General- ALT is marked with a half-moon, at the bottom left.
- CAP is also the RIGHT SHIFT key, to the right of the SPACE key.
- ALT+ESCAPE displays the taskbar on any screen.
- ALT+CAP turns on CAPS lock, which is displayed as an arrow pointing up in the upper right corner of the screen.
- CAP+ALT turns on NUM lock, which is displayed as a # sign in the upper right corner of the screen.
- Hold ALT while rolling the trackwheel to scroll horizontally in any field where you can enter or view text.
- Hold ALT while rolling the trackwheel to scroll through a field to view options.
- Hold CAP while rolling the trackwheel to select multiple items in a list.
- Type the first letter of an item in an options list or menu to jump directly to that item.
- In the Address Book screen, type the first letters of a name or the initials separated by a space to find a contact.
- Press C to compose a new message from the home screen (if the Dial From Home Screen option is off), or within messages (does not apply to the 7100 series firmware).
- Rearranging the ribbon:
- In the Home screen (ribbon), hold ALT and press the trackwheel to bring up the menu.
- Select Move Icon, Hide Icon, or Show All.
- If you hide an icon and want to show it again, click Show All and it will appear with an X over it. Bring up the menu, and uncheck Hide Icon.
- The BlackBerry display can be backlit to allow reading messages in the dark. To turn the light on, press the backlight button, usually in the lower right of the keyboard.
- When radio coverage is spotty and you've lost the signal, turning the radio off and on again seems to help. So would going to Network and selecting Register Now. If you have a phone/combo BlackBerry, you can try going to Network and selecting Scan For Networks, then choose the network you are on. 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.
- All devices on the IBM BlackBerry Service are password protected. By default, the BlackBerry security timeout is 2 minutes. Follow the steps to extend this time.
- Open the BlackBerry Options > Security Options > General Settings > Security Timeout. Alternatively, Options > Password > Security Timeout.
- Adjust this option to the maximum timeout of 30 minutes or the time value you prefer and save.
- In conjunction with this, you should also go to Options, and select Owner. Enter your name, phone number, etc. When the password protection kicks in, your information will be displayed on the screen.
- To support more than one signature, clear your auto-signature in the Redirector Settings of the Desktop Software, and use AutoText to configure alternate signatures.
Example: - Delete your existing auto-signature.
- Create an AutoText entry where typing any irregular 2 letter combination (e.g. "zz" or "xz"), replaces them with:
- Your name
- Your company
- Your phone extension, etc.
Note: AutoText entries can hold a great amount of data.
In the Message List
Some of the following shortcuts also work in tasks, memos, and appointments. Sorting: - ALT+i: Displays only incoming mail.
- ALT+o: Displays only outgoing mail (messages you have sent).
- ALT+p: Displays phone log messages.
- ALT+s: Displays SMS messages.
- ALT+v: Displays VoiceMail messages.
Navigating: - T: Goes to the top of the message.
- B: Goes to the end/bottom of the message.
- BACKSPACE: Closes the message and returns to the Home screen (ribbon).
- SPACE: Page down.
- CAP+SPACE: Page up.
- Deleting multiple messages at once:
- Highlight a date (i.e. Fri, Oct 05,2001) in the message list.
- Press the trackwheel, and select Delete Prior. All messages prior to that date will be deleted.
- Hold CAP, and use the trackwheel to scroll up or down to select messages.
- Press the trackwheel, and select Delete Messages.
- Combine this with a sorting tip to make it even more useful (i.e. To delete the last 5 sent mesages, press ALT+o (for outgoing). This will display all your sent messages. Scroll down, and select the last five.)
While In A Message
Navigating: - ENTER or SPACE: Scrolls down one page/screen at a time.
- ALT+ENTER: Scrolls up one page/screen at a time.
- B: Scrolls to the end of a page.
- T: Scrolls to the top of a page.
- U: Jumps to the closest unread message.
- N: Jumps to the next message.
- P: Jumps to the previous message.
- BACKSPACE: Closes the message and returns to the message listing.
Reply-to/Forward: - R: Reply to the message.
- F: Forward the message.
Select Text (OS v2.1+): - Hold CAP and scroll the trackwheel to select text. If you release CAP and scroll the trackwheel, you will select entire lines. Hold CAP again at any time to start selecting by character again.
