What’s your favorite BBM tip? If it isn’t listed make sure you leave a comment and let us know

1. BBM Instant Action

The next time you need to send someone a BBM message on your BlackBerry Q10, try using Instant Action to hop into a conversation with a specific contact quickly.

From the home screen, all you need to do is type ‘BBM’ followed by the name of the contact you’d like to message, e.g. bbm Ty. After doing this, tap the contact when they appear and you’ll be brought into a conversation window so you can start chatting.

If you’re using a BlackBerry Z10 with BlackBerry OS 10.1 you can use Instant Action too! Just tap the search icon along the bottom of the home screen followed by entering bbm <contact name>.

2. List or Grid? You decide

By default, BBM contacts are displayed in a grid layout but you can optionally switch to a list layout. Personally I love the grid view because all my contacts frequently update their display pictures and some of them are really interesting and eye-catching.

If you’d like to try out each view however, open BBM and swipe down from the top of the screen. Then, tap Settings followed by changing Contacts Layout to Grid or List.

3. Request High Quality Pictures

The next time someone sends you a picture over BBM, if you’d like to get a higher quality version of the picture all you need to do is tap and hold the image followed by tapping HQ on the menu that appears on the right. After doing this, the person who sent you the picture can choose to send you a higher quality version or optionally say no to the request.

Keep in mind, requesting and sending higher quality images will use a bit more data than a regular picture, so I’d recommend using this feature when you are connected to a Wi-Fi network or hotspot.

Tip: To save a picture someone sends you using BBM, tap and hold the image followed by selecting Save Image from the menu that appears on the right.

 4. BBM Music Updates

If you want to show what song you’re listening to while using the Music app, open BBM and swipe down from the top of the screen. Then, tap Settings followed by changing the “Show What I’m Listening To” switch to On.

If you do not want to see music status updates from your contacts in your BBM Updates listing, you can turn this feature off by opening the Settings screen and changing Music Status Updates to Off.

5. Link Contacts

After you’ve set up all your various accounts, you’ll notice that the same person, if they appear in multiple accounts, will be automatically merged together. If a contact with multiple entries doesn’t merge, you can manually link them together using the following tip:

1. Open the Contacts app
2. Tap and hold a contact you’d like to link together, e.g. Ty
3. Tap Select More
4. Tap the other contact you’d like to link, e.g. Ty Williams
5. Tap Link Contact from the menu

To learn about a feature on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone or troubleshoot an issue, there are several great options available to help. Visit http://www.blackberry.com/support for access to product manuals, how-to demos, tips and tricks, YouTube videos, support forums, knowledge base articles, Twitter support, and contact information for your region.

Check out the following video for a visual overview or use the steps below and try out each of the gestures.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Tip: Using a BlackBerry Z10? Check out our on post on how to use BlackBerry Z10 gestures.

Peek at your messages in the BlackBerry Hub from anywhere

All of your email, text messages, social networking notifications, missed calls, and voice mail messages can be found in the BlackBerry Hub. To peek at notifications, slide your finger up just a little bit from the bottom of the screen, and the view will shrink to show your notifications. To get to the BlackBerry Hub continue sliding your finger to the right. To return to what you were doing originally, slide your finger back to the left, or release your finger to open the BlackBerry Hub.

Peek at your messages and notifications while you’re composing or viewing a message

In a message, slowly slide your finger from the left edge of the message to the right. Continue sliding to bring your list of messages and notifications into view.

Scroll and move between items

Use this gesture to scroll through a list, pan a webpage, or move between pictures. You can also use this gesture to move between panels. For example, if you’re looking at the BlackBerry Hub, you can slide your finger to the left to move to the panel that shows all of your running apps.

Use a slider

If a slider appears on your screen, you can use the slider to progress through a file, such as a song or video, or scroll through multiple pages, such as the pages of PDF file. Drag the slider handle with your finger.

Selecting Items - Do any of the following:

• To select an item, simply tap it. If the item can be opened, it will open; if not, it will be highlighted.
• To highlight an item without opening it, touch and hold the item.
• To highlight multiple items, such as pictures or songs that you want to share, tap  and use the   Select More option. To clear an item, tap it again.

