CHOOSING A THEME IN VERSION 4.0

One of the new features with version 4.0 of the handheld software is themes. In much the same way that Microsoft Windows has themes, the BlackBerry themes are a way to change the look of your handheld. This includes everything from the color scheme to the application icons and more. Even the way that the battery and signal strength indicators are displayed can be changed by a theme.

The bad news to all this is that you probably only have a choice between two themes, if you have a choice at all. This is because themes are provided by your wireless carrier, so if you have one, it will be designed to how they want it to look. The only other alternative is the Default theme, which is essentially the same as having no theme. Themes are only generally available on 7100 model handhelds, but they are supported on all handhelds with version 4.0 of the software installed.

You can view the themes on your handheld by opening the Options application and selecting the Themes option group. This displays a screen that lists the names of each of the themes, as shown in Figure 4.19. The theme that is currently active will have (Active) next to the theme name.

Figure 4.19. Viewing the list of themes installed on your handheld.

To start using a different theme, scroll the selection indicator to the new theme and click the Activate menu item. It can take some time for all of the changes to take effect once the menu item is clicked. Figure 4.20 shows an example of the Default and the Vodafone theme on a 7100v.

Figure 4.20. The Vodafone and Default themes shown on a BlackBerry 7100v.