Mine just came via UPS, and it’s more exciting than 10 Christmases and birthdays put together.

I’m not alone either. Pre-orders broke records. And no doubt a good chunk of those new iPhone users will be bringing their devices to the workplace.

To give you a leg up, here are seven quick tricks – plus one detailed tip – to get you up to speed with your colleagues who are pros at using the iPhone for business:

Mine just came via UPS, and it’s more exciting than 10 Christmases and birthdays put together.

1. Easy punctuation.
Inserting a period from the symbols box can become tedious. You want to send messages with proper punctuation, but deadlines get in the way. Here’s a quicker way: Double-tap the spacebar. Problem solved. Reputation saved.

2. Tidy up your desktop.
Like corner offices, iPhone screens sometimes need rearranging. To do so, tap and hold one of the app icons, and when they begin to shake, drag them to rearrange. So quick, so easy.

3. Copy Web images in a snap.
Do you often come across images in your Web travels that you’d like to save for later use? Try this shortcut: Press and hold your finger on the photo and you’ll be prompted to “Save Image.” Now it’s in your Camera Roll.

4. Speed dial.
Nothing wastes time like wading through scads of contacts to find your intended text message recipient. Create favorites, already. Open up your contacts, select the contact you wish to tag, and tap the “Add Favorites” button at the bottom. Fewer steps, increased productivity.

5. Stay productive, even while flying.
Although every airline requires you to turn off your phone while in flight, there’s no restriction on using your iPhone to watch videos and listen to books and music – provided your phone is set to Airplane Mode. To do so, go to Settings and toggle on Airplane Mode. This will disable all incoming wireless calls and data connectivity. Make sure you turn off the device completely, however, during takeoff and landing.

6. Traveling across time zones + calendar appointments ≠ scheduling mayhem.
Sometimes technology’s intuitive functionality can get the better of you, especially when traveling across time zones. Case in point: the Time Zone Support feature, which shows event dates and times in the zone you selected for your calendar. For example, if you scheduled a 10 a.m. conference call while at the home office in Philadelphia, and you are currently visiting Los Angeles, your meeting will still show up as scheduled for 10 a.m. Turning off the Time Zone Support feature can make your schedule a little clearer by automatically adjusting your calendar to the time zone you are in. To do so, go to Settings | Mail | Contacts | Calendar and toggle off Time Zone Support.

7. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.
Mobile devices are practical, yes, but not when it comes to screen size. Scrolling, in particular, can become tiresome on an iPhone, or any smartphone for that matter. Whichever screen you are on – your contacts, a Web site – you can quickly return to the top by tapping the status bar (at the very top of every iPhone screen). Efficiency is grand.

8. Manage your email.

Email can pile up and even take over our lives. Here are some quick tips for dealing with your Inbox quickly and efficiently.

Deleting Single Emails
While viewing a message, tap the trash icon at the bottom to delete it. Alternatively, you can swipe your finger left or right over the message title, and then tap Delete to delete a message.

Deleting Multiple Emails
While viewing a list of messages, click the Edit button in the upper right hand corner on the screen. You will see circles appear to the left of each e-mail message. As you click on each message that you want to delete, the circles will become checked. Once you are done, tap the Delete button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen.

Moving Single Emails to Another Folder
While viewing a message, tap the folder icon at the bottom, and then choose the folder you want to move the message to.

Moving Multiple Emails to Another Folder
When viewing a list of messages, click the Edit button in the upper-right hand corner on the screen. You will see circles appear to the left of each email message. As you click on each message that you want to delete, the circles will become checked. Once you are done, tap the Move button and select the folder you want to move them to.

Emptying the Trash Folder
Once a message is deleted from the phone, it is still located in the Trash folder. If you want to get rid of them right away, you can navigate to the Trash folder, click the Edit button, and choose Delete All.

Changing How Often the Trash Folder Is Emptied
Go into Settings, select Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and click into the email account you want to change. Next, tap on Advanced and look for Deleted Messages on the page to change the deletion frequency. The default setting is one week.

Got any can’t-live-without iPhone tricks or tips? Send them my way.

Here are a few BlackBerry and iPhone tips from PC Helps staff to help you get more done in this notoriously unproductive time of year.

How to Attach vCards to Messages

If you meet someone while on the road, you may want to give them your contact information. In the not-so-distant past, you would simply exchange business cards. Today, however, you can easily swap contact information electronically.