Zoom in to or zoom out from the screen

If you want a closer view of a detail in an image or if you’re having trouble reading words that are too small on a Web page, you can pinch to zoom. Slide your fingers apart to zoom in, or slide your fingers together to zoom out.

Move icons from one place to another

Touch and hold the icon you want to move and when the item starts to pulsate, slide your finger to where you want to move the icon.

Minimize apps and show your Active Frames

When you minimize an app it appears as an Active Frame on your home screen. This is great for multitasking as you don’t need to do things like save and close documents before you use the browser, or restart your browser session after you check your email. All you need to do is swipe up from the bottom of the screen to minimize an app you have open.

Show the menus

In many apps you can find additional features, options, and help by exploring the menus. To access menus while using a BlackBerry 10 smartphone, do any of the following:

• To see the additional actions you can perform in an app, tap  or 
• To see the additional actions for a specific item within an app, such as a song or a picture, touch and hold the item and the right hand menu bar will open. To see the names of the menu items that appear on the right side of the screen, slide your finger over them.
• To find the settings and help, swipe down from the top of the screen. In an app, you can see the settings for that particular app. If you are not in an app, you can see the device settings.

Lock your screen & put your device in standby mode

When you put your BlackBerry device in standby mode, the device screen backlight turns off and the screen locks. Wireless connections and clock alarms aren’t affected.

• To enter standby mode, press the Power/Lock key on the top of your device.
• To exit standby mode, swipe up from the bottom of the device screen.

Tip: You can optionally allow the power button to unlock your device, instead of swiping up from the bottom of the device screen. To change this setting, tap Settings followed by Display and set Allow power button to unlock device to On.

Restart or reset your device

If your BlackBerry device is running slower than usual or not responding, turning it off and back on again might help solve the issue.

• To restart your device, press and hold the Power/Lock key on the top of your device followed by tapping Restart

• To reset your device, press and hold the Power/Lock key for ten seconds.

To learn about a feature on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone or troubleshoot an issue, there are several great options available to help. Visit www.blackberry.com/support for access to product manuals, how-to demos, tips and tricks, YouTube videos, support forums, knowledge base articles, Twitter support, and contact information for your region.

One of my favorite BlackBerry Q10 features is the ability to use Instant Action to complete common tasks such as sending a BBM message or posting a social network status update.

Here’s a quick overview of the various shortcuts available to you while using a BlackBerry Q10.

After reviewing this list, which one do you use the most? Perhaps you would like to see a new shortcut added? Either way, make sure you leave a comment and let me know!

Note: In order for these shortcuts to work, you must be viewing your Home screen.

Making a call - Type “call,” then the name or number of the person that you want to call. I.e., call Jen or call 123-456-7890

Sending an email - Type “email,” then the name or email address of the contact that you want to email.

Sending a text message - Type “text,” then the name or number of the person that you want to send a text message too.

Start a BBM Chat - Type “BBM,” followed by the name of the person you’d like to chat with.

Update your Facebook Status - Type “Facebook,” followed by your status update.

Post a tweet to Twitter - Type “tweet,” followed by your update. 

Post a LinkedIn update - Type “LinkedIn,” followed by your update.

Add a note to BlackBerry Remember - Type “note,” followed by the contents of your note.

Add a task to BlackBerry Remember - Type “task,” followed by the contents of your task.

On top of using the examples listed above, in some cases you can type an alternative command instead.

An important thing to keep in mind however is that depending on what language your device is currently using, alternative shortcuts might not be available.

• Make a call – Type the “phone number” or type “phone”, or “dial” followed by the number
• Send an email – Type “mail”
• Send a text message – Type “sms”, “msg”, or “message”
• Update your Facebook status – Type “fb”
• Post a tweet – Type “tweet”, or “tw”
• Post a LinkedIn Update – Type ”li”
• Add a note to BlackBerry Remember – Type “memo”
• Add a task to BlackBerry Remember – Type “todo”

To learn about a feature on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone or troubleshoot an issue, there are several great options available to help. Visit http://www.blackberry.com/support for access to product manuals, how-to demos, tips and tricks, YouTube videos, support forums, knowledge base articles, Twitter support, and contact information for your region.

