BB Geeks » Quick Tips

Tips for Tuesdays: Use Word Substitution (AutoText) to speed up typing

Joe — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:59:13 +0000

The name might have changed, but the usefulness has remained the same. In older versions of the BlackBerry OS, there was AutoText. Now it’s called Word Substitution. Under both names it’s a powerful tool that allows you to type more efficiently on your BlackBerry. You can use it for two purposes: to correct common mistakes, and to use fewer characters when typing common phrases. Let’s take a quick look at Word Substitution and how it works.

The very first entry in my Word Substitution illustrates how it can help you avoid common errors. Think about how many times you’ve typed acn when you mean can. With me, and with many others, it happens when we’re tying the: it comes out teh or eht or something like that. This is a pain, because it can mean going back and making minor changes to big emails. But there’s a bright side here: the mistyped words are rarely, if ever, used. That means you can have them automatically correct.

Your BlackBerry comes preloaded with many useful Word Substitution phrases. It will separate alot into the correct form of a lot; it will add the apostrophe to common contractions. It will flip the t and the h when you accidentally type hting or htey; it will even add the umlaut to naïve. It can even expand common abbreviations: mo becomes month* and sec becomes second. It essentially does some heavy lifing in making your emails more legible.

*Anyone who uses Twitter for BlackBerry and talks about the New York Yankees knows that this is not only a good thing. Their legendary pitcher, Mariano Rivera, is nicknamed Mo. I can’t count how many times I’ve talked about Month Rivera coming in from the bullpen.

Word Substitution has another great use: it can use a smaller phrase to create a longer, more common one. How many times do you ever type the letters z and x in succession? Probably none, since they don’t appear next to each other in the English language. But you can use those letters to substitute a long phrase. For instance, you might have a phrase you use often in business emails: “You can reach me at xxx-xxx-xxxx between the hours of 9 and 6, Eastern.”

To do this, go into Word Subtitution, click the BlackBerry button, and select New. In the Replace field type the uncommon combination (for our uses, zx). Then in the With field type the phrase. Save that up. Now any time you type the letters z and x next to each other, your BlakcBerry will automatically replace them with your chosen phrase. It makes life much, much easier.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Tips for Tuesdays: Use Word Substitution (AutoText) to speed up typing

Tips for Tuesday: Set up and edit recurring calendar events

Joe — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:30:48 +0000

If you haven’t set up recurring events on your BlackBerry calendar, you’re probably not getting the most out of it. There are so many things that happen every week or every month, and we can easily lose track of them. Even if we have them set up to happen automatically, such as a bill payment, a reminder can help in many ways. Here’s a quick tutorial on setting up and then editing recurring calendar events.

Creating a recurring event is just like creating a regular event. In your calendar you’ll click the BlackBerry button and select New Appointment. After you’ve filled out the details, scroll down and you’ll see a section labeled Recurrence. Here you can select whether it recurs daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. If it’s monthly, you can have it recur on the same date every month (i.e., the 13th of every month), or you can have it save the relative date (i.e., the second Friday of every month) by checking the Relative Date box, as seen in the screen shot.

Once you complete and save this appointment, your BlackBerry calendar will create a new event for each recurrence. If you want to edit an event you can scroll to it on the calendar. If you want to edit a specific occurrence, you have to go to that one. If you want to edit the whole series, you can go to any of them.

When you find the event you want to edit it, click on it. Your BlackBerry will ask you whether you want to open the whole series, or just the single event. Here you can add reminders and other details that you didn’t when you first created the recurring event. This works even better if you’re editing a single date, since you can add specific reminders for that occurrence. You can also add notes to a single occurrence and not have it show up on the others in the series.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Tips for Tuesday: Set up and edit recurring calendar events

Tips for Tuesday: Stop getting a period when you double-click the spacebar

Joe — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:30:21 +0000

To many, it’s the best feature of BlackBerry typing. To get a period on your BlackBerry device, it might appear that you have to hit ALT+M. That can be a bit much, especially for longer communications. Yet most savvy BlackBerry users know that you can double click the spacebar to create a period. For many of it’s it’s wonderful. You just double click that bar and keep on typing as normal. It not only produces the period, but also capitalizes the next letter typed. Yet not everyone loves this feature. There are some people whose typing habits don’t fit with this. They end up with an uneditable mess of periods and capital letters where they do not belong. There’s some bad news for anyone who suffers from this problem.