BlackBerry

While composing an e-mail message:

• Press the menu button, select Attach, and choose Contact.
• Select the contact.

From within Contacts/Address Book:

• Select the contact and press the menu button.
• Choose Send Contact Card, then the method of sending it (as an e-mail attachment or as a PIN message). A new message opens up, with the contact already inserted.

iPhone

• Open your Contacts folder by tapping Contacts (or tapping Phone and choosing Contacts in the bottom tabs).
• Tap the contact that you want to send.
• Tap the Share Contact button.
• Choose Email to send the contact via e-mail, or MMS to send it via a text message. A new mail or text message will open up. Address the message and click Send.

How to Make a Voice Recording

When you are out and about, having a device that can record sound can be more efficient than pen and paper. Here’s how:

BlackBerry

• Click the Media icon on the home screen, and then click the Voice Notes Recorder icon.
• Click the Record button at the bottom of the screen to begin recording.
• Click the Pause button at the bottom to pause the recording; once paused, you can continue, stop, or play back the recording. You can also choose to send the recording via Bluetooth, SMS, e-mail, or messenger, or delete it.
• Click the Stop Recording option when you are done.
• To view, edit, or rename existing recordings, open the Voice Notes Recorder, press the Menu button, and choose View Voice Notes.

iPhone (3.0, 4.0)

• Tap the Voice Memos app on the home screen.
• To begin recording, tap the bottom left button (the red and silver dot). While recording, you will see a status bar at the top that shows the elapsed time. The Record button will change to a Pause button that you can tap to pause and resume recording.
• When you are done recording, tap the Stop button at the bottom right of the screen.
• When not recording, the Stop button becomes the List button; tap this to view a list of recorded memos.
• Tap any memo to play it back; you can use the slider at the bottom to move forward and backward within the memo, and tap a memo while it is playing to pause it.
• Tap the Speaker button at the top left to listen to a recording over the iPhone’s speakers.
• Tap the Delete button in the bottom right to delete the selected memo.
• To share a memo, select it and tap the Share button. You can choose to send the memo via e-mail or MMS.
• To return to the voice recorder from the memo list, tap Done.

Got any tips? Share them with us. For a full list of PC Helps’ tips, visit our eTips Library.

Who knew a gadget could have such power? Here are seven tips to make you even happier and more productive with your iPhone.

1. Easy punctuation. Period.
Inserting a period from the symbols box can become tedious. You want to send messages with proper punctuation, but deadlines get in the way. Here’s a quicker way: Double-tap the spacebar. Problem solved. Reputation saved.

2. Spring clean your screen.
Like corner offices, iPhone screens sometimes need rearranging. To do so, tap and hold one of the app icons, and when they begin to shake, drag them to rearrange. So quick, so easy.

Like corner offices, iPhone screens sometimes need rearranging.

3. Copy Web images in a snap.
Do you often come across images in your Web travels that you’d like to save for later use? Try this shortcut: Press and hold your finger on the photo and you’ll be prompted to “Save Image.” Now it’s in your Camera Roll.

4. Speed dial, Apple-style.
Nothing wastes time like wading through scads of contacts to find your intended text message recipient. Create favorites, already. Open up your contacts, select the contact you wish to tag, and tap the “Add Favorites” button at the bottom. Fewer steps, increased productivity.

5. Stay productive, even while flying.
Although every airline requires you to turn off your phone while in flight, there’s no restriction on using your iPhone to watch videos and listen to books and music – provided your phone is set to Airplane Mode. To do so, go to Settings and toggle on Airplane Mode. This will disable all incoming wireless calls and data connectivity. Make sure you turn off the device completely, however, during takeoff and landing.

6. Traveling across time zones + calendar appointments ≠ scheduling mayhem.
Sometimes technology’s intuitive functionality can get the better of you, especially when traveling across time zones. Case in point: the Time Zone Support feature, which shows event dates and times in the zone you selected for your calendar. For example, if you scheduled a 10 a.m. conference call while at the home office in Philadelphia, and you are currently visiting Los Angeles, your meeting will still show up as scheduled for 10 a.m. Turning off the Time Zone Support feature can make your schedule a little clearer by automatically adjusting your calendar to the time zone you are in. To do so, go to Settings | Mail | Contacts | Calendar and toggle off Time Zone Support.

7. Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling.
Mobile devices are practical, yes, but not when it comes to screen size. Scrolling, in particular, can become tiresome on an iPhone, or any smartphone for that matter. Whichever screen you are on – your contacts, a Web site – you can quickly return to the top by tapping the status bar (at the very top of every iPhone screen). Efficiency is grand.

Got any can’t-live-without iPhone tricks or tips? Send them my way.

MORE INFO IN: Contact PC Helps

Manually Check Spelling in Office Apps
If you composed your document without turning on automatic spell checking, or if automatic spell checking is not an option, you can check spelling whenever you wish. The steps are nearly identical in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, Visio and Project.

Press the F7 key on your keyboard for an even easier way to the start the Spell Checker.

1. Click on the Tools menu (Office 2007: Review tab), and select Spelling or Spelling and Grammar.
2. The Spelling dialog box opens with the first error highlighted.
3. If the word is correct, click either the Ignore Once or the Ignore All button.
4. If the word is incorrect, select the correct word from the Suggestions area and then click the Change button.
5. Repeat until all errors have been corrected.
6. A message box will pop-up telling you the spelling check is complete. Click OK.

Shortcut:
Office 2000, 2002, 2003 and Project 2007, Publisher 2007 and Visio 2007. Press the F7 key on your keyboard for an even easier way to the start the Spell Checker. The Spelling Dialog box will appear, continue with Step 3 if there are errors. (Russell Hatton & Mary Hazel McDermott)

Automatically Check Spelling

If you often forget to check your spelling manually, you may need to turn it to automatic. Here’s how:

Word 2000, 2002, 2003

1. Click on the Tools menu and click Options.
2. Click on the Spelling & Grammar tab in the Options dialog box.
3. In the Spelling area, select or deselect the “Check Spelling as You Type” checkbox to turn the spelling checker on or off.
4. Check the “Always suggest corrections” check box if it is not checked.
5. In the Grammar area, select or deselect the “Check Grammar as You Type” checkbox to turn the grammar checker on or off.
6. Click the OK button.

Word 2007

1. Click on the Office button and choose Word Options.
2. Click on the Proofing category of the Word Options dialog box.
3. In the “When correct spelling and grammar in Word” area, check the following boxes to turn on spelling checker or clear them to turn it off: Check spelling as you type, Use contextual spelling, and Check grammar with spelling.
4. Click the OK button.

Remember, Spell Check should not take the place of good, old-fashioned proofing. You’ll get the tidiest text if you use both. (Mary Hazel McDermott)

Proof BlackBerry Messages Before You Hit Send
You can use Spell Check to check words in editable text fields (e-mail, text, pin, memopad, etc.). The words are checked against an internal dictionary and a custom dictionary on the BlackBerry.

To locate the spell checking options on your BlackBerry, go into Options (or Settings and then Options) and select Spell Check. From here, you can enable automatic spell checking of e-mail messages before they are sent.

If you want to manually spell check an e-mail message or any other editable text field, just click your menu button/track wheel and select Check Spelling.

When an unrecognized word is found, Spell Check displays a list of suggested words. You can then choose from a number of options:

• Select an alternate word.
• Ignore the word once.
• Ignore the word in all instances in the text field.
• Add the word to your custom dictionary.
• Cancel Spell Check.

The Spell Checker supports English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.

Note: If your BlackBerry has Device Software 4.6, you can enable an option called “Check Spelling As You Type,” located in the Spell Check section of Options. This option underlines unrecognized words as you type. When you click on an underlined word, a list of suggested words appears. You can then change or ignore the word, or add it to your custom dictionary.

Spell Checker is not available with BlackBerry Device Software 4.2.1 or earlier. (Joel Reeves)

Create a Dictionary Exclusion List for Word
Are there certain words that you want to review every time they are used in a document even though they are in the dictionary? Word can flag these for you in your documents by marking them as misspelled. Identify your “always check” words by adding them to the Exclusion List.

Word 2000, 2002, 2003

1. Create a Text Only file (.txt) in Notepad. To do this go to Start | Programs | Accessories | Notepad.
2. Type each word on a separate line, by pressing enter after each word. Do not use any capital letters.
3. Click on the File menu and choose Save As.
4. Change the Save In location to: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\Proof, where <username> is your user name.
5. Name the file Mssp2en.exc for an English exclusion file.
6. Change the Save As type to All Files and make sure the file the extension is .exc. This will add it to the dictionary list.
7. Click the Save button and close the file.
8. Accept the defaults if you are prompted for conversion information.
9. Close and reopen the Word application for the change to take effect.