You can quickly perform a number of tasks when you type certain commands on the home screen on your BlackBerry Q10. For example, some of the shortcuts you can use are:

• Make a call – Type “call contacts name” or “call phone number”
• Send an email – Type “email contacts name” or “email email address”
• Send a text message – Type “text contacts name” or “text phone number”
• Start a BBM chat – Type “BBM contacts name”
• Update your Facebook status – Type “Facebook status update”
• Post a tweet – Type “tweet tweet”
• Post a LinkedIn update – Type “LinkedIn status update”
• Add a note to BlackBerry Remember – Type “note note details”
• Add a task to BlackBerry Remember – Type “task task details”

To learn more shortcuts, check out the Home screen shortcuts section within the BlackBerry Q10 user guide or open the Help app and search for “Home screen shortcuts.”

2. Easily insert symbols such as ® and ™

Looking to insert some symbols? All you need to do is press and hold a key at which point a dialog will appear with symbols. For example, holding R will display an option to select the registered mark, ®, along the bottom of the screen.

3. Hold 0 for Voice Control

The Voice Control app can make multitasking easier by allowing you to perform a variety of actions and tasks with your voice. To use Voice Control, you can open the Voice Control app, press and hold the Mute key or, my preferred method, press and hold 0.

To learn more, when Voice Control is open tap on the “i” that appears next to “What would you like to do?” and you’ll be able to review a list of the various actions with examples of how to use them.

4. Customize your Automated Assistance Options

Make sure you review the Prediction and Correction options that can be found within the Language and Input menu. Within this screen you’ll be able to customize several options that can help you type faster. For example, you can turn on Prediction Display which will cause your device to suggest words as you type. To try this feature out, complete the steps below and make sure you review the Help app to learn more about these options if needed.

• While viewing your Home screen, tap Settings
• Tap Language and Input followed by Prediction and Correction
• Turn on Show Predictions

5. Text Selection and Cut, Copy and Paste To help manage text, here are a few important things you should know!

• Cursor Indicator – Drag the cursor, or tap left, right, up or down on the cursor itself to move it to a specific location.
• Selecting Text – Touch and hold the text, then move the cursor indicators to change your selection.
• Copying Text – Tap and hold the highlighted text and select Copy
• Cutting Text – Tap and hold the highlighted text and select Cut
• Pasting Text – Touch and hold where you want the text and select Paste

Got a question or tip? Leave a comment and let me know!

To learn about a feature on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone or troubleshoot an issue, there are several great options available to help. Visit http://www.blackberry.com/support for access to product manuals, how-to demos, tips and tricks, YouTube videos, support forums, knowledge base articles, Twitter support, and contact information for your region.

BlackBerry Browser shortcuts are available to users who have a BlackBerry smartphone with a physical QWERTY keyboard. These shortcuts are designed to help you navigate webpages while using the BlackBerry Browser.

Turning on Browser Shortcuts

A BlackBerry smartphone can have its BlackBerry Browser shortcuts turned off, so before we start let’s make sure they are enabled first.

1. Launch the BlackBerry Browser
2. Press the Menu key and select “Options”
3. In the General section, select the Enable Keyboard Shortcuts checkbox
4. If a change was made, press the Menu key and select “Save”.

Shortcuts when typing web addresses

Web addresses can sometimes be long — help speed up typing in an address by using my favorite BlackBerry Browser shortcut. While typing an address, simply press the space key to add a period (.) instead of the normal “Alt” & “M” combination. Here are the BlackBerry Browser’s address bar shortcuts:

• Press the Space key to insert a period (.) in a web address
• Press the Shift and Space key to insert a forward slash (/) in a web address
• Press the Escape key to stop loading a webpage
• Press and hold the Escape key to close the browser

Shortcuts when viewing a webpage

These are the BlackBerry Browser shortcuts that are designed to help you when viewing websites in the BlackBerry Browser. I like the zoom in and zoom out shortcuts because they allow me to quickly focus into an area of a webpage and then out again when finished.