There is no way to stop it.

Seriously. You can scroll through options from now through the next BlackBerry OS release, but you’ll never find an option that turns off the double-spacebar period. You can, however, mitigate the issue a bit. It involves changing a setting you probably never thought to change: your key rate.

You’ll find this in Options – Typing and Language – Keyboard. Hopefully you’ve already been in this menu, turing Key Tone off. The option below that is what you’re looking for, though. If you’re having the problem with too many periods, change your Key Rate to Slow. That should remedy the problem as well as any other solution. It would be nice to find a way to completely correct this, but changing the key rate works for the time being.

Via CrackBerry forums.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Tips for Tuesday: Stop getting a period when you double-click the spacebar

Tips for Tuesday: Turn off Facebook notifications

Joe — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:30:10 +0000

For all the flak RIM gets about its software, they’ve done a very good job with their own suite of apps. This includes Twitter, BlackBerry Travel, and more — you can check out RIM’s entire suite of apps at App World. But one app that stands out is Facebook. With all the hubbub about Android and iPhone doing software better, the BlackBerry Facebook app stacks up well with its peers. It not only has an easy to navigate interface, but it also integrates well with the BlackBerry notification system. Only, the notifications can sometimes be too much. Sometimes we need to scale back. Here’s how to get rid of some of those notifications.

As expected, these will be in the Facebook app. Hit the BlackBerry button, and select Options. You’ll have a decent list of options for integrating with messages and contacts. Those are better saved for another day, though. We’re looking for the notifications. You know, the pings and bells that go off every time someone comments on something you commented on, and the Facebook logo that goes into your notifications bar.

To find this you’ll scroll down and see a check box for Facebook notifications. Simple enough, eh? Uncheck it, and you’ll no longer see the logo in your notifications bar, nor will you hear the sound for every alert. From here you can also turn off email notifications, something I did years ago. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

(Note, this will not remove any existing Facebook notifications in your notifications bar.)

If you want to continue receiving notifications, but don’t want to hear the sound any more — it has woken me up a couple of times — you can go into your profiles to change it. On OS 6 and 7, that’s Options, Sounds and Ring Tones, Sounds for Selected Profile, and then Other Applications – Notifiers. You can change your Facebook notification settings there.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Tips for Tuesday: Turn off Facebook notifications

How to save a water-soaked BlackBerry

Joe — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:30:10 +0000

Many of you, it appears, have dealt with one of the more dreaded BlackBerry scenarios. For some reason or other*, your BlackBerry got wet. This is a moment of panic. We know that getting electronic devices wet can prove disastrous, and our BlackBerry smartphones are near and dear to us. That, and they’re expensive to replace. We will go through lengths to save our devices if they do get wet, hanging on until the bitter end. In case the previous, popular post on what to do if your BlackBerry gets wet doesn’t answer all of your questions, today we’ll run down a step-by-step method for saving your BlackBerry.

1. Remove it from the water. This might seem obvious, but you’re not saving your BlackBerry if you don’t get it out of the moisture and onto dry land.

2. TAKE OUT THE BATTERY. Once the device is out of water, immediately take out the battery. Do nothing else before you remove the battery. This is so important, yet it seems that so many people who have questions have neglected this step. Damage occurs when power is flowing. When the battery is out, power does not flow. Take the battery out. Repeated for emphasis: take the battery out.

3. Dry the device. There are many ways you can dry your device. The important thing isn’t which method you pick, but instead that you do it properly. My personal recommendation is to stick the device in a container of uncooked rice. The rice will absorb the moisture from the phone. Letting it sit out works, too. Just don’t apply extreme heat or cold. That is: do not blow dry your BlackBerry. That will rarely make things better, and can potentially make matters worse.

