Shortcuts and Tricks for Your BlackBerry-General Tips

1. Roll the trackball to scroll horizontally in any field where you can enter/edit or view text.
2. Roll the trackball vertically to scroll vertically or to go to different fields to change options.
3. Hold the Shift (CAP) key while you roll the trackball to select multiple items in a list (such as messages). You can use this to delete multiple messages, for example.
4. Type the first letter of an item in an options list or menu to jump directly to that item.
5. Type the first letters of a name or the first few letters of the first name & last name separated by a space to quickly find a contact in the Address Book screen. e.g. 'jo sm' to find John Smith.
6. Press C to compose a new message from within Messages.
7. Rearrange the ribbon (menu): In the Home (icon) screen, press the menu key to bring up a menu. You can then select Move or Hide an icon. If you have hidden an icon, you can choose Show All to show it again. A hidden icon will appear with an X over it or shadowed. To un-hide press the menu key while on it and uncheck Hide icon.
8. The Blackberry display can be adjusted to allow reading messages while conserving battery power. Go to Options icon, Screen/Keyboard. Change the Backlight Brightness to 40% and set the Backlight Timeout to 1 Minute or perhaps 90 Seconds.
9. If you've lost signal or data coverage, try turning the radio off/on by going to Manage Connections. Uncheck then recheck the box for Mobile Network. Also, try going into Options, Host Routing Table and clicking the menu key, then selecting 'Register Now. After doing this you should receive a registration message from your wireless carrier. If this fails, pull out battery and reboot BlackBerry.
10. Password protect your BB: To set a password, go to the Options menu. If you have a Password option, select that. If not, Click on Security Settings, General Settings. In either case, change Password to Enabled. Select the desired Security Timeout value, then click the menu key and choose Save. You will be prompted to enter a new password and confirm the new password. You should also go to the Owner item in the Options menu and enter your name, a phone number (other than your BlackBerry), etc. When the password protection kicks in, this owner information is displayed on the screen. NOTE: If the wrong password is entered 10 times, the BlackBerry will perform a security wipe and delete all data stored on the device.
11. To support more than one email signature: Go to Messages, then click the Menu Key and choose Options, then choose Email settings. Change the Use Auto Signature to No. Then use 'AutoText' to add the alternate signatures you wish to use. See AutoText.
12. AutoText: Create your own abbreviations by going to Options, AutoText. Click the menu key and choose New. Enter an abbreviation then enter the text that will replace that abbreviation. Choose Specified Case if the replacement text is a proper noun, otherwise choose SmartCase. If the replacement text is at the beginning of a sentence, the first letter will be capitalized, if it occurs in mid-sentence, it will be lower case.
    Hold the ALT key while you roll the thumb-wheel to scroll horizontally in any field where you can enter or view text.