5 Useful Blackberry Tips and Tricks to Boost Your Productivity

Regis Hadiaris — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:37:54 +0000

(Source: edans)

If you have a Blackberry, chances are you picked it up, and started emailing right away. If you have a personal email management system, your Blackberry can be a real asset to your productivity.

Did you know, there are several time-saving features built in, and several tricks you can do to make your Blackberry even more useful? Here are 5 of my favorites…

#1: Master the Keyboard Shortcuts

Just like on a computer, the keyboard on a Blackberry is full of time-saving shortcuts. Here are my favorites:

“I” - Hit the letter “I” when looking at email in your “inbox view,” or when reading an actual email to file it. If you’re already using my plan for getting control of your email, then you know the importance of filing email to achieving an empty inbox.
“0″ - Hold down the “0″ (i.e. zero) button and then use the thumbwheel to select multiple emails when in your “inbox view.”
“Del” – Use this to delete email you don’t need after highlighting it in “inbox view” – to speed this up even more, you can also remove the delete confirmation.
“C” - Hit the letter “C” when looking at your email in your “inbox view” to compose a new message.

Be sure to check out my “6 Blackberry Tips for Reading Emails” post with additional keyboard shortcuts too!

#2: Setup Your Blackberry to Work Well with Voicemail

In my 10 Tips to Improve Your Voicemails post, I discussed setting up speed dial hot keys (Tip #6), making logging into voicemail easier (Tip #7) and forwarding your voicemail (Tip #8) to one voicemail box.
If you use your Blackberry as a phone, be sure to put all of these to work for you!

#3: Get Google Maps for Mobile

One of the most useful apps you can download for your Blackberry is Google Maps.
With a simple search (i.e. “breweries in Duluth, MN”), you will get results on a map, turn-by-turn directions, and one-click to call the business you looked up.
If you do any business travel at all, it’s an absolute must. I’m sure it will quickly become one of your favorite apps!

#4: Reorder Your Apps in Order of Most Popular

If you hold down the “Alt” key (below “a”) when clicking on an app, a pulldown menu will appear where you can select “Move Application.”
Then, you can order the apps in any way you want! I put my most used apps right next to each other to minimize scrolling.

#5: Update Your Blackberry Email Signature

Your email signature is a valuable “one stop shop” of contact info so people can get a hold of you.
Make sure you always use the same signature on your Blackberry that you do in your main email (usually MS Outlook).
That way, readers of your email are less likely to pre-judge your message (“Oh, she’s stuck in an airport and dumping ideas again!”), and they are less likely to know where/how you sent it.
It’s also a great idea to remove all “Sorry if this is misspelled, I’m on a Blackberry” messages. That’s like a website having an “under construction” page – it’s just not necessary. Plus, it makes you look like you can’t spell.

Bonus Tip! #6 – How to Dial “Letter-Based” Phone Numbers on Your Blackberry

Ever want to call one of those alpha-numeric phone numbers, like 800-QUICKEN, but can’t find a “land line” dial pad to figure out what numbers to hit? Fear not! Thanks to Ron O’Connor, at Quicken Loans, you now have the answer: use the “alt” key + the letter to dial the numerical equivalent of the letter! For example, to dial the letter Q, just hit “alt-Q” and your Blackberry will show you the Q, but enter a 7.

I hope these tips and tricks prove useful for you. If you’re reading this and thinking, “but he didn’t mention…” then please, leave a comment!

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5 Useful Blackberry Tips and Tricks to Boost Your Productivity

(Source: edans)