4. LEAVE IT ALONE. This is only slightly less important than Steps 1 and 2. If your BlackBerry is going to dry, you’re going to have to stay away from it. Don’t let it dry for two or three hours. That will do nothing. The water has to evaporate, and that takes time. If you turn on your BlackBerry within 24 hours, you’re asking for trouble. It’s recommended that you leave it alone for at least 48 hours. That’s tough for a BlackBerry addict, but it’s the surefire way to save your device.

5. Inspect the BlackBerry. After you’ve waited 48 hours, it’s time to inspect the state of your BlackBerry. Do not turn it on yet. First make sure that the battery prongs — and the entire battery area, really — is free of moisture. Make sure there isn’t water dripping out from the keyboard. Take a paper towel and wipe any area with buttons: areas where water can collect. Shake it out. Make sure there is no water remaining. If there is, leave it longer. Sorry, but if you try to power it up when it’s wet you’re just asking for trouble.

6. Power on your BlackBerry. Only now should you power on your BlackBerry. If there are hardware related issues, you’re going to have some trouble. Someone recently reported that there was no volume on outgoing calls. Others have noted faulty screens, or some keys not functioning. This is not good. If you’re under warranty or have insurance, it’s time to cash in. If not, I’m sorry. I don’t know what to tell you. If your BlackBerry is suffering from hardware damages after getting wet, there’s not much you can do. Water is that harmful to your device.

Other wetness factors

Here are a couple of tips you might need if your BlackBerry gets wet.

If a non-water liquid gets into your BlackBerry: This will be a long and tedious process, and you could be without your BlackBerry for a week. You’ll have to rinse your BlackBerry with distilled water. Do not use tap water. Do not use purified water. You can buy gallons of distilled water at the grocery store. Clean the device using a smooth pad (not cotton or a q-tip, since they can leave behind residue) and let it sit for days. Make sure the water is completely evaporated before you try to power on the device.

Condensation under the screen. This is quite a pain. I hate dealing with it, and recommend that you let it evaporate as normal. That is, keep the battery out and don’t use the device until the condensation goes away. If you’re savvy enough, you can take apart your device and wipe down the screen. But you’ll probably void your warranty, and that’s never fun. Also, if you can’t put it back together you’ll have a problem on your hands.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

How to save a water-soaked BlackBerry

Using your BlackBerry to help with resolutions

Joe — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 13:13:31 +0000

It’s only January 3rd, so hopefully your New Year’s Resolutions are still going strong. Yet we’ve all been there before, so we all know what will come later. Eventually most people veer off their paths and find themselves in the exact same places they were in 2011, and 2010, and 2009, and on and on. It takes an incredible amount of willpower and effort to break old routines and habits, and it takes even more to create new ones. Thankfully, technology can help here. Your BlackBerry can play a role in keeping your 2012 resolutions.

Calendar Reminders

One reason people slip on their resolutions is that they let them fade from memory. Yes, once upon a time they resolved to do something, but it’s hard to remember what happened last week, let alone what happened at the start of the year. What we need is a constant reminder of the goals we set.

When I really want to create a new habit or break a new one, I use my BlackBerry calendar, and I use it ruthlessly. That includes a reminder at least once a day. Those calendar events create pop-ups on my BlackBerry, so I see the reminder that one time. But I also have my Google Calendar set up, so that’s a reminder on my desktop as well as on my mobile. Ditto the iPad. That’s at least three reminders right off the bat. When I need real motivation, I set two or more reminders throughout the day. That way I’m seeing it a dozen times a day or even more. It’s hard to slip on something that’s right in front of your face.

Wallpaper

Want to make sure your goals are always in front of your face? Chance your wallpaper. It won’t be as pretty as what you’re currently using, but it will serve an important function. That is, every time you open up your Blackberry you’ll see your goals right behind your icons.

