HTML E-Mail, Document Editing Coming to BlackBerrys

At last, e-mail handling on your BlackBerry is coming into the 21st century. Also: Office document editing and new IM features.

One of my biggest pet peeves about BlackBerry phones is that for all their vaunted abilities to send and receive e-mail in a flash, the messages themselves arrive in a blocky, unformatted jumble—and good luck clicking on URLs. All that's set to change, though, with the latest update to the BlackBerry Enterprise Server platform (due to arrive by the end of next month).

Among the improvements in BES version 4.5: HTML and Rich Text formatting for e-mail messages, which will finally bring the BlackBerry platform in line with Windows Mobile (which got HTML e-mail formatting in early 2007) and the iPhone. Finally, your messages and newsletters will be formatted correctly, complete with images, and the links will work. Crazy, I know. Also on tap: remote searching for e-mail messages that are on the server but not on your device, along with new IM features (including IM session "click to call," "convert to call," and emoticon support) for users of IBM Lotus Sametime and Microsoft Live Communications Server.

Built-in Office document editing is also coming to the BlackBerry, thanks to the upcoming integration of Dataviz's Documents to Go software. First up will be the ability to edit Microsoft Word and PowerPoint documents, with support for Excel coming later this year. Several other IT, security, and server-side enhancements will also be included in the update (check out RIM's press release for the entire list).

Personally, I'm pretty excited about the update; the lack of HTML-formatted e-mail has been one fo the main reasons I resisted getting a BlackBerry. Now, who knows—there just might be a Curve in my future.

What about you? Looking forward to the update?

Correction: In my original port, I incorrectly reported that Dataviz's Documents to Go for BlackBerry has been available as a third-party download since last year; in fact, it has yet to be released. My apologies for the goof.

Related:
Press release [Research in Motion]