• Press I to zoom in on the current webpage
• Press O to zoom out of the current webpage
• Press G to navigate from the current screen to the Go Start page, which displays the address bar, recently viewed pages and your Bookmarks
• Press H to navigate from the current screen to the page set as your Home Page
• Press K to display your Bookmarks
• Press A to add the current page as a Bookmark
• Press Y to view your recently viewed pages, also known as History
• Press R to refresh the page currently displayed on the screen
• Press F to find text
• Press V to find the next instance of text
• Press W to switch between tabs
• Press S to view the BlackBerry Browser Options

Navigation of a webpage

The following shortcuts are designed to help you navigate a webpage more efficiently. Pressing the Space key to move down a screen instead of scrolling using the track pad is a time saver.

• Press the Shift key and Space key to move up a screen
• Press Space to move down a screen
• Press T to navigate to the top of the page
• Press B to navigate to the bottom of the page

Have a question about this post? Leave it below to let us know!

Considering the amount of information most of us carry on a daily basis on our BlackBerry® smartphones, I thought it would be a great idea to share some tips on how you can find specific information much faster on your BlackBerry smartphone. Since we are all about efficiency today, let’s dive right in.

1. Search for Contacts using Initials only

Looking for a method of finding specific people within the Contacts app on your smartphone? If so, instead of typing out their first name followed by last name, consider typing just their initials instead. Using my name as an example, instead of having to type “Ty Williams”, I can enter “T W” instead and get the same results.

2. Remote Messages Search

Something I consider a ‘must know’ tip is how to perform a remote search of your messages. This is very useful thing to know in the event you need to look for information that you know is in your inbox, but no longer contained on your BlackBerry smartphone. Provided your email accounts support this feature, I strongly recommend trying it out because I love it and I think you will too!

BlackBerry® 6 and BlackBerry® 7 OS

1. Open Messages
2. Press the Menu key, then select “Search By” followed by “Advanced”
3. Change the “Search Messages” option from “On Device” to “Remotely”
4. Enter your search query and select “Search”.

BlackBerry® Device Software 4.5 to 5

1. Open Messages, press the Menu key and select “Search”
2. Change the “Search Type” from “Local” to “Remote”
3. Enter your search query and select “Search”.

To help you get the most out of remote search, I recommend reviewing the BlackBerry Knowledge Base article “How to perform a Remote search for email messages“.

3. Universal Voice Search

For those using a BlackBerry 7 OS smartphone, in addition to performing a text-based Universal Search, did you know you also have the option of performing voice searches as well? All you need to do is select the Universal Search field on the Home screen followed by tapping on the microphone icon that appears on the right. Provided you have an active network connection and your device language supports this feature, you can start performing voice searches.

After performing several searches, hop into the BlackBerry smartphone device options and select the “Search” option. Here you’ll be able to customize what items appear when using Universal Search as well clearing your search history, disabling web suggestions, and customizing extended providers such as third-party applications. To learn more, check out our blog post on how to use Universal Search.

4. Search Shortcuts

For those that use a BlackBerry smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard such as a BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone, listed below are several shortcuts you can take advantage of to help you perform searches in various situations. Something to keep in mind is depending on the typing input language you are currently using on your BlackBerry smartphone, some of the shortcuts listed below might not be available.

Note: In order to perform searches while using the BlackBerry® Browser, Browser shortcuts must be enabled. While using the Browser, press the “Menu” key, select “Options” and check the box next to “Enable Keyboard Shortcuts”.

5. Using a QWERTY Device? Consider Home Screen Shortcuts

One of my favorite tips when using a BlackBerry smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard is enabling Home screen shortcuts. This allows you to use specific keys to open various apps such as:

• M = Messages
• N = BlackBerry Messenger
• B = BlackBerry Browser
• T = Tasks
• L = Calendar

What’s awesome about this is you can still use Universal Search. All you need to do is hit “S” – the shortcut for Universal Search – followed by entering your search query. For example, to search for tacos, from your Home screen hit S followed by typing “tacos”. Pretty easy and super efficient!

