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34 Comments

Quick Tip: Some great BlackBerry shortcuts

By IsaacKendall on 9 Sep 2011 09:01 am
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The BlackBerry is the smartphone king of shortcuts here are some favorites

Shortcuts

Who doesn't love a good shortcut? Doing things the long way is the like paying retail, why do it if there is a better (cheaper) way. A while back I wrote about Auto Text/Word Substitution on the BlackBerry and there were some great comments from the community sharing their personal favorites.

I thought today I'd write about some of my favorite shortcuts on the BlackBerry smartphone, not necessary just though the Word Substitution method, but also a couple of old time keyboard combinations that some may find new to them or a good reminder for some of the old time BlackBerry users.

Built-in short cuts through Word Substitution:

  • mypin - will show your PIN in a message. Very useful if someone email or SMS you asking for your PIN.
  •  mynumber - will reveal your phone number, a good feature for people like Bla1ze who never uses the "phone" part of your BlackBerry you may not remember what your phone number is.
  • LD - inputs the current date into a message
  • LT -inputs the current time into a message
  • myver - great if people are hitting you up on Twitter or BBM wanting to know what BlackBerry handheld OS you're rock'n
Here's two more Word Substitutions that I use quite frequently:
  • br - this will input an open parentheses
  • rb - this will input a close parentheses

A few key combitantions that come in handy:

  • ALT+SHIFT+DEL - this will initiate a soft reboot
  • ALT+H - revels the Help Me! screen
  • ALT+LGLG - shows the event log

On the last CrackBerry podcast the topic of keyboard shortcuts came up, so I thought this would be a perfect time to re-read Adam's roundup of BlackBerry shortcuts. Digging back through the CrackBerry archives can be an amazing adventure.

Do you have some favorite shortcuts? Leave them in comments as we all could use some more tips and tricks.

Topics: Shortcuts BlackBerry 101 Help, How-To & Tips BlackBerry 101

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IsaacKendall IsaacKendall 76 (articles) 24 (forum posts)
34 comments

QuIcKsIlV3r

shortcuts are always awesome and make life so easy

While reading a long email, and you switch apps or something, you can hit any key get back to the spot where you left off instead of having to scroll through the email to find where you were

cinder0008

How come some of these don't work on my Torch 9800?

jermaine1082

I can sugest trying these from the home screen on the torch and also help me is alt+shift+h

beamolite

Dumb question but which button is "CTRL"?

protofa

dito: how do u do ctrl c?

i don't think all of adam's shortcuts still work with os7. might be time to update article.

TomCanuck

Select some text press alt+trackpad to copy, or shift+del to cut. Shift+trackpad to paste

Hibbylinx81

None o these wrk for me (9900/7.0.0.353)!

timmartin

No CTRL button - I think Isaac was refering to the ay we do it on a PC as an example. Confused some of us tho!

QuIcKsIlV3r

LMFAO

Seriously guys, thats a windows screen shot, not on a blackberry. those are the windows key shortcuts!

OPtEeMoOSh

Can't find that one on my 9930's keyboad =P...oh and the "b r" and "r b" don't seem to be that big of an improvement from using "alt-t" and "alt-y". Same number of keystrokes. But the "L D" and "L T" are super nice I'm gonna use those quite often thanks!

mssca

mynumber won't work on Bold 9900 by default. But you can add "mynumber" to auto text and use it.

Hibbylinx81

"Mynumber" works perfectly for me (9900/7.0.0.353). Once I type it in n hit the space key, it works!

adam917

Alt+N M L L changes signal to numbers (RSSI dBm) & at least on my 9900, it is Alt+left Shift+H (or Alt+E A C E) that reveals the Help Me! screen/engineering menu (if you have it unlocked).

mrskittens

hold down q to go to vibrate only -- easy to remember for "quiet!"

p.s. only recently learned the soft reboot. LOVE IT.

mssca

I have my own custom shortcuts. For example, u=you, ur=you're, usig=email signature for university emails, esig=regular email signature

So, you can make your own shortcuts.

DocDRM

. . . I think. Was reading comments but not logged in and using the menukey/refresh to update comments. Thought I should take the advice I always give and tried a few things. I think "spacebar"+r is refresh browser. Torch 9800/6.0

DocDRM

Just "r" does the trick. No spacebar required!

Hibbylinx81

Exactly. These r in the help menu! R - refresh; K - bookmarks; G - go to URL; D - downloads..etc. #check browser shortcuts for standard shortcuts.

Draconianfire83

I like in most reader apps (ie Messages, Facebook, twittter, social feeds, etc) that you can press "t" to go to Top of page, "b" bottom of page, "space" to page down, "shift-space" to page up... Those are handy too!

In many other apps like Pictures, you can use "n" for Next or "p" for Previous.

Go into an app and just start pressing buttons and see what happens!

DocDRM

But I'm not telling. CB is the BEST source of BlackBerry discovery, but don't be afraid to do a little poking around on your own. For example, if you are on your device right now (you are in the browser) go key by key through your keypad and you will discover several shortcuts. Post back your fave discoveries. Try the same thing from other screens/programs - you will be amazed at what you find

rrrebo

Typing the first letter of what I'm looking for to navigate any BB menu on the device. It will jump to the first option starting with that letter. Pressing that letter again will skip to the next option starting with that letter.

In the browser, K to open Bookmarks, then typing the first few letters of a bookmark will filter the bookmark list and instantly show you the bookmark you are looking for. I don't organize my bookmarks in any way because of this filter function.

theSteve

I use AutoText for emoticon ("Smiley") shortcuts. I use "bbb" for " :) " and "ccc" for " ;) ", etc. It's way easier than bringing up the menu and selecting them... and it quickly becomes a natural habit when chatting.

Sferical

Many of these shortcuts and more in the Tips & Ticks app. http://www.sferical.com/TipsAndTricks/TipsAndTricks.html

axeman07

In most RIM aps you can scroll to the top or bottom of the screen by hitting T or B. Works in BBM, Blackberry news etc...

jrlcopy

sig = will post the locked screen message that you have set. Wish I could disable this shortcut.. grr..

thepinkcurve

4:37:11 PM 9300/6.0.0.546. Awsome :)

merp23

press alt and trackpad to zoom in or zoom out

merp23

alt + trackpad in any app will open the full menu for that particular app

thepinkcurve

Mynumber will not work :/ might be cause I moved my phone number from vodaphone when I got my phone (I'm now on o2)

Branta

It should capture the assigned number from your SIM. Don't forget you have to enter mynumber<space> or it will fail. Otherwise check the autotext entry, it should show as Replace "mynumber" with "%p"

grimreaper420

Thank you CrackBerry for this article:)

Love the "LD" and "LT" shortcut, hell when I type it in here it works too lol

Ps- you might want to check for one more shortcut-spelling mistake CB (combitantions)
Should be combinations:)

Thank you CB and other members short-cuts awesome!

9800/6.0.0.600
Posted SAT, SEP 10, 2011 6:25:18 PM

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varunsingh249

i have bb curve 9380 touch..plz suggest me some shortcuts which will work on my phone...my pin is 28BD2BE4