Proper procedure for switching out the battery?

[buck95]

Ive searched through the forums and my manual but cant find the proper procedure for switching out a dying battery for a charged one. I usually turn off the phone, pull out the battery and put in the charged one, but have problems sometime getting the phone to respond after the change. Gotten to the point were I put the phone back in the cradle to get it to soft start. Worried that I may screw up the phone sometime if im not doing this right. Plus carring around a charged battery dont do much good if the phone won't reset after the change. Whats the proper way to change the battery out?