View E-Mail Address of Contacts From Within Messages

Depending on your e-mail address settings--and the BlackBerry handheld OS version you're running--you very likely see only a message sender's name when you receive and open a new e-mail or SMS text in your BlackBerry inbox. That's not ideal if you need the actual e-mail address and not just the name associated with it.

To determine a message sender's e-mail address, simply open the message and scroll to the very top where the recipient and sender information is listed. Then highlight the sender's name and hit the Q key to switch back and forth between e-mail address and name.

(Note: Some newer versions of the BlackBerry handheld OS--we're using v4.5.0.52--will automatically display a dialogue box with both the message sender's name and e-mail address when you scroll over the From field in a message, so this shortcut will likely become obsolete in the future.)

Make the Most of BlackBerry Copy and Paste Options

One of the most valuable and underrated shortcuts within the BlackBerry OS is the copy and paste function. In fact, copy and paste is one of the few missing features that's currently keeping the uber popular iPhone 3G smartphone from becoming truly "intelligent"--and it's also one of the most-requested iPhone 3G features.

RIM knows how often its customers need copy and paste functionality, so it not only made sure every single new BlackBerry has the feature, but also created a few different methods for accessing it.

While in a message or text file, you can copy text in two different ways. First, you can simply hold the Shift button while scrolling the trackball over the text you wish to copy, and then hit the BlackBerry Menu key and choose Copy from the associated dropdown menu. You can also copy text by hitting ALT and clicking the track ball before scrolling over the text you wish to copy and then hitting Menu and choosing Copy.

To paste text once it's copied, you can either click Menu again and choose Paste, or you can simply hit Shift and click the trackball wherever you want the text to appear.