The folks at RIM have created an intuitive user interface to all the essential Phone features, including how to make a call. Follow these steps to make a call:

1. From the Home screen or the Phone application, dial the desired destination number.

As you type the first number, Phone opens (if it isn't open already) and displays the numbers you dialed.

2. Press the trackwheel and choose Call.

The call is initiated.

On the 7100 models, you can also press the green Send button to initiate the call.

Calling from the Address Book

Because you can't possibly remember all your friends' and colleagues' phone numbers, calling from the Address Book is very convenient and useful.

To call from the Address Book from the Phone application, follow these steps:

1. Open the Phone application. Press the trackwheel to bring up the Phone menu (see Figure 1).

Doing so opens the Phone menu.

Figure 1: The Phone menu.

2. From the menu, choose Call from Address Book.

Address Book opens. From here, you can search as usual for the contact you'd like to call.

3. From Address Book, scroll to your call recipient and press the trackwheel to choose Call.

This makes the call.

Dialing letters

One of the nice features of the BlackBerry Phone is that you can dial letters, and BlackBerry will figure out the corresponding number. For example, to dial 1-800-11-LEARN, do the following on your BlackBerry:

1. From the Home screen or the Phone application, dial 1-8-0-0-1-1.

As you type the first number, the Phone application opens (if it isn't opened already) and displays the numbers you dialed.

2. Press and hold the ALT key and then dial (press) L-E-A-R-N.

You can see the letters appearing on-screen as you type, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: "Dial" letters with your BlackBerry.

3. Press the trackwheel and choose Call.

This call is initiated.

Calling from the history list

When you open the BlackBerry Phone application, you see your phone history list, as shown in Figure 3. This screen shows calls that are made or received from your BlackBerry. If you received a voice mail or missed a call, it appears here, too.

Figure 3: The phone history list in Phone.

You can also dial straight from the phone history list by scrolling to the number on the history list, pressing the trackwheel once (a context menu appears), and selecting Call from the contextual menu.