This works great on BlackBerry 6 and 7 devices, since you can completely hide the menu. There are also a number of BlackBerry themes that keep your home screen free and clear. All you have to do, then, is to create a simple image file that contains only text. List your goals, and then set that image to your wallpaper. Voila! Your goals are always within reach, so there’s no way to let them slip from your mind.

Apps

Yes, there are some apps that can help you along with your goals. Many of them are free, too. For instance you can:

Track your calorie intake with apps such as Calorie Counter.
Get jump-started at the gym with an app such as Gym Technik and their new online personal trainer feature.
Start organizing your business with a CRM app.
Start organizing your life with a GTD app such as Conqu.

There are many more that will match your specific goals. App World is stocked to the brim with useful apps such as these.

Remember all those times you’ve been a slave to your BlackBerry — when you’ve jumped at the sight of the blinking red light. Don’t you want to turn the tables? Thankfully, that’s not too difficult. There are many ways you can use your BlackBerry to help keep your 2012 New Year’s Resolutions.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Using your BlackBerry to help with resolutions

Tips for Tuesday: Find old emails from a recent sender

Joe — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:30:45 +0000

From time to time, we all need an assist in remembering old conversations. Someone, whether a business contact or a family member, brings something up in an email. You remember talking about it — you might even remember most of the conversation. But for some reason you can’t remember the one detail you need to recall. You can’t flat out ask the person, since it can be an embarrassing and awkward moment. Thankfully, your BlackBerry can look back in time and provide you with the contents of that conversation.

You’ll start by opening your messages app and scrolling to a message from the person in question. Then click the BlackBerry button and scroll down to Search by and then select Sender from the second menu. Ah ha! That will bring up a list of your previous interactions with this person. That can include text messages and email, as well as Facebook and Twitter if you have those things attached to the contact.

The best part about this feature is that it brings up any email with the person in question, even if it came in a string of multiple emails. That is, as long as the user was involved in the email, it will come up in the search. This can be painful if she’s involved in large email chains and you’re looking for a specific conversation. But it can be great, because maybe you’re misremembering. Maybe the conversation was actually with someone else in the chain.

You can also use this tip to search by subject line.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Tips for Tuesday: Find old emails from a recent sender

Tips for Tuesday: Basic BlackBerry Etiquette

Joe — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 12:30:55 +0000

We have a high-scale readership here at BBGeeks, and I expect that most of our readers understand when it is appropriate to use their BlackBerry devices. But, seeing as we’re headed into a holiday season and plenty of social gatherings linger on the horizon. As such, now is as good a time as any to review some basic BlackBerry etiquette. After all, you wouldn’t want to go offending grandma on Christmas. Here are two big tips on BlackBerry etiquette for the holiday season.

1. No BlackBerry at the table

When you’re with a large gathering of friends and family, you probably want to savor the moments. It is best to suppress the desire to check who emailed you in the past five minutes. There are people at the table whom you haven’t seen for a while and whom you might not see again for a while. Be social with them, rather than the people you email with.

Your family might be boring, sure, but think about it this way, too: do you want to let them know they’re boring? There’s no easier way to make someone feel boring or unwanted than checking a BlackBerry in their presence. That goes especially on the holidays. Many times you can get away with a work excuse. That doesn’t work quite as well at this time of year.

2. Don’t send mass texts or BBMs

Normally when I get a text or a BBM I go to it fairly quickly. I don’t sprint across the room to check it, but I don’t leave it hanging for hours, either. The exception is on holidays, when at least every other text or BBM is a massive “happy x-day!” message. Just what I wanted: impersonal holiday wishes.

If you want to send holiday wishes to your friends and family, personalize it. Otherwise, what’s the point in sending it at all? It’s not as though you’re actually thinking of the people on the recipient list. So please, do everyone on your contacts list a favor and spare us. The text messages you do send will seem that much more personal.

(Plus, if you want to send a general message, just update your Twitter or Facebook status.)

