Your iPod nano's home screen (Main Menu) is entirely customizable: you can easily add or remove menu items, show or hide the Preview Panel, etc. You can even restore your Main Menu to "factory settings" (the defaults Apple sets for all new nanos). This tutorial explains how to do all this, and adds a few tips along the way.
- In this iPod nano tutorial:
- Show or hide the Preview Panel
- Add or remove items from the Main Menu
- Reset your iPod nano's Main Menu
Customize your iPod nano's Main Menu
All Main Menu customization for your iPod nano happens in one settings screen:
- If needed, go back to the home screen (Main Menu)
- Scroll and select Settings
- On the next screen, select the "General" options
- Finally, click on Main Menu to list all the items you can display on it
Show or hide the Preview Panel (images on the home screen / Main Menu)
The iPod nano's Preview Panel is a horizontal band docked along the bottom side of your home screen, which displays mostly rotating pictures of album covers, podcasts, and cropped previews of pictures and videos.
Tip: When the Preview Panel is visible on the Main Menu, scroll to select the Settings menu item, and your iPod nano will display in the preview panel its name, and the amount of free space left on its flash drive, with a visual representation (progress bar) of the proportion.
To show or hide the Preview Panel on your Main Menu, click on it in the Settings > General > Main Menu options to toggle between "Preview Panel - On" and "Preview Panel - Off". The scrolling artwork is gorgeous, but the Preview Panel takes up 20% of your iPod nano's screen and offers limited functionality. We ended up hiding it, which also helps stretch your iPod's battery life.
Add or remove items from the Main Menu
The next options in your iPod nano's General > Main Menu settings control items to show or hide from the Main Menu: Music (and sub-items), Videos (and sub-items), Photos, Podcasts, iTunes U, Radio, Video Camera, Extras (and sub-items), Nike+iPod, Sleep, and Shuffle Songs. Simply scroll to select the item in question, and click on the Center button to toggle checked or unchecked. (Any checked item or sub-item appears on your home screen; unchecking it will hide it from the Main Menu.)
All these commands are of course still available from the sub-menus of your iPod nano, but with this option, Apple lets you put on the "front page" the functions you use most often (sparing you a few clicks to access them).
Reset your iPod nano's Main Menu
To return to your iPod nano' "Factory Settings", and reset the menus (Main Menu) to their original configuration, stay in the Settings > General > Main Menu screen, scroll all the way down and click on "Reset Menu". Your iPod will display a final "Do you want to reset the Main Menu? - This will restore your menu to its original state" confirmation message, and two buttons: click Reset to proceed, or Cancel to return to the general settings without restoring your Main Menu.
The next settings under General is similar: customize your iPod nano's Music menu.