Smartphone Tip: Anything That Looks Like a Phone Number is Dial-able

Here’s a tip for Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone users…

Go to Microsoft Outlook on your desktop and create a calendar appointment or task. Now type a mix of text and phone numbers in a note field. Just type them in as you might any note to yourself. Then, sync your Smartphone with the PC using ActiveSync.

Take a look at the phone numbers in the note field of the Calendar or Task event you created. They should be colored blue and underlined. Use your navigation pad to move the screen focus to one of the numbers then press return. Your phone should start dialing that number.

It turns out that Windows Mobile Smartphones assume any number grouping that resembles a phone number is in fact a phone number and makes it dialable by focusing on it and selecting it. This is incredibly useful for quickly entering a group (say for a business meeting, lunch with friends, or a parents’ meeting) where you might want to call a group of people quickly. Just store the names and numbers in a notes field somewhere and move the focus and dial each number as needed.

Unfortunately, this feature is not available for Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition devices.