The file must be saved in the Proof folder and named correctly for the exclusion list to work.

Word 2007

1. Locate the exclusion dictionary for the language you want to edit. The English exclusion file will be named ExcludeDictionaryEN0409.lex. The file should be found in the following location: C:\Document and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Microsoft\UProof. (If you use Vista the file is in this location: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Microsoft\UProof.
2. Right-click the file, choose Open With, click on “Select the program from a list” in the dialog box, and click OK. When prompted, choose to open the file with Notepad.
3. Enter the words that you would like the spell checker to mark as misspelled. Type in all lowercase and press enter after each word.
4. Click on the File menu and click Save.
5. Close the file.
6. Close and reopen the Word Application for the change to take effect.

The file must be in the UProof folder and named correctly for the exclusion list to work. Word 2007 creates the file automatically the first time the Spell Checker is used for a particular language. (Colleen Vencus)

Have any indispensable tips or tricks? Send them our way.

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Still, all our readers cared about was learning how to use a secondary axis in Excel, how to change BlackBerry calendar views, and why help desk techs are so surly.

Here’s a list of our top 10 posts from 2009. Read and enjoy.

10. Get It Together: 5 Ways to Stay Organized in Outlook
9. 5 Lessons to Learn Before Outsourcing
8. A Kinder, Gentler Help Desk
7. Top 5 Most-Asked Help Desk Questions
6. 7 Productivity-Boosting iPhone Tips
5. Out of Office, Out of Mind
4. How the Help Desk Earns its Bad Reputation
3. Follow the Format: 5 MS Word Tips for Managers
2. 4 BlackBerry Tips Every Manager Should Know
1. Management Tool Best Practices: 3 Excel Tips that Promise Charting Greatness

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Accessing your e-mail using keyboard shortcuts takes productivity one step further.

In preparation for the holiday, here are some tips to help you keep your mobile work time to a minimum while you’re enjoying the family feast:

For the BlackBerry

Filter Incoming Mail

Say, for example, you receive a daily report that you will not read or deal with on your phone and would prefer to just handle it back at the office. Can you create a filter for that?

Of course you can. Here’s how:

1. Click on the Messages icon to open your messages, then click the trackwheel or Menu button and select Options.

2. Select E-mail Filters.

3. Click your trackwheel or Menu button, select New and then type a filter name.

4. You have several fields you can filter on: From; Sent To; Subject; Message; Sent directly to me; CC to me; BCC to me; Importance; Sensitivity. You can choose more than one option here. For example, to take care of your daily report problem, create the following filter:

From: coworker@domain.com
Subject: Daily Report
Action: Do not forward

This will affect any e-mails from colleagues with “daily report” in the subject.

5. Click your trackwheel or Menu button and save the filter. By default, it is enabled and will function immediately with any new incoming messages.

If you want to temporarily allow filtered messages, simply click on the filter name to uncheck in the filter list. Take note, however, that filtering works only if your BlackBerry is activated on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server; to access filters with BlackBerry Internet Service you must check with your wireless carrier.

High-Priority E-Mail Notifications

You want to make sure you know when high-priority e-mails come in, and the standard notification doesn’t quite command your attention. To set up special notices, start at the home screen, go to Profiles, then Advanced. Here you can create a new profile or modify your current one. Set the desired notification for Level 1 Messages and save. Note: High-priority message notices will work even if you have disabled those for other types of messages.

Shortcuts

BlackBerry offers a boatload of useful shortcut keys, most of which are only available on a device that has a full keyboard. They are performed by simply pressing the key or combination of keys listed below.

Open a message that was sent to you and try the following shortcuts:

R: Reply to message
L: Reply to all
F: Forward message
I: File highlighted message into a folder
Q: Toggle the display name and full e-mail address of a contact in an e-mail address field
G: Move to the last cursor position in a received message after closing and re-opening it

Outlook on Windows Mobile

Having your Outlook e-mail available from a Windows Mobile device allows you to stay connected and lets you get more work done while not at the office. Accessing your e-mail using keyboard shortcuts takes productivity one step further. Here are some of the more useful shortcuts for Outlook on a Windows Mobile device, which are performed by pressing and holding the particular key. For example, to reply to a message that is selected or opened, press and hold the R key. The following keyboard shortcuts are also available:

