Community Service – Blackberry Tips To Make Your Experience Better

I seem to have become the go to tech support guy for all my friends who own Blackberries. So in an effort to make life easier, I have listed below a bunch of tips that should help make your experience a bit better.

Reboot

When at homescreen press ALT + CAP + DEL at same time and release

Switching between apps.

Hold Alt and press escape button to right of touchpad/scroll ball. Keep Alt pressed while you scroll through apps. Let go of alt and you will open switch the app.

Press alt plus escape and release to go back to original app.

On newer models you can simply hold down the Menu button (to left of touchpad) until it appears and then scroll to new app and click touchpad

Dial by Name

To dial alphanumeric phone numbers like “1-888-Rogers1″ hold alt while you dial the letter portion and press call. Note this works for dial by name when you call a company directory.

Ring/tone settings.

To toggle between the current setting and the last used setting simply press and hold # (pound sign)

(If you’re in Vibrate and you used Quiet last, then this will switch you to Quiet and/or back again)

Free Flashlight

To turn your bb into a flashlight, open your video camera, go to options and change video light setting to “on”. Then whenever you open your video camera your led light will turn on giving you light. If you want it one click away you can program one of your side convenience buttons to open your video camera. if your BB does not have a video camera you can upgrade your OS and desktop manager to get the latest version which has the video camera. (may not be possible on older blackberrys with less memory or those blackberries without a camera flash)

Tech Info

Alt + Cap + H opens an info screen with any info a bb support or IT support guy would need from you.

Special Characters

To type accented or special characters simply Hold the letter key and scroll with your track pad.

Caps Lock

Press ALT + right CAP to activate caps lock (you’ll see an “aA” icon in the top right of the screen). Press it again to release caps lock.

NUM Lock

Press ALT + left CAP to activate NUM lock (you’ll see a “123” icon in the top right). Press again to release.

To easily manage multiple email signatures.

1. Delete your existing auto signature or change the option setting to No. (Open email. Click Menu -> Options -> Email Settings -> Use Auto Signature and then update your setting.)

2. Make an autotext (Options -> AutoText) entry where:

When you type: zz (or any irregular, non-standard 2 letter combo like zx) Replace it with:

Your Name

Your Company

Your phone, extension, etc.

You can have a “professional” signature and a “casual” sign off. Or many signatures. Now just enter those 2 extra letters at the end of a message and your signature will appear there.

Email Tips

Press T – to get to the top of an email, inbox, web page or document (ER key on a BlackBerry® Pearl™)

Press B – to get to the bottom of an email, inbox, web page or document (CV key on a Pearl)

Press SPACE – to move down one screen at a time (M key on a Pearl)

Press ALT + SPACE – to move up one screen at a time (UI key on a Pearl)

Press N – to move to next email item (JK key on a Pearl)

Press P – to move to the previous email item (DF key on a Pearl)

Press U – to move to the most recent unread email [from within email]

Press SPACE twice to insert a period when typing.

Hold a letter to capitalize it (without using the CAP key)

For you ultimate geeks

The BlackBerry captures and saves an ongoing event log file. If you’re experiencing slower performance on your BB and want to clear the Log, or you’re a developer who needs to see what’s happening at a deeper level…

Press ALT + LGLG (hold the ALT key and type the letters LGLG) The log file screen will appear. Press Menu to see options like “Clear Log” or “Copy Day’s Contents”.

Note: you must be in the home screen to get the log file!

If you prefer more than the simplified wireless coverage “bars”, you can switch to an exact decibel meter view.

Press ALT + NMLL (type the letters NMLL) This toggles between wireless signal as “bars” and showing the negative number decibel value (very techie!) Note: you must be in the home screen to toggle coverage meter.

If you’re a web developer, and you visit a site while on your BlackBerry, you can still view source code. While you’re on the browser page, Press ALT + RBVS (type the letters RBVS).

Credit for many for many of these needs to be given to http://www.asendu.com/node/13