Managing Addresses

Once you have created entries for your address book, you can easily view and manage the addresses at any time. These tasks are quick and simple, and the following sections describe them for you.

Viewing Addresses

You can quickly and easily view address information you have entered any time. In the address book, scroll through the list of addresses, highlight the address you want to view, click the trackwheel to see the address book menu, and select View. This feature opens the address screen and organizes the information you entered for the address in an easy-to-read format, as you can see in Figure 8-4.

Figure 4: View option

You can scroll through the information in the entry by using the trackwheel. When you’re done, just click the trackwheel and click Cancel.

Editing Addresses

Address information for your contacts is likely to change from time to time, and the BlackBerry allows you to edit address book entries so that you do not have to delete the old entry and create a new one each time information changes.

To edit an address book entry, simply scroll through the list of addresses, select the one you want, click the trackwheel, and then click Edit Address on the menu that appears. This opens the same screen you see when first creating the address. Simply scroll through the fields and make the necessary changes to the affected entries. When you’re done, click the trackwheel to bring up menu options and click Save Address.

Tip: If you want to remove a field entry, scroll to the field, click the trackwheel, and select the Clear Field option on the menu that appears. This is particularly helpful for longer addresses and the Notes field, where you may have a lot of information to remove or replace.

Deleting Addresses

You can easily delete addresses that you no longer need from the address book. Keep in mind that as long as you do not change the Confirm Address Delete option on the Options screen, you will be prompted for confirmation each time you delete an address. Again, this provides you with a safety net, and you should strongly consider leaving this option at the default setting.

To delete an address that you no longer want, just scroll to the address in the address book screen, click the trackwheel, and then click Delete Address. Click Yes in response to the confirmation message that appears, and the entry will be immediately removed from your address book. Make sure you want to delete the address, because there is no Undo option.

Searching the Address Book

Over time, you will accumulate a lot of addresses. Sure, you can use the trackwheel to scroll to the one you want, but what if you have a hundred entries or more? Scrolling through to the address you want can get a little annoying, but if you know at least part of the name of the person you want to contact, you can quickly find the address. When you open the address book, just begin typing the person’s name on the keyboard. The address book will begin suggesting names for you. For example, if you want to find someone named Malone, Jennifer, just type Mol, and all names that include “Mol” will quickly appear, with all other entries vanishing from view. You can then quickly select the one that you want. The search feature searches through first names, last names, and company names in that order to match your search criteria, so always try to use the first name or first initial when typing. Remember, the more specific you are, the fewer returns you will get and the faster you can find what you want.

Composing Messages

Whenever you choose to compose a message, the address book automatically opens so you can select the address book entry that you want. You can also use the Use Once feature to manually enter the e-mail address. Note that the Use Once option is always at the top of the list. If you scroll deep into your address book and then want to return to Use Once, just press U on your keypad, and you will be returned to the top. When you are using the address book, you can also scroll to the address that you want to send mail to, click the trackwheel to open the menu, and then click Compose Message.

Click here to purchase How to Do Everything with Your BlackBerry