BlackBerry Tip Week: Type Faster

In celebration of BBGeeks’ four-year anniversary, and in celebration of my first real vacation in six years, we’re reaching into our archives and hoisting some quick tips that we haven’t revisited in a while. These are the bare bones essentials, so if you’re a long-time geek you’ll probably know these. If you’re new, take notes. They can make your life easier. The focus of the BlackBerry platform is communications, and the keyboard on your BlackBerry device serves that purpose well. The keyboard has gotten better and better, too, which makes for faster typing. But unless you’re following these quick tips, you’re not reaching your typing speed potential. Don’t use a period: One major difference between your BlackBerry keyboard and your desktop keyboard is that you have to shift to hit a period. That can be a pain, since it’s the most common punctuation mark. But you don’t have to hit Alt+M to get a period. Just hit the space bar twice and your BlackBerry will insert one for you. Skip the shift key: As on your desktop keyboard, you have to shift on your BlackBerry to get a capital letter. Well, not really. If you just hold down the letter, your BlackBerry will turn it into a capital. Don’t type the @ or . in an email address: When you manually type in an email address, you don’t have to hit the shift key to get the @ or the . symbol. Just hit the spacebar. Your BlackBerry will insert the @ symbol after the first space, and a . after each additional space.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.