How to Personalize a Blackberry

Although your Blackberry arrives in your hands with generalized settings, you can personalize it in a variety of ways to optimize your experience as you use it for business or for pleasure. While you can also spend money personalizing your Blackberry with accessories, software and little touches (like engraving the device with your name and contact information), some types of personalization will cost you nothing.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Blackberry

Brand Your Blackberry

1. Brand your Blackberry with your name, contact information and a message that will help get it back to you if lost.

2. Click on "Options" from the Home screen and use your track-wheel to scroll down and select the "Owner" settings.

3. Enter your name in the "Name" field, then provide a brief message and your contact information in the Information field. Follow prompts to confirm and save. Your message can be as simple as "Jane Doe needs me back!"

Set Up AutoText to Save Keystrokes

4. Find and click on "AutoText" under the "Options" or "Settings" menu of the Home screen to begin saving keystrokes and typos.

5. Use the track-wheel to click on "New" from the "Context" menu and add as many typing shortcuts as you like. Simply type a few characters in the "Replace" field and then type the replacement phrase in the "With" field. For instance, you might type "GBA" in the "Replace" field and "God bless America" in the "With" field.

6. Select from the available choices in the other fields on the "AutoText" page to instruct AutoText when and how to use your shortcuts, then confirm and save.

Explore Other Personalization Options on Your Blackberry

7. Personalize an image to use as the background for your Blackberry Home screen. Just select the image under the Home screen's "Pictures" application, press the track-wheel to bring up the "Picture" menu and select "Set as Home Screen Image."

8. Protect your Blackberry with a password. Select "Security" under "Options" off the Blackberry Home screen and choose "Password," then enter a password of your own choosing.

9. Organize icons on the Home screen from time to time to reflect your own usage patterns and remove icons for programs that you don't use. This will save you time and reduce clutter on your Blackberry Home screen.

Tips & Warnings

• If your Blackberry is the property of your company or organization, respect the boundaries that should exist between the personal and the professional. You should never be embarrassed to let your boss borrow your Blackberry for an hour if hers is not working while you are attending a conference.
• While it is always great to personalize the things you own, be careful not to provide too much detailed personal information.