Have you ever wondered if there was an easier way to delete all of your messages at once? Change your signature on your email, so that everyone doesn't know your sending your emails from your wireless device? Are you new to the Blackberry family and want to know cool shortcuts and tips?  Well, whatever the reason may be, you stumbled upon this page and you are here because you want to get to know your blackberry!  I know the manual isn't always as helpful as you thought it would be! So I hope this information will make your Blackberry experience less frusterating, easier, and more user-friendly, no matter which Blackberry model you own.

Messages- When you get a message, whether it is a missed call, voicemail, SMS, MMS, or email, are you notified in not ONE inbox, but two or THREE inboxes? It's a kind of annoying, isn't it? Well..not anymore!

You can separate your Email and SMS/MMS messages:

From the Main Screen, Go to the "Messages" inbox, press the Blackberry Menu Button (the button with the dots on it) and select "Options". Scroll down to "General Options" and where it says "SMS and Email Inboxes" select "Separate". Don't forget to press the Blackberry Menu Button and select "Save" afterwards. Now your emails and SMS/MMS messages will be separate

If you do not want your missed calls to be in the Messages box, you can separate the call log by the following steps:

Press the call (or the green) button, press the Blackberry Menu Button and select "Options". Select "Call Logging" and then select "None" Again, press the menu button and select "Save". Another useful tip is setting your voicemail password to automatically dial your password. To do this, Press the call button and then the Menu button, go back into "Options" and then select "Voicemail" you will notice your 10 digit # and a place to type in your VM password (where it says "Access". It's SO convenient!

There are so many other things to learn about your Blackberry so that it is more convenient for YOU. Below are more tips and shortcuts I think will make your experience smoother.

1) Capitalizing Letters: Press and hold down on the letter

Tired of pressing ALT, number, ALT, Number, and so on, when you are switching from alpha to numeric? Life is about to get easier...

2) Number Lock On/Off :  Press ALT and Shift key (at the same time) The number lock indicator will be on the top right of the screen. To unlock, press the Shift button.

Does your phone show a yellow envelope and you don't know where it's coming from? From what you know...you have opened all emails, SMS, MMS?

3) Navigate to your Inbox for your SMS/MMS and press the letter 'U'. Your Blackberry will check for any unread messages that you may have accidentally missed. If you get a message stating that there are no unread messages, continue to the email inboxes.

Do you have a ton of emails that you want to delete? But definitely not one by one. Or do you want to delete emails from a specific date? It's simple.

4)Deleting Messages: Open your email inbox, highlight the date that you want to delete, press the Blackberry menu button, and select "Delete Prior" If you want to delete ALL emails, highlight today's date, press the menu button, and go to "Delete Prior".

5) Speed Dial: The easiest and fastest way is to press and hold down on a button, you will be asked if you would like to assign a number; select Yes.

Is the font size too small on your screen?

6)Font Size: Go to "Options" (one of the main icons), go to "Screen/Keyboard" and from there you can change the font size, font character, etc.

If you use the browser on your device-which you definitely should! After all you are paying big bucks for that data plan! ;) You can change the homepage on the browser.  This will make it easier for you to use your browser and get to the page you use the most...like HUBPAGES!

7)Browser: Launch the Browser. Press the Blackberry menu button (this button is where all the good stuff is hiding!), and go to "Options" (your new bestfriend) and then go to "Browser Configuration".  From here you can scroll all the way to the bottom of the page where it says "Homepage". Whatever listed there can be removed and you can type in your favorite page to go to.

I am hoping that before you reached this page, you have gotten help with setting up your email.  The wireless stores are usually pretty good at helping the customers set up their email before they leave the store.  However, if you did not, there are a couple ways to do it.

8) Email Settings: Email Settings is one of the main icons. You can set up your email through this icon.  It's real easy and straight forward.  ANOTHER WAY to do it is by going onto your desktop computer.  All you would need to do is navigate to Blackberry's website.  This website is SPECIFIC for your wireless service provider. For example, if you have the following providers, you will go to the website listed below.

Sprint: http://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=sprint

Verizon Wireless: http://www.blackberry.net/go/vzw

T-Mobile: http://www.t-mobile.com/bis/

AT&T: http://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=mycingular

Once you are there, you will need to register for an account. Registering for an account is definitely a useful tool.  From this website you can add/remove email address, create filters, change your signature for your email accounts (unless of course, you like it to say "This was sent by my (wireless service provider)Blackberry Device")  Another nice thing about having a username/password for the Blackberry Internet Service website is that if you ever decide to upgrade or you get a replacement Blackberry, you can easily change the PIN numbers.  I am wondering how many are asking themselves what a PIN number is? It stands for "Personal Identification Number" and it is unique for every single Blackberry device.  Similar to a serial number.  =) Blackberry users can send messages via PIN Message, at no cost to you since it goes through the Blackberry Server, not your wireless provider.

I think I have posted the basic, important tips that I can think of about general Blackberry devices.  However, there is ONE MORE THING!! You NEVER know what will happen to your phone...you may lose it at a party, run over it with your Mercedes, flush it down the toilet by accident, or drop it over and over and it eventually dies on you...(all true stories) SO, it is very wise to back up all of your information onto your desktop/laptop.  The Blackberry Desktop Manager is the application that backs up all contacts, emails, pictures, music, anything you had on your phone, and saves it onto a file on your computer.  I highly recommend doing this.  Plus, you'll find that you can do much more through this application.  The Blackberry Desktop Manager can be found on the "Blackberry User Tools" disc or on Blackberry.com.

Now that you know more than you did before about your Blackberry... don't go TOO crazy!  My boyfriend gets jealous of my Blackberry, so be sure to still make time for loved ones! There's a reason why Blackberry is called Crackberry! There's so much more to learn about these wonderful pieces of equipment and I will definitely be posting more useful information about Blackberry devices in the near future.