Blackberry Programming Questions
 

I have resisted getting a Blackberry until now but I am beginning to see certain advantages.

My problem is that I sometimes get as many as 300 e-mails a day. There is absolutely no need for most of these to be sent to a handheld receiver. I wouldn't want my Blackberry ringing every two minutes.

Is there any way to set up your Blackberry so that only certain messages get through to you while still maintaining your usual e-mail address?

If it matters, my cellular carrier is Verizon which is also my ISP.

Absolutely. You can write as many filters as you like to control sending by subject/title/from address/to address/etc.

You can disable the sound notification.

Yes, using filters.

You can filter on sender, subject, keyword etc.

I have a filter that is set to not send messages with "FW:" in the subject line. So all the stupid jokes and chain letters that people forward don't get sent to my blackberry.

Note that filters just filter what is sent to the your blackberry. The original email is still in your inbox and readable from your computer.

One of my first actions every time I have to reprovision my BB is to change the notification settings. I set the default to be silent and "Level 1" messages to notify (either beep or vibrate). Then I set the option to tag high priority messages as Level 1. This basically means that normal emails don't cause any notification but something tagged high priority will. That helps a bit, too.

You can also setup filters on your device with Webmessenger message alerts:

http://www.webmessenger.com/products/ma.htm

Another tip when getting E-mail while traveling: in the evenings, you can also turn the phone off to prevent it from ringing / vibrating - the alarm (if set) will automatically turn the phone back on to wake you.

I have mine set not to ring or (sometimes) even vibrate unless my wife or a few other family members are calling/emailing, so that I don't spend a lot of time grabbing for it for nothing serious. You can even turn off the LED indicator so that it doesn't blink constantly (default is to blink green to indicate that it's getting a signal), or even blink when it gets a message. The level of insistence on the device's part is up to you.

I dealt with this this way: since my ISP, Comcast, allows up to five email addresses, and Sweet Baboo and I are only using two, I created one called [myname][email protected], and started redirecting as many non-work emails as possible to that address. It has really cut down on the clutter on my blackberry.

bnaflyer, could you tell me how to do this or at least point me in the right (general) direction? I'm new to BB and I would love to do this.

Also note that the "Quiet" profile on the Blackberry does not include the alarm. (Unlike some cell phones I have used). So you don't need to turn the phone off, you can set the profile to Quiet and get the same effect. ( in case, for example you want to wake up in the middle of the night to check email )

Look in your PM box later tonight--been a while since I set all that up and I want to make sure I steer you in the right direction.

thanks bnaflyer, no worries, a quick google and I had my answer. Like I said, I'm new to BB and I guess I haven't spent enough time playing with it/setting it up. Thank you for the offer though, very kind of you. :)

For anyone else who would like to know, here's an easy tutorial from CIO:
http://cio.com/article/417963/RIM_Bl...and_Exceptions

Great--I was beginning to think I'd neglected you.

This is an excellent source of tips for effective BB setup and use:

Stinsonddog's Blackberry Tips

Thanks everyone for all the helpful tips. I have been a longtime Palm user (Palm VII was my first)and just moved to the Blackberry 8320, and have been very impressed. The info on setting up mail filters was just what I wanted to do, and knew the BB could do, but didn't know how to do it.

I think there is a reason they called the 83XX the "curve", as there is a bit of a learning curve for this great device.