Auto Text

Don’t we all love shortcuts? We look for ways to make our route shorter (take the road less traveled, the one with fewer stop lights, or the one with more lanes), ways to cook our food faster (pre-cooked bacon), and ways to type on our BlackBerry® smartphone quicker. Whether you want to beat your friend in a type-off (whose thumbs are faster?) or just want to get more accomplished - you need to know about a neat BlackBerry feature - AutoText.

If you have ever typed the word "dont", "wouldnt" or "youve" using your BlackBerry smartphone you will notice that they quickly become "don't", "wouldn't' and "you've". Similarly, "i" becomes "I" and "www" remains status quo even at the beginning of a sentence. There are presets for commonly misspelled words, words with apostrophes, and words that require a particular lower or upper case at all times. If you need to tell a friend your phone number or PIN number simply type "mynumber" or "mypin" and the number will appear in its place.

You can also create your own AutoText settings to shorten frequently used words, or statements. A few I have created:

• Type "wru" and it is replaced with "where are you?" (a question I ask my husband regularly when we are out at the hardware store and he has gone missing! )
• Type "bb" and it is replaced with "BlackBerry" (obviously this is a well used word in my vocabulary!)
• Type "omw" and it is replaced with "on my way" (worthwhile when you are leaving work late and you want your spouse to know you have left)

How to use AutoText on your BlackBerry:


Go to Options (wrench) > AutoText

You can scroll through the presets to familiarize yourself with existing AutoText.

To add your own AutoText:

Click the BlackBerry Menu Button > New >

Type the quick text in the first field, and then what it will be replaced with in the following field, as seen below

Click the Menu button > Save
Ta Da! You have now created your very own shortcut.
Are you already using AutoText? Do you have a favorite shortcut for your BlackBerry smartphone?