoming, outgoing, or missed), the name of the contact, the label of the phone number used, the date, the time, and the duration of the calls. The first number on the list shows only a phone number because that particular number wasn't in the contact database.

By moving left or right from the home tab, all information is just a few quick keystrokes away.