To learn more about this feature as well how to enable it, read our blog post on how to use shortcuts from the BlackBerry home screen.

Got a tip on performing efficient searches with your BlackBerry smartphone? Leave a comment and let us know!

Before we begin, if you haven’t already installed the app on your BlackBerry smartphone, simply open the BlackBerry App World™ storefront, press the Menu key, and use the “Scan A Barcode” feature to scan the following barcode:

1. Shortcuts, Shortcuts, Shortcuts!

Depending on which type of BlackBerry smartphone you are using, Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones offers several useful shortcuts. Listed below are five shortcuts that I use the most, but to view them all make sure you check out the Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones User Guide – Shortcuts section.

• To compose a tweet, press C.
• To refresh your tweet timeline, press D.
• To go to the Search screen, press the ALT key and 5.
• To reply to a direct message or tweet, highlight the direct message or tweet. Press R.
• To reply to all of the people that are mentioned in a tweet, highlight the tweet. Press L.

2. Notification of Replies and Mentions

After logging into Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones, you will be notified whenever someone who follows you mentions you or replies to a tweet that you’ve sent. You can optionally change this so you get notified whenever someone replies to you or mentions you in a tweet, regardless of whether or not they follow you. To review your notification options and customize this setting – in addition to several useful notification/refresh settings – complete the steps below:

1. Open Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones
2. Press the Menu key and select “Options”
3. To get notified of replies and mentions, check the ‘Notify on replies and mentions’ box
4. Set your desired ‘When posted by’ setting to either ‘Following’ or ‘All Users’

3. Undo a Retweet

As of Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v3.1, you now have the ability to undo a retweet. I have a bad habit of retweeting when I should have used the “quote tweet” option, so needless to say, I love this new feature!

All you need to do is highlight your retweet, press the menu key and select “Undo Retweet” as per the following screenshot.

4. Search Nearby Tweets

The next time you are at a concert, sporting event, or just visiting a new place, consider using the Search Nearby feature to stay on top of what’s going on around you. This is a great way to interact with new people and find activities. For example, just the other week I was able to discover an amazing Twitter account that provided me with lots of news on local events, traffic and more while I was at the family cottage.

To run a search for tweets that are nearby as well as other possible search options, complete the following steps:

1. Open Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones
2. Select or tap on the Search icon that appears along the top
3. Type your search criteria and select one of the following options:

• ‘Search Term’ – A search will be performed.
• ‘Search Term’ nearby – Only Tweets from nearby geographic locations will be shown.
• ‘Search Term’ in people – Perform a search for other Twitter users using the search term.
• ‘Goto @Search Term’ – View a specific Twitter account based on the Search Term that was used.

5. Tweeting on behalf of a business or brand? Use Spell Check!

Looking for an easy way to avoid an embarrassing situation? Consider enabling the Spell Check feature so any Tweets you plan on posting (especially if you are posting on behalf of a business or a brand) do not contain spelling mistakes.

To enable Spell Check in Tweets or Direct Messages, complete the following steps.

1. Open Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones
2. Press the Menu key and select “Options”
3. Select the “Spell Check Before Sending” check box.

Got a tip you want to share? Leave a comment and let us know!

If you aren’t already following @BlackBerryHelp and you want to receive lots of tips and tricks, start following today using Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones and keep an eye out for the #BBTips hashtag.

With that being said, here are the five popular tips that we’ve shared with our fantastic followers:

1. Video Camera Flashlight

Try the following steps to quickly turn a physical keyboard-equipped BlackBerry smartphone into a flashlight so you can find your way!

1. Open the Video Camera app
2. Press the space key to turn on or turn off the flashlight.

Note: Using a smartphone with a virtual keyboard only, such as the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 smartphone? If so, you can also make it a flashlight by opening the Video Camera App and pressing the Menu key, then selecting Options followed by checking the box for Video Light.

