Important Keys
ALT key =

has
half moon on top of it. left side of keyboard below the
A.
CAP key =

bottom
right key (AKA SHIFT key)
In General
- 1. Hold the
key
while you roll the thumb-wheel to scroll horizontally
in any field where you can enter or view text.
- 2.Hold the
key
while you roll the thumb-wheel to scroll through a field
to view options.
- 3. Hold the
key
while you roll the thumb-wheel to select multiple items
in a list.
- 4.
+Escape
- Allows multitasking, brings up Taskbar on any screen.
Similar to Windows ALT+TAB
- 5.
+
- Turns on CAPS lock. Hold
first
then press
.
An oval with an up arrow shows up in the upper right
corner of the screen.
- 6.
+
- Turns on NUM lock. Hold
first
then press
.
A # sign shows up in the oval in the upper right corner
of the screen)
- 7. Type the first letter of an
item in an options list or menu to jump directly to
that item.
- 8. Type the first letters of a
name or the initials separated by
to
find a contact in the Address Book screen.
- 9. Press C to compose a new message
from the home screen or within Messages. (If this does
not work, make sure Phone->Options->"Dial From Home
Screen" is turned off. This re-enables keypress shortcuts
for icons from the home screen.)
- 10. Press
+
to keylock your BlackBerry quickly from the home screen.
(Alternate keypress is just press K, but this only works
if "Dial From Home Screen" is disabled)
- 11. Rearrange the ribbon: In the
Home screen (ribbon), hold the
key
and click the thumb-wheel to bring up a menu. You can
then select Move Icon, Hide Icon, or Show All. If you
hide an icon, to show it again click Show all and it
will appear with an X over it, bring up the menu on
it and uncheck hide icon.
- 12. The Blackberry display can
be backlit to allow reading messages in the dark. To
get the light to come on, hit the backlight button usually
in the lower right of the keyboard. Hopefully you have
a backlit keyboard as well so you can type in the dark.
- 13. Turning the radio off and back
on when coverage is spotty and you've lost signal seems
to help. Also going into network and selecting register
now will help. And if you have a phone/combo BB then
on some you can go into network and select Scan for
networks. then select the network you are on, for example
T-mobile, then save. After doing this the radio will
reset and you may receive a register message and a new
service book, which you can accept from the service
book menu in options.
- 14. Passwords protect your BB.
To set a password, go to the Options menu to the Security
item. Set the desired timeout (I use 15 minutes) and
enable/set a password. In conjunction with this, you
should also go to the Options menu to the Owner item,
and enter your name, phone number, etc. When the password
protection kicks in, this is what is displayed on the
screen.
- 15. After five incorrect attempts
at typing in your password, the password starts echoing
(figuring you really need all the help you can get).
After ten attempts, it performs a lobotomy on itself
and almost all data is cleared. The Memo database, however,
is retained and visible.
- 16. To support more than one signature.
Wipe out your auto-signature in the Redirector of the
Desktop Software and just use 'AutoText' to configure
alternate signs.
In the Message List
Sorting:
-
+I
- show only incoming mail
-
+O
- show only outgoing mail (messages you have sent -
i.e. checkmark icon)
-
+P
- show phone log messages
-
+S
- show SMS messages
-
+V
- show Voicemail messages
Navigating:
- 1. T - go to top of message listing
- 2. B - go to end/bottom of message
listing
-
-
close message listing and return to home screen (ribbon)
- 3.
-
page down
- 4.
+
- page up
Deleting multiple messages at once:
- 1. Highlight a date (i.e. Fri,
Oct 05,2001) in the message list, hit the thumb-wheel
and select delete prior. All messages prior to that
date will be deleted.
- 2. Hold down the
key
and use the thumb-wheel to scroll up or down to select
messages. Click the thumb-wheel and select 'Delete Messages'.
Combine this with a sorting tip to make it even more
useful (i.e. To delete the last 5 messages that you
have sent (checkmarks), press
then
the letter 'O' (for outgoing) this will show all of
your sent messages, then per this tip scroll down and
select the last five.
