Tips & Tricks Part 3: Email and Messaging

Tips and tricks Part 3

Welcome back to possibly the most important “Tips and Tricks” entry in our series: e-mail and messaging!
If you’re just joining us … where the hell have you been? Heh heh. No worries. We’re just getting warmed up. Here’s what we’ve covered so far:

Today, we’ll cover possibly the most important tips and tricks for many people… e-mail and messaging. Let’s get right to it.

E-MAIL

1. “All Flagged” Folder

This is a really cool feature that a surprising number of people don’t know about. Certain messages are more important to me than others, and that’s why I “flag” them, so I don’t lose them in the flood of emails I get every day. Not only Palm has conveniently incorporated an “All Inboxes” folder in the email app for viewing multiple email accounts all in one folder, they’ve also included an “All Flagged” folder, which lets you see all your important messages from all accounts. This has been an indispensable tool for me. I thought everybody knew about it, but when I recently showed my cousin that she could do it with her Pre after owning if for six months, I figured I’d let you know about it, just in case.

2. Email search!

A surprising number of folks don’t know this, but you can search your inboxes for messages. Let’s use one of my recent examples. I needed to find an email of my rotation schedules. I opened my “All Inboxes” folder, and then simply typed “schedule.” All emails with the word “schedule” pulled up instantly. Search also works by typing the author name. It’s an indispensable tool.

3. Gesture Area shortcuts!

Just as we use the gesture area to cut, copy, and paste, we also use this for really cool shortcuts in the e-mail app. These consist of holding one finger on the gesture area and one finger to tap a letter key. These shortcuts apply to both reading and writing of emails…

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a. READING an email:

Gesture area + K = “Mar(K) as unread”

Gesture area + G = “Set Fla(G)”

Gesture area + M = “(M)ove to Folder”

Gesture Area + S = “(S)how Recipients”

Note: You can also access these commands via the menu (as shown) if you don’t want to use the keyboard.

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b. WRITING an email:

Gesture area + J = “Set As High Priority”

Gesture area + D = “(D)iscard Message”

Gesture area + S = “(S)ave as Draft”

Note: You can also access these commands via the menu (as shown) if you don’t want to use the keyboard.

4) Pimp your e-mail text!

You can completely change the text in our emails. That’s right. You can bold, italicize, underline your text… and even change its color! How? It’s unbelievably easy. When writing an email:

Open the menu (upper left hand corner)
Tap “Edit”

You should be able to figure out the rest from there. Pretty neat, huh? We recommend typing all your text first, then formatting it. Pretty neat, huh?

4) Delete whole words at a time

Here’s a quick way to delete a bunch of mistakes: hold down the “Shift” key and press backspace. You’ll delete that entire word. Make sure there’s a space in between the word in front of it. Sometimes it deletes that word, too. I make plenty of mistakes. I use this feature pretty darn frequently.

5) Check email less often to save battery life!

In Palm’s words from their website:

“How much power checking email uses depends on a number of variables, including the type of account, how many email messages you receive a day, and whether you are downloading a lot of attachments.
These guidelines may help you:

Using an Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) account that is set to receive email as it arrives is generally efficient. However, if you receive many email messages each day, you may be able to reduce power consumption by using an interval such as every 15 minutes or longer.
Using a web-based email account that is set to receive email as it arrives is not as efficient as using an EAS account. This is true even if you are not receiving a lot of emails. You can reduce battery consumption by using an interval such as every 15 minutes or longer on web-based accounts.”

MESSAGING

smilies

1. Smileys!

It amazes me how many times I’ll send a text to a fellow webOS user, and they ask me “how did you do that smiley?” … So for your viewing pleasure, I joined together the screenshots of ALL the emoticons available for webOS. Learn ‘em. You’re welcome. Go nuts.

2. Change the alert sound for texts

Many users are a little sick of the alert sound the Pre and Pixi make. I don’t really blame ‘em. Palm has made this easy enough to do: just open the menu and select “Preferences & Accounts.” There, you will be able to select from System Alert, Ringtone, or just mute texts altogether. You can even shut off text notifications entirely if necessary.

Update! With webOS 1.4, you now have more short ringtone choices. Check ‘em out!

3. Quickly find a text or IM conversation

Since I’m such a popular guy (*snort*), I text a lot of people. Finding a conversation you’ve had with a person can be a pain if you text a whole bunch of people in a day. The solution? Just start typing the recipient’s name. In the example pictured on the right, I wanted to find the conversation I was having with my friend Ericka. So, I just typed “e” and boom, there she was! Now I can read the conversation we had or text her again.

(Of course, another method of quickly finding someone to text is using Universal Search. Just type someone’s name and their numbers will pop up, with a tiny “SMS” button.)

4. Forward texts

The Pre did not come with this capability originally, so some users still think it doesn’t exist. Well, it does! And it’s easy: just tap the particular part of the message you want to forward. A menu will pop up. You should be able to figure out the rest… ;)

5. Copy ENTIRE conversations

You’ve already seen that you can copy the text of individual parts of conversations (look at the picture in #4 reeeeeal hard), but what about ENTIRE conversations? This option is tucked away in the “Edit” menu in messaging, so it’s not obvious to everyone. If you want to copy ALL the text of a particular conversation, just go to the conversation you wish to copy, open the menu (upper left), tap “Edit,” and then tap “Copy All.” Bing! You’re done. Paste the text into a memo or an email.

6. Delete whole words at a time

Yeah I know I already mentioned this in e-mail, but it applies to texting, too. Just hold down the “Shift” key and press backspace. … Just wanted to make sure you were paying attention. ;)

7. Delete parts of a conversation… or the whole thing!

By swiping from left to right, you can delete parts of a conversation, or entire conversations. Totally up to you. (Note: Rarely, some people have had problems with future conversations displaying properly when deleting conversations. This has happened a whole lot less since Palm fixed this bug, but I’ve read the occasional complaint. If this happens to you, it’s really no big deal. Just check out my simple fixes article on how to deal with it and you’ll be just fine.)

8. Log off IM to save battery life!

We all know the Pre’s Achilles’ heel is battery life. Unfortunately, being continuously connected to the web for Instant Messaging eats up battery life like crazy (this is particularly true of AIM).

This tip should be obvious to most of you. Tap where it says “Buddies” on the upper right hand corner of the messaging app.&#
160; (Why it says “buddies” and not “IM” is beyond me.) Then, tap the green button where it says “Available.” Your options will be “busy” and “Sign Off.” Tap “Sign Off.” Bear in mind that even if you have your account set to “Busy,” you are still online, and battery is draining.
Don’t have an IM account? Just open the menu and set one up. :)

That’s it for e-mail and messaging! Want some more? Check out Part 4 out of 5 of my Tips and Tricks series: Calendar, Browser, and Camera!