- Hold ALT and press the trackwheel (don't hold it down) to scroll whole lines. You can hold ALT at any time to start selecting by character again.
- Press the trackwheel and choose Select from the menu. Scroll the trackwheel to select an entire line. Press the trackwheel again and select Copy.
With either method, press the trackwheel and select Cut Selection or Copy Selection. To paste, open a new message, press the trackwheel, and select Paste Selection. Compose Message - Press and hold a letter to capitalize it, with Key Rate enabled.
- Press SPACE twice to insert a period and capitalize the next letter.
- Press SPACE to insert the @ symbol or a period in the e-mail field. Backspace and type again to over-ride this, like you would with AutoText.
- Press and hold a letter, and roll the trackwheel to scroll through international/accented characters, equation symbols and other special characters.
Calendar
The default date range for Calendar synchronization in Desktop Manager may not suit most people. While configuring the Calendar synchronization, select the Advanced option and specify the desired range.
To quickly add an appointment: - Scroll the trackwheel to select a time closest to the previous hour.
- Enter a title for the appointment, and press ENTER.
- Press ENTER again to modify or add more options such as the reminder duration, specifying the time, etc.
To quickly add an appointment with its time ending in :15, :30, or :45 - Scroll the tracklwheel to select a time closest to the previous hour.
- Enter a title for the appointment.
- Hold ALT and roll the tracklwheel. This cycles between :15 :30 and :45 minutes.
- Press ENTER.
- If you need to change the length of an appointment, scroll the trackwheel without holding ALT, before pressing ENTER.
To quickly modify or reschedule an appointment: - In Calendar, scroll the trackwheel to select the time of an existing appointment.
- Press ENTER, or double-click the trackwheel.
- Now you can easily edit the name of the appointment, modify the date and time, the reminder duration, etc.
- To quickly change the time or date of the appointment:
- Select the time digit.
- Hold ALT, and scroll the trackwheel to cycle through a new time/date value. This also works in Agenda.
To quickly change the display date in Calendar: - Hold ALT and scroll the trackwheel to flip through the dates.
- You will go through the whole calendar in no time. Cycle one day back or forward with each click of the trackwheel. If your cursor is on top of the date instead of elsewhere in the Calendar, you can quickly change the month and year too, rather than cycling back or forward one day at a time. You can also press SPACE to scroll forward by one day, if you prefer to not use the trackwheel.
To quickly delete an appointment: - Scroll the trackwheel to select the appointment.
- Press BACKSPACE to delete it.
To view the Agenda screen: Agenda is similar to the Today screen on PocketPC. - Press the tracklwheel, and select View Agenda.
- If you want this screen to be the default Calendar view when you launch Calendar, go to Calendar Options, and change the default view.
Keypress shortcuts from the View Agenda screen: - D goes to day view, so you can add appointments using the quick method described above.
- C adds a new appointment in detailed mode.
- W goes to week view.
- M goes to month view.
- T goes back to current day.
To view weekly/monthly calendar:
If you don't use the Agenda screen as the default view, press the trackwheel and select View Day, View Week or View Month. These now look roughly similiar to those found on modern PDA's such as PocketPC and Palm. To change the default reminder: If you prefer a 30-minute or 60-minute default appointment reminder: - Go to Calendar, and select Options.
- You can change the reminder, and other parameters.
Battery
The largest draw on battery life is the amount of transmission. If you are transmitting a lot, you can expect reduced battery life and backlight. If you're in an area that is out of range, turn your BlackBerry's radio off manually, or go to Options, and select Auto On/Off to conserve battery life.
Geek Tips
- Rather than signal bars, you can change the display of the signal strength to a numeric display:
- In the Home screen (ribbon), press ALT+NMLL to change the bars into 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). Since coverage is hit and miss at this weak a signal, you may end up transmitting many times before the data makes it through. This might help explain any poorer than normal battery life. Anything at -90 to -50 is considered an excellent signal.
- To switch back from a numeric signal to bars, in the Home screen (ribbon), press ALT+NMLL again.
- Press ALT+CAP+h to display the Help Me! screen, which lists the version, the application version, your PIN, imei, Uptime, signal strength, battery level, File Free, and File Total.
- Press ALT+LGLG to display the event log where you can clear events to free some memory, view them, or copy the contents into an e-mail message.
- Press ALT+CAP+BACKSPACE to reboot your device.
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