While in a Message
Navigating:
- 1.
or
-
scroll down a page/screen at a time
- 2.
+
or
+
- scroll back a page/screen at a time
- 3. B - scroll to end of page
- 4. T - scroll to top of page
- 5. U - jump to closest unread message
- 6. N - jump to next message
- 7. P - jump to previous message
- 8.
-
close message and return to message listing
Reply-to/Forward:
- 1. R - reply to or answer this
message
- 2. F - forward this message
Select Text (OS v2.1+):
- 1. Press the
key
and then scroll the thumb-wheel to select. If you release
the
key
and scroll the thumb-wheel you will select entire lines.
Press the
key
again at any time to start selecting by character again.
- 2. Hold down
key
+ CLICK the thumb-wheel (click it don't hold it down),
release the thumb-wheel and then use it to scroll whole
lines. You can press and hold the
key
at anytime to start selecting by character again.
- 3. Click scroll wheel and select
SELECT from the menu, then scroll wheel to select entire
line, then click scroll wheel again and select copy.
With either method, click the thumb-wheel and select 'Cut
Selection' or 'Copy Selection'... to paste, open a new message
or whatever, click the thumb-wheel, and then select 'Paste
Selection'.
Composing
Message
- 1. Press and hold a letter to capitalize
it (with Key Rate enabled).
- 2. Press the
key
twice to insert a period and capitalize the next letter.
- 3. Press the
key
to insert the "@" and "." characters in an Email field.
Backspace and type again to over-ride this like you
would with AutoText.
- 4. Press and hold a letter key
and roll the thumb-wheel to scroll through international/accent
characters, equation symbols and other marks.
Calendar (from Agenda screen)
- 1. Press T to go to "Today" in
the Calendar screen.
- 2. Press G to go to a specific
date in the Calendar screen.
- 3. The default date range for Calendar
synchronization in Desktop Manager may not suit most
people. While configuring the Calendar synchronization,
click the ADVANCED button and specify the desired range.
Battery
- 1. The largest draw on battery
life is the transmitter, so if you are transmitting
a lot, you can expect reduced battery life. And the
backlight.
- 2. Being in fringe or no coverage
areas will eat up your battery as it attempts to transmit.
If you're in an area that is out of range, turn your
BB's radio off manually or use Options / Auto On Off
to conserve battery life.
Geek Tips
- 1. Rather than looking at the bars,
you can change the display of the 'signal strength'
to read in real numbers.
While at the home screen (ribbon), hold down the half
moon
key
while you type NMLL. The bars should change to read
numbers. For the 'signal strength', if you are in the
100 area (that means -100 dBm), you will be transmitting
at maximum power (2 Watts), and since coverage is hit
and miss at this weak a signal, you may end up transmitting
many times before the packets make it through. This
might help explain any poorer than normal battery life.
I consider anything at -90 to -50 excellent.
- 2. To get the bars back: While
at the home screen (ribbon), hold down the half moon
key
while you type NMLL again.
- 3. Hold down the half moon
key
-AND- the
key
at the same time, then the letter 'H'. This brings up
the "Help Me!" screen that lists version, app version,
pin, imei, uptime, signal strength, battery level, file
free, and file total.
- 4. Hold down the half moon
while
you type LGLG. This brings up the event log where you
can clear events (frees some memory) or view them or
copy the contents to mail to someone.
- 5.
+
+
will reboot your BB.
- 6. If you would like to have delivery
confirmation for your regular outgoing emails on your
BlackBerry, add "<confirm>" to the beginning of your
subject line. You must include the brackets. You will
get an email back confirming delivery of your message.
Other Tips£º
A user by the name of Sanderson on the Rim Road forums
added:
Instead of having your one auto sign set up for you, try
this for multiple signs:
1. Delete your existing auto sig.
2. Make an auto text entry where:
when I type: zz (or any irregular 2 letter combo like zx)
replace it with:
Your Name
Your Company
Your phone extension etc.
Auto text entries can really hold a lot. (e.g.: I have zz
as my "professional" signature and xc as my "casual" sign
off.)