A-to-V List of BlackBerry Shortcuts and Other Tips

(It's important that you only press the following keys and release them. DO NOT hold them for more than a split second as holding keys tells your Blackberry to perform a speed dial function)

Pressing the “A” key provides a shortcut directly to your Blackberry’s address book. From here, you can select whomever you’d like to call or message.

Pressing the “B” key provides a shortcut to your Blackberry browser.

Pressing the “C” key provides a shortcut that allows you to compose an SMS (text) message to anyone in your address book. Or, if you’d like to send a text to someone who isn’t in your address book, you can scroll to the top of your book’s listings and select the “Use Once” option.

Pressing the “D” key provides a shortcut directly to the Blackberry notepad for storing written notes.

Pressing the “F” key provides a shortcut to your Profiles menu.

Pressing the “H” key provides a shortcut to the Blackberry help menu.

Pressing the “K” key shortcut locks your Blackberry’s keypad (pressing * and then the green talk key unlocks it).

Pressing the “L” key provides a shortcut to your Blackberry calendar.

Pressing the “M” key provides a shortcut to your messages (NOTE: all messages types will appear here in the same location).

Pressing the “N” key provides a shortcut to the contact list for your Blackberry Messenger.

Pressing the “O” key provides a shortcut to your “Options” menu where you can adjust a variety of different settings on your Blackberry. (This shortcut is the same as the wrench icon which appears on your homescreen.)

Pressing the “R” key provides a shortcut to your Blackberry's alarm.

Pressing the “S” key provides a shortcut to your search menu.

Pressing the “T” key provides a shortcut to your task menu where you can set, edit or delete tasks.

Pressing the “U” key provides a shortcut to your Blackberry’s calculator.

Pressing the “V” key provides a shortcut to your saved messages.

Hold the “Alt” key and dial the alpha characters in a telephone number that features alpha-numeric characters.

Double-click the “Symbol” key to insert smileys into a message when using Blackberry Messenger.

To delete several, consecutive messages at a time from your message list, simply highlight the messages you’d like to delete and then press the “Delete” key.

To set your side convenience keys, go to “Options” (remember to get there quickly by just pressing “O”), select “Screen/Keyboard” and select whichever functions you would like to have your keys set to.

Since discovering the above shortcuts, I find that I’ve also been able to hide a lot of icons on my home screen as I no longer have use for them. For example, instead of selecting each individual email folder for checking my email, I have one of my convenience keys set to take me to my main message menu (you can also press the “M” key for the same results). Or, instead of having to search for the profiles icon or having to highlight the speaker icon on the top right of my screen, I simply press the “F” key shortcut whenever I’d like to select a different profile. By hiding the clutter of the, now unused, icons on my home screen, it gives my blackberry a much neater appearance.

It doesn’t take long at all to memorize these keys. After using them a few times, it will become second nature and you’ll find that using them makes navigating your Blackberry even easier to use.