Navigation using tabs

The Symbian user interface uses the tab metaphor that allows combining several pages of related information into a single state when all of it would not fit into a single screen or list. The user can switch the tabs by tapping some of the visible tabs or by using the Arrow left and Arrow right keys as indicated in the Navi pane.

Tab-controlled views apply the following rules:

  • A list view from which each of the tabbed views can be accessed should precede the tabbed views one level higher.
  • Moving from one tab view to another has no effect on the function of the Back softkey in these views; from all of them, the Back function leads to the same place, the previous level in the application. In this respect, tabbed views are interpreted as one state in the application.
  • When a state has tabbed views, one of them is the default view that is opened when the user enters the state from the previous level.
  • When the user has proceeded from a tabbed view into a deeper hierarchy level, the Back function returns to the same tabbed view that the user came from (which is not necessarily the default view described in the previous bullet).
  • The possibilities for going forward from tab views may differ from one view to another (although typically they are similar). This means that one tab view may have other functions available to the user than another tab view in the same state.