2. Copy contacts from a SIM Card

Did you recently upgrade to a new BlackBerry smartphone or are switching a different model? If so, complete the following steps to copy your contacts stored on your SIM card to your new smartphone.

Add one contact from a SIM card to a BlackBerry smartphone

1. On the BlackBerry smartphone, open Contacts
2. Display the menu and select SIM Phone Book. The SIM phone book will be loaded
3. Select the contact you want to import, and then select Add to Contacts
4. That contact will be then added to your BlackBerry smartphone Contacts list.

Add all contacts from a SIM card to a BlackBerry smartphone

1. On the BlackBerry smartphone, open Contacts
2. Display the menu and select SIM Phone Book. The SIM phone book will be loaded
3. Display the menu and select Copy All To Contacts
4. This will add all contacts to your BlackBerry smartphone Contacts list
5. Check your Contacts on the device to ensure that they transferred properly.

Check out Eric’s post on how to transfer contacts from your SIM card to learn more. You can also look up the user guide for your BlackBerry smartphone.

3. Autotext/Word Substitution

One of my favorite tips to share with other BlackBerry smartphone owners is the ability to use Autotext/Word Substitution to quickly enter information you commonly enter, such as your PIN number, the current date or the expansion of an abbreviated term.

For example, if you type something that can be replaced with an Autotext entry, the text changes after you press the Space key (BRB will change to Be Right Back if you’ve added it to your Autotext database).

Here a few must-know Autotext/Word Substitution entries:

1. mypin – Your BlackBerry smartphone PIN, i.e. “pin:XXXXXXX”
2. mynumber – Your BlackBerry smartphone phone number, i.e.” XXXXXXXXXX”
3. ld – The long date, i.e. “Thu, May 10, 2012”
4. lt – Long time, i.e. “10:24:10 AM”

In addition to the entries above, your BlackBerry smartphone includes dozens more! To view them as well create some of your own, check out the user guide for your BlackBerry smartphone.

4. How to perform a soft reset

A soft reset is a three-key combination that resets the BlackBerry smartphone without removing the battery. This method of resetting a smartphone is only available on BlackBerry smartphone models with a QWERTY keyboard, such as the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone or BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810 smartphone.

To perform a soft reset, complete the following steps.

1. Press and hold the Alt key (1)
2. While holding down the Alt key, press and hold the Right Shift key (2)
3. With both of those buttons still pressed, press the Backspace/Delete key (3)
4. When the screen turns off to indicate that the BlackBerry smartphone is restarting, you can then release the keys you have been holding.

To learn more, read our blog post on how to reset a BlackBerry smartphone.

5. Message shortcuts

For those using a BlackBerry smartphone that has a physical keyboard (such as the BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone or the BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone), try the following shortcuts while using the Messages app to fly around your inbox and manage messages quickly!

While viewing a message:

• R – Reply to a message
• L – Reply to all in a email or PIN message
• F – Forward a message
• I – File a email message
• N – Move to the next message
• P – Move to the previous message

While viewing your messages inbox:

• C – Compose a message from a message inbox
• Alt + U – Mark a message as read or unread
• W – Add a flag to the message
• ALT + F – View all flagged messages
• ALT + I – View received messages and received call logs
• ALT + O – View draft and sent messages
• ALT + V – View voice mail messages
• ALT + S – View text messages
• ALT + P – View call logs

Moving around your messages inbox:

• Shift + Space – Move up a screen
• Space – Move down a screen
• T – Move to the top of the inbox
• B – Move to the bottom of the inbox
• U – Move to the next unread item
• J – Move to the next related message
• K – Move to the previous related message

To learn about other useful shortcuts, including shortcuts for those using touch screen-only devices such as the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9860 or BlackBerry® Curve™ 9380 smartphone, make sure you check out the user guide for your BlackBerry smartphone.

Got a question? Leave a comment and let me know!

For those of you who use a BlackBerry® smartphone with a physical QWERTY keyboard, here are five tips to help make you more efficient while using your smartphone. I’ll show you how some keys have a dual personality and how others can be customized to get what you need fast.

