It's Alive! Breathing icons make shortcuts and favorites easy on the BlackBerry PlayBook

CrackBerry Tip of the Day #4

Continuing our series of helpful tips about favorites, have you wondered how to turn an application into a favorite? It's not hard to do. In fact you make favorites, reorder icons, and even move icons to different panes in the same way.

The first thing to do is to touch and hold an icon. You can do this from any pane (i.e., All, Favorites, Media, etc.), but let's start with the All pane. After a moment of holding an icon, all of the icons on the pane will breathe. Now you can:

• Delete a shortcut or application. Touch the trash can underneath each icon to delete it. If you are in the All pane, you will be prompted to delete the application. In any other pane, the shortcut will be deleted.
• Reorder the icons: Just drag the breathing icon to where you want it to go. All the other icons will reorder themselves.
• Make a Favorite: Drag a breathing icon to where it says Favorites in the ribbon. You'll see a dim blue box around Favorites. Let go of the icon and a shortcut will be added to your Favorites. And for that matter...
• Make a shortcut in any of the panes: Just drag a breathing icon to the name of any of the panes in the ribbon. Just as before, a dim blue box appears around the name; let go and your shortcut will be created in your desired pane.

Once you've finished making your changes, touch the small check mark on the far left of the ribbon or touch the name of any other pane. Your icons will stop breathing and your changes are saved. 

All this shortcut-making starts in the All pane. If you try to copy from any other pane, you'll just end up moving the icon. Say you want to make the Videos app into a favorite. If you start from the Media pane, you'll add the Videos icon to the Favorites pane but it will be deleted from Media. Instead, drag the breathing video icon from All pane to Favorites. That way, you'll keep the shortcut in the Media folder, add a shortcut to the Favorites pane, and have another in the All pane. 

Or, any other way you'd like. The combinations and possiblities are endless; what you do with your icons and shortcuts is entirely up to you.