The scroll ball or "pearl" on your Blackberry is made to work in a similar way to a mouse on a computer. Unfortunately, a mouse isn't necessarily fast, it's simple. That's what a mouse or scroll ball was designed to do, simply things on a computer or in this case, a smartphone. If you want fast, you're going to need to master a little trick known as "keyboard shortcuts".
Your Blackberry Pearl has it's own set of keyboard shortcuts which can save you a lot of time. If you're still using your scroll ball and pressing that little "Blackberry button" to the left of it to open up menus, you're going to love what I'm about to teach you. For the most part, I'm going to stay focused on managing your messages by using keyboard shortcuts.
Shortscuts Using Your Keyboard
The other day I heard a business give it's phone number and instead of giving me all of the numbers, they spelled out a word that they thought was easy to remember. Well, it was easy to remember, but I couldn't use it on my Blackberry Pearl because the letters don't match up with the words the same way they do on a traditional phone. So, while I could remember the number, I couldn't actually dial it.
After you learn this little trick, you'll be able to finally call those phone numbers made up of words instead of numbers. Start to dial the number (it usually starts with 1-800 or 1-888). Then, instead of just typing the letters, press and hold the ALT key and use something we call "multi-tap" to spell the word.
What is multi-tap? If you've ever had to type in a password on a website with your Blackberry Pearl, you've most likely used multi-tap. For example, if you want to type the letter "K" using multi-tap, you'd press the number 6 twice since "K" is the second letter on that key ("J" is the first).
Most of the mobile phone providers offer up shortcuts for accessing your usage balance or even to make a payment. For Verizon, you can check your balance by pressing #BAL and then send. Now you can just press # and then hold ALT while you press "8", "?" and then ",". That will spell #BAL. Then press send you'll soon have your balance of minutes.
Message Shortcuts
There have been several occasions where I read an email and didn't reply to it right away. It happens all the time. Later, I'll look through my list of message and reply. The keyboard shortcut is to reply is to highlight the message you want (or have it open already) and press the "!" key. That's it.
Normally you'd have to select the message, open it, press the Blackberry button, scroll down to reply and press the pearl button. Kind of a pain when instead you can just press ! and start typing your message. You can reply to all by pressing "?" key or if you want to forward a message just press "." on the right side of the keyboard. Commit those to memory and you'll save a lot of time.
This is probably my 2nd favorite Blackberry Pearl shortcut. Stop typing in the period at the end of each sentence. No, this won't cause a bunch of run-on sentences nobody can understand. Instead of typing the period, just press space twice. Try it now and see what happens. Like magic, your Pearl adds in the period and you can keep on typing. Your Pearl is also smart enough to add in the @ symbol when you press space while adding an email address.
The inbox on your Blackberry Pearl is where all of your messages end up. Some of them are SMS or "text" messages, some are missed phone calls and some of actual emails. Now, you can quickly sort through these and find just the message you're interested in. Here's how. With your messages in front of you, press and hold ALT while pressing V. This will only show you any voice mail messages. Hold down ALT and press P and you'll see only your recent dialed and received phone calls. ALT and S will show only text or SMS messages. ALT and I will remove all outgoing calls or messages and show only those incoming.
I've found, if I try to learn too many shortcuts at one time, I never really master them. So, instead, just focus on these few I've given you and you'll have them memorized in no time at all. These are so powerful and are useful so often, they really will speed up your navigation on your phone. Than you can move on to more important things.
Your Blackberry Pearl has it's own set of keyboard shortcuts which can save you a lot of time. If you're still using your scroll ball and pressing that little "Blackberry button" to the left of it to open up menus, you're going to love what I'm about to teach you. For the most part, I'm going to stay focused on managing your messages by using keyboard shortcuts.
Shortscuts Using Your Keyboard
The other day I heard a business give it's phone number and instead of giving me all of the numbers, they spelled out a word that they thought was easy to remember. Well, it was easy to remember, but I couldn't use it on my Blackberry Pearl because the letters don't match up with the words the same way they do on a traditional phone. So, while I could remember the number, I couldn't actually dial it.
After you learn this little trick, you'll be able to finally call those phone numbers made up of words instead of numbers. Start to dial the number (it usually starts with 1-800 or 1-888). Then, instead of just typing the letters, press and hold the ALT key and use something we call "multi-tap" to spell the word.
What is multi-tap? If you've ever had to type in a password on a website with your Blackberry Pearl, you've most likely used multi-tap. For example, if you want to type the letter "K" using multi-tap, you'd press the number 6 twice since "K" is the second letter on that key ("J" is the first).
Most of the mobile phone providers offer up shortcuts for accessing your usage balance or even to make a payment. For Verizon, you can check your balance by pressing #BAL and then send. Now you can just press # and then hold ALT while you press "8", "?" and then ",". That will spell #BAL. Then press send you'll soon have your balance of minutes.
Message Shortcuts
There have been several occasions where I read an email and didn't reply to it right away. It happens all the time. Later, I'll look through my list of message and reply. The keyboard shortcut is to reply is to highlight the message you want (or have it open already) and press the "!" key. That's it.
Normally you'd have to select the message, open it, press the Blackberry button, scroll down to reply and press the pearl button. Kind of a pain when instead you can just press ! and start typing your message. You can reply to all by pressing "?" key or if you want to forward a message just press "." on the right side of the keyboard. Commit those to memory and you'll save a lot of time.
This is probably my 2nd favorite Blackberry Pearl shortcut. Stop typing in the period at the end of each sentence. No, this won't cause a bunch of run-on sentences nobody can understand. Instead of typing the period, just press space twice. Try it now and see what happens. Like magic, your Pearl adds in the period and you can keep on typing. Your Pearl is also smart enough to add in the @ symbol when you press space while adding an email address.
The inbox on your Blackberry Pearl is where all of your messages end up. Some of them are SMS or "text" messages, some are missed phone calls and some of actual emails. Now, you can quickly sort through these and find just the message you're interested in. Here's how. With your messages in front of you, press and hold ALT while pressing V. This will only show you any voice mail messages. Hold down ALT and press P and you'll see only your recent dialed and received phone calls. ALT and S will show only text or SMS messages. ALT and I will remove all outgoing calls or messages and show only those incoming.
I've found, if I try to learn too many shortcuts at one time, I never really master them. So, instead, just focus on these few I've given you and you'll have them memorized in no time at all. These are so powerful and are useful so often, they really will speed up your navigation on your phone. Than you can move on to more important things.
About the Author:
Paul Herrington is sometimes referred to as a Blackberry Pearl expert user. He's solely self taught and often shows others how to use keyboard shortcuts to save time on the Pearl.
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