Before we begin, if you are not sure what a QWERTY keyboard is, I suggest reading the post how to use shortcuts from the BlackBerry home screen. That blog post also is also about keys, so I recommend taking a look regardless – let’s consider it tip number 6 for today.

I will also be providing tips for using the convenience and media keys; depending on which BlackBerry smartphone you have, these can be in different locations on the device. To familiarize yourself with the locations of keys on your BlackBerry smartphone, check out the Getting Started guide for your device.

With that being said, let’s get started!

1. Lock the keypad to enter numbers

Need to type a lot of numbers? Lock the Alt button when you need to type a sequence of numbers, such as a phone number while composing an email. To do so, follow the steps below:

1. While typing, press the Alt and Left Shift key together
2. To turn off number lock, press the Alt key or one of the Shift keys

2. Lock the Keypad to enter capital letters

Need to write an acronym or get your point across on BlackBerry® Messenger (BBM™)? Follow these steps:

1. Press the Alt key and the Right Shift Key together
2. To unlock, press the Alt key or one of the Shift keys

3. Set the Convenience Key(s) to open an often-used app or feature

Depending on your model of BlackBerry smartphone, it will have one or two convenience keys. (For devices with two convenience keys, they will be identified as “Left” and “Right”.) A convenience key can be customized to perform a task or open an app. To change the functionality of a convenience key, do the following:

BlackBerry® 6 & BlackBerry® 7 OS

1. From the Home screen or a folder, select “Options”
2. Select “Device” and then “Convenience Key”
3. Next to “Convenience Key Opens”, select an option to assign it to that key
4. Press the Menu key and select “Save”

Tip: Find it fast – type “Convenience” or “Key” from the Home screen to find the convenience key options using Universal Search.

BlackBerry® Device Software 5.0 and below

1. From the Home screen or a folder, select “Options”
2. Select “Screen/Keyboard”
3. Select the desired function or app next to “Convenience Key Opens”
4. Press the Menu key and select “Save”

4. App switch using the Menu key

You can quickly switch from one application to another without having to back out to the Home screen or a folder to click on the icon. Pressing and holding the Menu key will display all the apps running on the device. Simply follow these steps:

1. Press and hold the Menu key from the Home screen, folder or an application
2. When the app switch screen appears, highlight and select the desired app

Tip: Want to know how this feature can help you extend your device’s battery life? Read our blog post about extending BlackBerry 6 and BlackBerry 7 battery life.

5. Media keys, dual functionality

When using your BlackBerry smartphone as a music player, the up and down volume buttons also become a quick way to skip to or go back a track. For devices that also have a mute button, it can also pause the song you are listening to.

• To skip ahead one track: Press and hold the Up Volume button
• To go back one track: Press and hold the Down Volume button
• To pause the current track: Press and hold the Mute button

Have a BlackBerry 7 OS device? The Mute and Volume keys can be disabled from controlling play, pause and skip. Follow these steps:

1. From the Home screen or a folder, select “Music”
2. Press the Menu key and select “Options”
3. Next to Allow “Mute and Volume keys to control play, pause, and skip” select or clear the checkbox

BONUS TIP: Press and hold a letter key to get a capital letter

There is another way to type an upper case letter when needed:

• Press and hold a letter key

The lower case letter will appear on screen, and shortly afterward it will change into an upper case letter.

Have a tip of your own you’d like to share? Leave a comment and let us know!

Leaving the laptop at home is something I’ve been doing a lot recently thanks to Documents To Go®, which is included with the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet. This powerful mobile office software suite lets you view and edit Microsoft® Word® and Microsoft® Excel® files, and now with the new BlackBerry® PlayBook OS 2.0 update, Microsoft® PowerPoint® files as well. In addition, with the new BlackBerry® Bridge™ 2.0, you can now take advantage of “Presenter Mode”, which allows you move back and forth within a presentation while presenting on a HDMI display.

Here’s some useful information you should know about Documents To Go to help get you started!