There are plenty of other little rules. Take your conversations to another room, don’t use your BlackBerry just after opening someone’s gift, don’t use your BlackBerry when someone’s talking to you, etc. Those are pretty basic. These, however, are directly applicable to many holiday situations. Enjoy the time of year, folks.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Tips for Tuesday: Basic BlackBerry Etiquette

Tips for Tuesday: Turn off playback shortcuts in BlackBerry 7

Joe — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 12:30:26 +0000

One thing you probably noticed soon after getting a BlackBerry 7 smartphone is the modified volume control panel. Gone is the traditional volume up/volume down rocker. In its place is a funky looking three-button configuration. Clearly the top and bottom buttons are volume up and volume down. But what about that middle button? With its BlackBerry 7 smartphones RIM has added the third button as part of a media control system. That is, you can use the three keys to control the playback of audio and video. Here’s a quick rundown of how to do it, and how to turn it off.

While you’re playing audio and video on your BlackBerry, you can pause, skip, or go back using the three keys on the side of the device. The middle key is the easiest: play/pause. That makes enough sense. You’ll have to hold down the top and bottom keys to skip ahead and go back. A quick tap of the up key, for instance, will turn up the volume, but holding down the up button will skip to the next track. Holding the down button goes back to the beginning of the track.

For some, this unfamiliar feature can be annoying. Hold the volume button too long and you skip a track instead of raising the volume. I can see why people wouldn’t want it present. For those who want to turn off these controls, there’s a simple option. From the media application, go to Options from the menu. There’s a huge list of things you can play with, but we’re concerned with the option called “Allow Mute and Volume keys to control play, pause, and skip.” Uncheck that box, and your volume keys do nothing more than raise and lower the volume.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Tips for Tuesday: Turn off playback shortcuts in BlackBerry 7

Tips for Tuesday: Changing the sensitivity of your trackpad and touchscreen

Joe — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 12:30:42 +0000

In the time of BBGeeks’s existence, RIM has changed the BlackBerry navigation system a few times. Before the 8800 BlackBerry devices had the scroll wheel on the side. Users had grown so used to that, in fact, that many complained when the new models upgraded to a trackball. Despite its ability to move in multiple directions, some people still preferred the jog wheel. A few years later the trackball went bye-bye, in favor of an optical trackpad. Finally, a navigation device that won’t stop working when dirt gets in it. Finally, RIM also created more touchscreen devices, which provide even more navigation options.

With these new navigation systems come a few personalization issues. Today we’ll go over how to change the sensitivity for these systems.

Adjusting the sensitivity for the trackpad is quite simple. It’s actually the same as adjusting the sensitivity on the trackball. In OS 5.0 that means going to Options and then Screen/Keyboard. In OS versions 6.0 and 7.0 you’ll have to take another step: Options, then Typing and Language and then Trackpad Sensitivity. You can adjust each of the horizontal and vertical sensitivities on a scale from 20 to 100, with the default at 70. You’ll scroll a bit faster as you go higher. It seems to me that most people adjust it lower, opting for precision over speed.

From the Typing and Language menu you can also adjust the touchscreen sensitivity. This includes the Double Tap Interval and Hover Time. The double tap interval is not something I prefer to mess with. There aren’t many instances that require a double tap, anyway. The default setting gives a reasonable interval between taps, so that two separate taps are not easily confused with a double tap.

The hover time, however, is a feel thing. Essentially, it dictates how quickly menus will appear when you hover over an item. I prefer setting this to Fast, though there isn’t that big a difference between Fast and Normal. On Slow there is a noticeable difference, however. If you tend to idly hover over menu items, you might prefer this, to avoid unnecessarily bringing up menus.

There is also the option to prevent menus from popping up when you press and hold. Why you’d want to do this, I do not know. There’s not much else you can do with press and hold. To me it’s one of the best features of the new BlackBerry OS. If you feel differently, though, you can uncheck the box at the bottom of the Touchscreen Sensitivity menu.

This post originated at BBGeeks.com - home to all things Blackberry! Also a great source of info about AT&T BlackBerry.

Tips for Tuesday: Changing the sensitivity of your trackpad and touchscreen