A: Starts a new message replying to all (Reply All)
R: Starts a new message replying to sender (Reply)
K: Toggles between marking a selected message(s) as Read or Unread
F: Used to Flag a message
M: Moves the selected message(s) to a folder
O: Starts a new message with the selected message as an attachment to be forwarded
D: Deletes the selected message(s)
S: Performs a Send/Receive

For a quick reference to the available keyboard shortcuts, press and hold the H key.

iPhone

The iPhone has graduated from dawdling device to legitimate business tool. Respected research firm Forrester issued a report earlier this year which found that workers who use iPhones are “happier and more productive.” Who knew a gadget could have such power? Here are some shortcuts to make you even happier and more productive with your iPhone.

Easy punctuation

Inserting a period from the symbols box can become tedious. You want to send messages with proper punctuation, but deadlines get in the way. Here’s a quicker way: Double-tap the spacebar. Problem solved. Reputation saved.

Copy Web images

Do you often come across images in your Web travels that you’d like to save for later use? Try this shortcut: Press and hold your finger on the photo and you’ll be prompted to “Save Image.” Now it’s in your Camera Roll.

Making sense of time zones and meetings

Sometimes technology’s intuitive functionality can get the better of you, especially when traveling across time zones. Case in point: the Time Zone Support feature, which shows event dates and times in the zone you selected for your calendar. For example, if you scheduled a 10 a.m. conference call while at the home office in Philadelphia, and you are currently visiting Los Angeles, your meeting will still show up as scheduled for 10 a.m. Turning off the Time Zone Support feature can make your schedule a little clearer by automatically adjusting your calendar to the time zone you are in. To do so, go to Settings | Mail | Contacts | Calendar and toggle off Time Zone Support.

Scrolling is fun again

Mobile devices are practical, yes, but not when it comes to screen size. Scrolling, in particular, can become tiresome on an iPhone, or any smartphone for that matter. Whichever screen you are on – your contacts, a Web site – you can quickly return to the top by tapping the status bar (at the very top of every iPhone screen).

Tips were compiled by PC Helps staff. If you have any mobile tricks you cannot live without, tell us about them in comments or send a mail to: jen.darr@pchelps.com.

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Often callers want help clearing enough space to send the e-mails that are waiting in the Outbox; they have no time to go over proper mailbox maintenance – deadlines are looming, meetings have started.

But with a tiny bit of set up and smattering of occasional maintenance, you will rarely, if ever, get another “mailbox full” warning. In the next few posts, I will cover the basics of keeping a tidy mailbox – using views, archiving and auto-archiving, and using rules to handle repetitive tasks.

Part 1, Room with a View:
The View menu is one of Outlook’s secret weapons. It allows you to arrange, filter and sort your mailbox contents every which way. You can view mail by size, date, flag status, attachment, and more. Also, Outlook has half a dozen built-in filters that make your mailbox more digestible.

The View menu is one of Outlook’s secret weapons.

View | Arrange By
Did you know that in addition to the actual mail messages you send, a copy of each file you attach also remains in the Sent folder? If you send (and receive, for that matter) PowerPoint presentations or image files on a regular basis, this can sap a substantial portion of your mailbox size.

For a quick fix, use the View | Arrange By | Size menu option to arrange whichever folder you are in by message size. If you have Show in Groups selected (very handy, also under View | Arrange By), you will be able to quickly identify the largest items. If you need to save particular messages but not the attachments (you likely already have those stored on your hard drive or on a network), you can strip the file from the message. To do so, open the mail, right-click on the attachment icon and choose “remove.” Close the mail and save it when prompted. No more space-hogging sidekicks.

If you need to save the mail and its attachment, create a folder in one of your PSTs and manually drag the largest files over. To create a new folder, right click on the PST, and then choose New Folder.

Other useful Arrange By items include: category, conversation, from, to, flag status and more. You can also choose custom fields (View | Arrange By | Custom).

View | Current View
This submenu takes mailbox-viewing one step further by filtering mail according to your criteria. For example, if you want to see only unread messages, go to View | Current View | Unread Messages in this Folder. You can select from a half-dozen filtered views or create your own using the Customize option.

Note: Current View uses filters to organize mail. Remember to clear the filter when you are finished, otherwise you may overlook important messages. Remove the filter by selecting View | Current View | Messages.

Next post: Exchange vs. PST, auto-archiving 101. (Jen Darr)

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