Buttons and Keys and Trackpads!!! Oh My!

I have a confession to make, I love buttons, “Never leave a button unpushed” could be my motto.  I guess that is one of the reasons I became an engineer.  My mouse has 7 buttons.  When I first got my previous blackberry, a bold 9700, I did not discover the 2 buttons on the top of the phone for several months.  They are simply part of the rim and you cannot tell they are actually buttons by looking at them.  Anyways, I was delighted as this gave me two more buttons I could program to do what I want.

Did I say I love buttons? 

What’s wrong with buttons and keys and trackpads anyways?  What are phone manufacturers afraid of, it’s like there is a mass hysteria about having buttons on your phone.  That somehow it’s unattractive; it’s old fashioned; it’s a sign that you are not good enough at touch screen technology.  What a lot of hogwash.  

Let me tell you the ways I use the buttons and keys and trakpad on my blackberry

The Bold 9900 has qwerty keyboard, above the key board from left to right: Send key, Menu key, Trackpad, Escape key, end key.  There is also a right convenience key on the right side and a screen lock key on the top.  Sometimes people refer to these as single function keys .

The Keyboard

We all know that the keyboard is used for entering text when in a text field.  On the blackberry whenever you are not in a text field the keyboard usually has other very usefull functions.

1)   When typing if you want a capital letter you just need to hold the key down a little longer and it is capitalized

2)   When selecting a symbol or smiley face there is always a letter attached and you can choose symbol either by selecting with the trackpad or by typing the letter.

3)   When you double space in normal text it will put a period

When you are not in a text field, the keyboard has many other uses.  My favorite is the ability to launch applications by typing one letter when you are on the home screen.  Many people are not even aware of this capability because it is not a default.  For some reason, when OS 6 was released, RIM felt that the default should be the universal search (Universal search is all the rage don’t cha know).  I find this to be a strange choice, while universal search is a nice feature I may use it once in a month, while applications shortcuts I use several hundred times a day. 

 

To use the home screen keyboard shortcuts, you have to set the option. From the home screen, click the blackberry button and choose options.  At the top of the home screen preference page change  Launch by Typing from Universal Search to Application Shortcuts. 

There are keyboard short cuts for most of the main apps. I keep a notecard for each app with the shortcuts listed as I sometimes forget them. Below is a picture of my notecards.

Single Function Keys

While called single function keys, most of them do multiple functions as part of the blackberry OS and there are lots of great apps for adding even more functionality to these keys.   I use the following apps: Quicklaunch, DeKlikken and Versatool.  Unless otherwise noted, the features are built into blackberry. 

The Send Key

-          Answers an incoming call

-          From most places, takes you to the phone app

-          If you are in a contact, it will start a call to that contact

-          If your cursor is over a phone number in most apps, it will call the number

-          If your cursor is over a name in an email you received, it will call the named person if they are in your contact list

The Menu Key

-          Opens the context menu

-          Press and hold, pulls up the application switcher (I use this a lot)

-          When a context menu is open, you can type the first letter of any of the commands and you will go directly to next commend starting with that letter.  This is very handy with some of the longer menus

The Escape Key – A real single function button

-          Moves back a screen

The End/Power key

-          Hold until BB turns off

-          Ends a call

-          Returns to the home screen (A handy feature as you can click this once from anywhere, it takes you back to the home screen and then you can launch or go to many of the apps with the 1 letter shortcut talked about above)

-          Press and short hold launches an app (versatool)

-          Double press to launch an app (versatool)

Convenience Key

-          Click to launch app

-          Double Click to launch app (QuickLaunch)

-          In camera it still takes a picture

Media keys

-          Volume up, Volume down, mute

-          Double click any of them to launch an app (DeKlikken)

-          I have double clicking the mute button to pull up the sound profile

Lock screen button – A real single function button

-          Push to lock or unlock

I also use Quicklaunch to increase my keyboard shortcut capabilities.  I've set all the same single letter shortcuts for quicklaunch as for the desktop, otherwise I would just get confused. And added 2 letter shortcuts for other apps.  I try to make them obvious like CL for clock.

The trackpad

I just don’t understand why this device is not on every phone and tablet made.  The trackpad on my  blackberry is the most important interface on my phone, more important than the buttons and keyboard and a lot more important than the double touch capability of my screen.  With the trackpad I can quickly, easily and accurately select anything I can see on my screen.  The same is not true if I try to select things on the screen with my finger or thumb.  Just watch a touchscreen only phone user browsing the web.   When they want to select a link, they will usually use one of the following techniques 1) become very focussed as they slowly try to finesse the magic of touching something that is hidden behind their thumb, often cursing and going back to try again or 2) expending to font 72 so they can accurately select what they want the first time.  None of this is necessary with a trackpad, a tiny movement on the thumb, a click and voila!  You still have lots of time to chuckle at your friend trying to do that on his iPhone.

Conclusion 

At first, the plethora of shortcuts may seem overwhelming to some who are just starting out with a blackberry.  But here's the thing, you dont have to remember it all, just those you use a lot.  Once you start using shortcuts you will wonder how you ever managed without them.

I would suggest that you do start with the home screen shortcuts and there are only about 4 you need to remember

M for mail
A for Address book
B for browser
L for Calendar

Inside apps just remember B and T for top and bottom.

Have fun with your blackberry and if you do discover a shortcut I did not mention here or a new use for any of your blackberry buttons, let me know.