What’s new in Documents To Go in BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0

The first thing you’ll notice in the update of Documents To Go is that instead of separate icons for Word To Go®, Sheet To Go® and Slideshow To Go®, you now have a single icon for Documents To Go on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet Home screen. Tap this icon and you’ll be able to create a new document or spreadsheet, or browse for files stored on the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet (or on your BlackBerry® smartphone if you are using the BlackBerry Bridge app). Support for BlackBerry® Balance™ technology allows you to save your documents in a separate and secure partition on your BlackBerry PlayBook.

Some of the other enhancements include:

• Improved viewing of Microsoft PowerPoint 2007/2010 charts
• View & update embedded charts and chart sheets within Microsoft PowerPoint 2007/2010 files
• New Formula Wizard with over 110 supported functions
• Copy, paste and resize cells, rows and columns
• Insert & edit bulleted & numbered lists in Word documents
• Support for Bluetooth® keyboards & shortcuts
• Open password-protected Microsoft Office 2010 files
• Find & Replace

BlackBerry Bridge 2.0 & Documents To Go

As mentioned earlier, you can use your BlackBerry smartphone as a wireless mouse and keyboard using the Remote Control feature, as well as present a slideshow using Presenter Mode. Provided you have set up BlackBerry Bridge on your BlackBerry smartphone and BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, complete the steps below to try out each of these new modes. If you need help getting BlackBerry Bridge set up, check my post on how to setup BlackBerry Bridge.

Remote Control

1. On your Blackberry smartphone, open BlackBerry Bridge
2. Enable Bluetooth if required, then select the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet you’d like to control (with BlackBerry Bridge you can connect to multiple BlackBerry tablets)
3. Press the Menu key and select “Remote Control”.
4. After enabling the remote control, you can switch between cursor mode and keyboard mode to interact with your BlackBerry tablet. If your BlackBerry smartphone has a physical keyboard, simply start typing, or click the keyboard icon on a touchscreen-only model. To return to cursor mode, press the escape key. To learn more about the BlackBerry Bridge Remote Control feature, make sure you check out the BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet User Guide which can be found at http://docs.blackberry.com.

Presenter Mode

To use Presenter Mode, complete the steps above to enable Remote Control. Then, while viewing a presentation using Slideshow To Go, press the Menu key and select “Presenter Mode”. You can then move left and right between slides using your BlackBerry smartphone. You also have the option of using the volume keys on the BlackBerry smartphone to move back and forth between slides while in “Presenter Mode”.

Copying files to and from a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet

Some good information to know when using Documents To Go is how to copy files between your computer and the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. In addition to using email attachments, you can also use Wi-Fi® Sharing, USB Sharing or 3rd party apps available on the BlackBerry App World™ storefront.

Bluetooth Keyboard Shortcuts

If you use a Bluetooth keyboard with the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, you can use the following shortcuts in Documents To Go:

General

• Undo an action: Press CTRL+X
• Repeat an action: Press CTRL+Y
• Extend a selection by one cell: Press and hold SHIFT followed by using the arrow keys to select a cell
• Clear the content of selected cells: Press DELETE
• Start a presentation from the first slide: Press F5
• End a presentation: Press ESC

Typing Shortcuts

• Bold text: Press CTRL+B
• Italicize text: Press CTRL+I
• Underline text: Press CTRL+U
• Cut: Press CTRL+X
• Copy: Press CTRL+C
• Paste: Press CTRL+V
• Select text: Press and hold SHIFT followed by using the arrow keys to select text
• Select an entire document: Press CTRL+

Navigating Shortcuts

• Go to the top of a document or spreadsheet: Press CTRL+HOME
• Go to the bottom of a document: Press CTRL+END
• Move one word to the left: Press CTRL+LEFT ARROW
• Move one word to the right: Press CTRL+RIGHT ARROW
• Move up one paragraph: Press CTRL+UP ARROW
• Move down one paragraph: Press CTRL+DOWN ARROW
• Go to the beginning of a row in a spreadsheet: Press HOME

Need to reference these in the future? Just open up the Help app and select Documents To Go followed by selecting Shortcuts: Documents To Go to view the table above.

Got a question about using Documents To Go or managing files on your BlackBerry PlayBook tablet? Leave a comment and let me know!